LK Advani praises Jawaharlal Nehru, credits him for strengthening India`s democracy

LK Advani paid glowing tributes to India`s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru while addressing an election rally in the tribal heartland of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

Zee Media Bureau/Manisha Singh
Jhabua: LK Advani paid glowing tributes to India`s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru while addressing an election rally in the tribal heartland of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. The BJP patriarch praised Nehru along with Mahatma Gandhi saying that they had played a seminal role in laying the foundation of a strong democracy in the country. “The democratic structure of this country has been strengthened because of people like Nehru, Gandhi, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee,” Advani said. He added that they had played an important role in the birth of the Constitution of India. However, the senior BJP leader was silent about the so-called Modi wave sweeping the country, especially North India as claimed by his party and as enumerated by opinion makers. Advani equated BJP`s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi with other CMs of his party – Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh CM) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh CM). He said that all three chief ministers had done good work. Advani also reportedly did not ask the crowd to vote for Modi. He was accompanied by the MP CM on the stage. But he did urge the people to vote in large numbers and talked about the idea of compulsory voting. The BJP leader`s comment comes months after Modi had said that the fate of the country would have been different if Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel had been India`s first PM. The Gujarat CM had made the comments on October 29 last year at a function to inaugurate a museum dedicated to the life of India`s first Home Minister and freedom fighter in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was present with him on the dais when Modi made the comments. "Every Indian wishes that Patel should have become the first PM of India. If it had been so, then the face and the fate of the country would have been something else," Modi had said, adding, "Patel was a visionary. He worked for the unity of the country and has left behind a rich legacy for us.” Modi has also time and again taken on the Congress for ignoring Patel and giving him the Bharat Ratna in 1991, 41 years after his death. Patel was given the country`s highest civilian award by the Narasimha Rao government. Meanwhile, Modi had been criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country, addressing as many as four to five rallies in a day in recent times in an attempt to woo the electorate. The massive crowds that has been seen at his rallies has enthused the rank and file and party leaders who are hoping that the BJP will come back to power at the Centre after a decade. Most of the opinion polls have predicted that the BJP would emerge as the single largest party in the polls. On the other hand, the Congress` image is said to have taken a huge beating with ten years of anti-incumbency, price rise and corruption charges staring it in the face.