New Delhi: After the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj mentioned IITs and IIMs in her address to the UNGA, the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi thanked her acknowledging the contribution of the Congress party in nation building.
In a tweet Mr. Gandhi said, “Sushma ji, thank you for finally recognising Congress governments’ great vision and legacy of setting up IITs and IIMs.”
Since the coming of the NDA government in 2014 the Congress has been complaining that the BJP wants to erase the legacy of former Prime Ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
A controversy also broke out when in 2014 October the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a low key affair instead the government celebrated birthday of Sardar Patel.
In political rallies and speeches the BJP has often asked as to what the Congress has done for the country since independence. Interestingly last week BJP National President Amit Shah in Dehradun asked Mr. Gandhi to give account of the work done by his generations.
Mr. Shah said, “Now Rahul Gandhi should give an account of the works of his three generations.”
Congress MP and former UN diplomat, Shashi Tharoor too lauded Swaraj’s statements and said, “Sushma Ji was quite justified in turning the tables. Her response was fitting and strong. I appreciate hearing a member of this government acknowledging the great accomplishments of last 60-70 yrs.”
The utterances of Ms. Sushma Swaraj in the UNGA has given ammunition to the Congress to blunt the attack which is launched by the saffronites against the Nehru-Gandhi family. After Mr. Gandhi took to Twitter the Congress leaders and its social media team took to online platforms to attack the BJP leadership for negating the work done by successive Congress governments.
