NEW DELHI: JD(U) leader and Union minister R C P Singh on Thursday set tongues wagging within his party with strident criticism of the choice of Jawaharlal Nehru as the country's prime minister, a longstanding BJP plank, and claiming that he got the top post despite enjoying little support in the Congress' organisation and it was our "first mistake".
The former JD(U) president's sharp take on Nehru is significant as Nitish Kumar, the party's main face and Bihar chief minister, is not really known for holding strong views against India's first prime minister and has in the past even praised him.
Speaking at a seminar on "Threat of Dynastic Political Parties to Democratic Governance", organised by RSS-linked Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, Singh also countered the Congress' repeated emphasis about leaders from the Gandhi family making sacrifice for the country, saying one has to bear whatever comes with the post he or she holds.
People like Bhagat Singh also made sacrifices without holding any position, he said.
Singh, once considered a confidant of the chief minister, was also not present in Patna on Thursday where top party leaders, including Kumar, accompanied its Rajya Sabha bypoll candidate Anil Hegde during the nomination filing.
A section of JD(U) leaders claim that Singh, the only leader of the party in the Narendra Modi government, has veered closer to the BJP, with the relation between the two parties seemingly far from smooth even though both are allies in Bihar.
His term as Rajya Sabha member is also ending, and the JD(U) is yet to announce its candidate for the lone full-term seat it is in a position to win.
The last date of filing the nomination is May 31. It is necessary for any minister to be a member of Parliament. "He does not attend other senior party leaders in the filing of nomination by its Rajya Sabha candidate and attends an event in Delhi to make strong remarks about Nehru which has never been Kumar's view. This speaks a lot," a JD(U) leader said, wishing not to be named.
In his address, Singh suggested that Nehru was chosen as prime minister due to the backing of Mahatma Gandhi. "I will not like to name that 'yug purush' (personality of the era). When the question came up for the first time who should be prime minister, then who had the support of the organisation, who had the votes, who had the backing of more CWC (Congress Working Committee) members? But the one with no vote became the country's first prime minister.
This decision cannot be challenged because the person, he added in apparent reference to Mahatma Gandhi without naming him, is so respectable to us, but it at least can be said after so many years that this is where our first mistake was made, Sardar Patel had everything but he did not get the post, Singh said.
The BJP has repeatedly questioned the choice of Nehru as India's first prime minister, saying Patel enjoyed more support within the Congress and would have made a better choice for the post.
Continuing with his attack on the Congress, the Union minister alleged the death of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi was deliberately announced hours after her actual demise so as to make preparations for her son Rajiv Gandhi to take over.
He also lashed out at the Congress for not giving Bharat Ratna, Indian's highest civilian honour, to Patel and B R Ambedkar for decades of its rule and slammed Nehru, noting that he was given the award when he was prime minister.
"They (Congress) will repeatedly say that their family members made sacrifice for the country; our family members were killed. This is true but so many people made sacrifices for the country's independence. If you are holding a position, then you will have to bear with it whatever comes along. But they keep saying we made sacrifices. People from entire country made sacrifices," he added.
Singh battled for a law to stop more than one member of a family from holding positions in a party and government.
In this context, he also praised Kumar and Modi for shunning promotion of their families and said entire Bihar and the country are their respective family. Heaping praise on Modi, he cited a number of the central government schemes, saying they have aimed at uplift of the poor sections of society.