Outside the House: Congress flays removal of former PM Nehru’s portrait from House

By Bhavana ‘Aparajita’

Shukla

On Tuesday, the controversy over the removal of the portrait of country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly intensified outside the house. In the State’s political corridor Congress lashed out at BJP after a photo of former Law Minister BR Ambedkar was placed in the Assembly, replacing ex-PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s portrait. Former Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Kamal Nath took to the X saying, “The removal of the portrait of the great freedom fighter, country’s first Prime Minister and nation builder Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly is highly condemnable. I welcome the installation of the portrait of Constitution maker Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Assembly. Ambedkar’s picture could have been placed at a place of honour in the Assembly, but Pandit Nehru’s picture was deliberately removed.

I want to remind that I had announced that if Congress government is formed in Madhya Pradesh, the biggest statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar will be installed. If the BJP government really wanted to respect Dr Ambedkar, then it would have taken the initiative to install the biggest statue of Babasaheb in the State and not show its small mentality by removing the picture of Pandit Nehru”. Umang Singhar, the Leader of the Opposition, alleged that the BJP would further replace Ambedkar’s photo with that of Nathuram Godse in the coming days. Singhar emphasised, “What is important is that their (BJP) effort is to eliminate his (Nehru) thoughts”. Jaivardhan Singh, a Congress leader and son of former CM Digvijaya Singh, expressed disappointment over the incident and vowed to address the matter with Protem Speaker Gopal Bhargava. Congress spokesperson criticised the BJP over the move, saying in a post on X that Ambedkar’s portrait should have been added alongside those of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.

However, MP Protem Speaker denied the charges saying “the changes had occurred during the last tenure, and he had not issued any recent instructions on the matter. Nehru and Ambedkar are supreme leaders, there is equal respect for all. The issue will be sent to a special committee in the secretariat of the Assembly, and then we will act according to the decision. The first session of the 16th Madhya Pradesh Assembly began here on Monday with Protem Speaker Gopal Bhargava administered newly elected members to their oath of office. The four-day Winter Session commenced nearly a week after the new BJP government under Chief Minister Mohan Yadav took office. It is scheduled to end on December 21.