Ghulam Nabi Azad: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ignored is ‘intolerance’

New Delhi: Responding to the attack by Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “When you read the Preamble of the Constitution, it conveys the objectives of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, but you don’t mention him. This is intolerance.”

The Congress also accused the BJP of trying to appropriate the icons of India’s freedom struggle without having such a leader of its own and trying to “manufacture a clash” between these famous personalities.

“You can talk about the German Constitution, its dictator. But you feel ashamed to talk about Jawaharlal Nehru. You are not able to recognise the contribution of the first Prime Minister . This is called intolerance. It flows from the top and percolates down to the streets,” Mr Azad said.

Mr Azad accused the ruling dispensation of attempting to “manufacture a clash" between personas of the freedom struggle, like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel and Nehru, on the lines of the “divide and rule” policy.

He said Mr Jaitley had referred to Hitler and not acknowledged Nehru, which made it clear that “Nazar kahin thi, nishana kahin tha (He was looking somewhere and aiming elsewhere)”.

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