Pandit Nehru hated Bhagwan Somnath the most - BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today shared on social media some letters written by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the famous Somnath Jyotirlinga temple in Gujarat, claiming that Pandit Nehru hated the Somnath temple.

BJP spokesperson Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi, quoting Nehru's letters on Wednesday, alleged that while Somnath was looted by Mahmud Ghazni and Khalji in the past, in independent India, Pandit Nehru hated Bhagwan Somnath the most. The biggest proof of this is a letter written by Pandit Nehru to Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan on April 21, 1951. In the letter, Nehru addressed him as "Dear Nawabzada" and termed the story of the doors of Somnath as "completely false". Pandit Nehru, in a way, surrendered before Liaquat Ali Khan and wrote that nothing like the construction of the Somnath temple was happening.

He asked, "What was Pandit Nehru so afraid of about Liaquat Ali Khan that he was writing to him about the Somnath temple? Instead of countering Pakistani propaganda or defending India's cultural memory, Pandit Nehru chose to appease Pakistan by belittling Hindu historical symbols, and if this internal appeasement and internal politics were not prioritized, external interests were prioritized. What was the praise of Mughal invaders then?"

He said that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did not want the Somnath temple to be renovated. Pandit Nehru wrote letters not only to the cabinet ministers but also to President Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Vice President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, questioning the need for the reconstruction of the Somnath temple and forbidding them from attending the inauguration ceremony. It is also true that Pandit Nehru wrote letters to all the Chief Ministers of India twice, complaining about the construction of the Somnath temple, saying that it had tarnished India's image abroad. Furthermore, Pandit Nehru wrote a letter to the country's Information and Broadcasting Minister, R.R. Diwakar, asking him to minimize the coverage of the Somnath temple's Pratishtha ceremony, calling it a frivolous matter, and also said that it was damaging India's image worldwide. He also wrote that he was unhappy with the President attending the ceremony.

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi said that Pandit Nehru wrote to the Indian embassies, in which he outright rejected any kind of assistance to the Somnath Trust, including a request for water from the river for the Pratishtha ceremony. In a letter written to the Indian Ambassador to China, K.M. Panikkar, Pandit Nehru openly admitted that he had tried to "tone down" the effects of the President's visit to the Somnath temple, which clearly shows that he deliberately tried to downplay the importance and discussion around the inauguration of the temple, rather than remaining neutral.

The BJP spokesperson, quoting a letter written to the Indian Ambassador to Pakistan, said that Pandit Nehru formally rejected the use of water from the Indus River for the Somnath temple's Pratishtha, told the Foreign Secretary that he had not approved the request, and ordered that any such request in the future should be pre-approved, thus maintaining a distance from the symbolic gesture of the Indian government.

Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi said that Pandit Nehru also wrote a letter to the Foreign Secretary and the Foreign Secretary General, directing the embassies to ignore the requests of the Somnath Trust for river water, which reveals his clear discomfort with the symbolic expression of Hindu religious activities. He acknowledged that he had already expressed his displeasure to the President and K.M. Munshi.

Pandit Nehru wrote two letters to the then Home Minister C. Rajagopalachari, openly opposing the President's participation in the inauguration of the Somnath temple, saying that he would "prefer" the President to "avoid" it, which shows that he was actively trying to keep the head of state away from a major Hindu cultural event, which he perceived as politically motivated.