Congress Parliamentary Party’s Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi’s address at the Nehru Centre Function, an initiatibe by Sandeep Dikshit, Jawahar Bhavan, New Delhi on December 5, 2025.

It is a pleasure to be with you all this evening to celebrate the memory and contributions of our first Prime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime architect of the modern Indian nation-state. His was a life anchored firmly in parliamentary democracy. He had a steadfast belief in planned economic growth, a profound commitment to the development of a scientific temper alongside the development of scientific and technological capabilities. To him, secularism – in which he firmly believed, meant above all the celebration of India’s many diversities while strengthening its fundamental unity. His legacy continues to shape our everyday lives. Decades have gone by since his time, but he continues to serve as a beacon light to millions of our countrymen and women.

It is inevitable that such a monumental figure will have his life and work analysed and critiqued. That is indeed as it should be, although the temptation to divorce him from his times and the challenges that he had to face and to look at him devoid of the historical context in which he functioned has become quite widespread. Yet, while we welcome on-going analysis of his contributions, what is not acceptable is the systematic attempt being made to denigrate, distort, demean, and defame him. The sole objective of this is to not only diminish him as a personality, his universally recognised role in India’s Independence struggle and his early decades as leader of an independent nation challenged by unprecedented problems. But it is also to demolish his multi-faceted legacy in a crude and self-serving attempt to rewrite history. Analysis is one thing, but deliberate mischief with what he said, wrote and did is another thing and totally unacceptable.

Who are the forces that have launched this project? They belong to the ideology that had no role in our freedom movement, that had no role in the making of our Constitution. It is an ideology that long ago fanned an atmosphere of hate that ultimately led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. His killers continue to be glorified by its adherents. It is an ideology which has consistently rejected the ideals of our founding fathers; it is an ideology with a bigoted and viciously communal outlook. Its approach to nationhood is based on stoking prejudices of all kinds. Let there be no doubt whatsoever that the project to vilify Jawaharlal Nehru is the main objective of the ruling establishment today. Their goal is not just to erase him, it is to actually destroy the social, political, and economic foundations on which our nation has been founded and built.

The road ahead is not easy. But there is simply no option but for each of us, individually and collectively - to stand up and confront this project. We not only owe this to the memory of Jawaharlal Nehru and his comrades; we owe it to ourselves and even more to coming generations.

The unapologetic and fierce defence of the Nehruvian legacy is not an act of nostalgia. It is a commitment to restoring India’s constitutional promise, to safeguarding reason in the face of propaganda, and to ensuring that our republic remains modern and forward-looking. If we succeed, it will not only honour Jawaharlal Nehru’s memory—it will ensure that the India he envisioned remains a reality.

At a time when tolerance in public life is shrinking, when dissent is painted as disloyalty, and history is reduced to partisan combat, Nehru’s example becomes even more vital. He taught us that disagreement is not a threat but a democratic necessity, that unity does not demand uniformity, that a confident nation need not fear the truth about its past.

There is some reason for hope. Last month, the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund also launched an archive which can be accessed at Nehru archive dot in. The archive is an easily searchable and freely down-loadable digital archive - also accessible on your smartphone incidentally. At present, it covers the 100 published volumes of his Selected Works covering the period 1903 till the day before he died. The archive will continue to get expanded.

Sandeep Dikshit’s Initiative which has brought us here this evening, is another sincere attempt to take on this challenge of rescuing Nehru from the web of deception. We need many more such initiatives across the length and breadth of our country.

I will end by wishing Sandeep and his colleagues the very best in their endeavours.