New Delhi, January 7: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today shared some letters of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the famous Somnath Jyotirlinga temple in Gujarat on social media and claimed that Pandit Nehru had hatred for the Somnath temple.
BJP spokesperson Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi on Wednesday quoted Nehru’s letters on X and alleged that in the past, Somnath was plundered by Mohammad Ghazni and Khilji, but in independent India, Pandit Nehru hated Lord 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 addresses him as “Dear Nawabzada” and calls the story of the Somnath gates “completely false.” Pandit Nehru, in a virtual surrender to Liaquat Ali Khan, wrote that nothing like the Somnath Temple was being built.
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 confronting Pakistan’s propaganda or defending India’s civilizational memory, Pandit Nehru chose to appease Pakistan by diminishing Hindu historical symbols and prioritized external appeasement over internal self-confidence. If this was not blind appeasement politics and glorification of the Mughal invaders, what was it?”
He pointed out that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did not want the Somnath Temple to be restored. Pandit Nehru had written letters not only to cabinet ministers but even to President Dr Rajendra Prasad and Vice President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, questioning the need for the Somnath Temple’s reconstruction and forbidding them from attending the inauguration ceremony. It is also true that Pandit Nehru wrote twice to all Indian Chief Ministers complaining about the construction of the Somnath Temple, writing that it had tarnished India’s image abroad. Furthermore, Pandit Nehru wrote to the country’s Information and Broadcasting Minister, R.R. Diwakar, asking him to minimize coverage of the Somnath Temple’s consecration ceremony, calling it a sham, and even stating that it was damaging India’s image globally.
He also stated that he was unhappy with the President’s participation in the ceremony.
Sudhanshu Trivedi stated that Pandit Nehru wrote to Indian embassies, categorically refusing any assistance to the Somnath Trust, including requests for river water for the consecration ceremony. In a letter to India’s Ambassador to China, K.M. Panikkar, Pandit Nehru openly admitted that he had “tried to minimize” the impact of the President’s visit to the Somnath Temple, clearly indicating that, rather than merely remaining neutral, he deliberately attempted to minimize the significance and discussion surrounding the temple’s inauguration.
The BJP spokesperson, citing a letter to the Indian Ambassador to Pakistan, stated that Pandit Nehru formally rejected the use of Indus River water for the consecration of the Somnath Temple, conveying through the Foreign Secretary that he did not approve of the request, and ordered that any such requests be pre-approved in the future, allowing the Indian government to distance itself from the ceremony and diminish its symbolic significance.
Trivedi stated that Pandit Nehru also wrote to the Secretary-General and the Foreign Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, instructing embassies to ignore any requests for sacred river water from the Somnath Trust, reflecting his clear discomfort with even symbolic expressions of Hindu religious activities. He acknowledged that he had already conveyed his displeasure to both the President and K.M. Munshi.
Pandit Nehru wrote twice to the then Home Minister, C. Rajagopalachari, openly opposing the President’s participation in the inauguration of the Somnath Temple, stating that he “would have preferred” the President to abstain, indicating that he was actively trying to keep the head of state away from a major Hindu civilizational event that he considered politically inconvenient.