Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday invoked letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1948 to mount a sharp political attack on what he called the “self-declared custodians of nationalism,” linking the historical correspondence to a contemporary controversy involving a ruling party MP.
In a post on X, Ramesh said Nehru had written to Mookerjee two days before Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, and that Patel followed up with another letter on July 18, 1948.
According to Ramesh, both communications amount to “damning indictments” of the ideological stream that he alleged continues to shape present-day politics.
“Two days before Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Jawaharlal Nehru had written to Syama Prasad Mookerjee,” Ramesh wrote. “A few months later, on July 18, 1948, Sardar Patel had also written to Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Both are damning indictments of the self-declared custodians of nationalism.”
Escalating the attack, Ramesh drew a direct line to a recent remark attributed to a Lok Sabha MP aligned with that ideology.
“And to think that there is a Lok Sabha MP wedded to that ideology and who was blessed by the PM himself, who said that he could not choose between Gandhi and Godse,” he said, adding, “His mindset is revealing.”
The Congress leader did not quote from the 1948 letters in his post, but their historical context has long been cited in debates over the political climate following Gandhi’s assassination. Nehru and Patel, then prime minister and home minister respectively, exchanged correspondence with Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, amid concerns over communal tensions and the activities of extremist groups in the aftermath of Partition.
Ramesh’s intervention comes amid heightened political sparring over nationalism, historical memory, and the legacy of Gandhi. The reference to the MP’s alleged Gandhi–Godse remark has featured in recent exchanges between the opposition and the ruling party, with the Congress accusing its rivals of normalising extremist views, a charge the ruling party has previously rejected.
