New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism that Goa’s liberation was delayed due to Jawaharlal Nehru was a “desperate attempt to distort history” and asserted that India’s first PM intervened at the right time to free Goa. In an interview with PTI, Chidambaram also stressed that no Congress MLA elected in the upcoming assembly polls can be poached by the BJP in Goa this time, saying “our house is well-guarded” and though the “thief” is still out there, the people “will teach him a lesson”.
He said that with every passing day, it is becoming clearer to the voters that they have to choose between the BJP or the Congress and “small parties” such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are “splitting” the non-BJP votes.
Chidambaram also said that announcing a chief ministerial candidate is “not a factor” in this election. Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent criticism that Goa’s liberation was delayed because of Nehru, he said this is another “desperate attempt to distort and rewrite history”.
“Mr Modi and Mr Shah do not know the history of the world post World War II. They do not know the history of post-Independence India, especially the nascent years 1947-1960. They do not know how deftly Jawaharlal Nehru steered India to a position where India became a champion of peace and the acknowledged leader of the Non-Aligned Movement,” Chidambaram said.
—PTI

Press Trust of India