00:00So Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the Somnath Temple on the 11th of January.
00:04There are year-long activities that have been planned at the Somnath to mark the Somnath Swabhiman Parv.
00:10And at the centre of this debate lies this class of visions.
00:13One that views Somnath as a beacon of Bharat's cultural pride.
00:17And the other that cautions against mixing faith and politics while being accused of doing the same.
00:22And with minority appeasement.
00:24So joining me on India First is Tuhin Sinha of the BJP and Mahima Singh of the Congress.
00:27Tuhin Sinha, the Somnath Parv may mark 1,000 years of resilience and revival, sir.
00:34But respond to those who say this is being used to politically target Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party.
00:41It's an attempt to portray the Congress in poor light.
00:46Good evening, Bharat. Good evening, everybody.
00:48You know, facts cannot be denied.
00:50As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has very clearly stated,
00:54for us, Somnath, which has the oldest Jyotirling.
00:58And in fact, some believe that, you know, the Jyotirling dates back to the time when Bhagwan Krishna actually lived.
01:06You know, the Congress never took pride in our civilizational identities.
01:10And it's a fact that Nehru tried to prevent Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who was the then president,
01:15from going for the inauguration of it.
01:16This is something which even Dr. Rajendra Prasad's own granddaughter has put on record.
01:23But that's point number one.
01:25The second point is that the present day Congress has declined to the extent where Rahul Gandhi openly says,
01:31So, imagine the plight of this Congress, imagine the plight of this party,
01:40which is going all out to woo the minority community at the cost of hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.
01:48Okay, Mahima Singh disagrees with you.
01:50Mahima Singh completely disagrees with you.
01:52So, let's take this point by point.
01:54Mahima Singh, the point that you disagree with, ma'am,
01:56and when the BJP or when the Prime Minister says that the Somnath Temple represents 1,000 years of resilience and revival,
02:05why does the Congress see this as mixing politics and religion?
02:09Jai Hind, I must say at the very outset that I am a rightful Hindu, yet I am a more proud Indian.
02:19And I take great pride in the legacy and heritage of my country and its history.
02:24And so did Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the very first Prime Minister of this country,
02:28under whose cabinet, the cabinet that he chaired, the decision to rebuild this temple was taken.
02:34In fact, the driving force behind rebuilding this temple, the historic Somnath Temple,
02:41the driving force was Sri K.M. Munshi, who in his book, Gaurav,
02:45the book named Pilgrimage to Freedom, 1902 to 1950,
02:50has categorically mentioned how Nehru agreed for the rebuilding of the temple using government funds.
02:57Then it was Bapu Gandhi who came forward and said,
03:00let the public contributions be brought in, let the temple be rebuilt with public contributions.
03:07And thus the temple was rebuilt.
03:09Yes, when Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote in to the Prime Minister,
03:13the conversation is public because those were the times when transparency and dissent
03:18was at the very core of the dialogue, unlike this last decade.
03:22In this decade, an SIR is brought about and there are no files maintained.
03:27An RTI activist goes and asks for the files.
03:31Where are the files?
03:32They have no record.
03:34A note band these, their own cabinet ministers do not know about it.
03:38Those were the times when there was dissent, when there was dissent, when there was transparency.
03:43Yes, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru told Dr. Rajendra Prasad, he said,
03:47Rajendra Babu, I advise you against this.
03:50Why?
03:51Because he said, we have stopped our expenditure on education, health and other beneficent services right now.
03:57Why?
03:58Because he said that he can't afford it at the moment.
04:00And at that time, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, as the head of the state, as the president of the country,
04:06participating, you know, in a religious event, brought the wrath of the global community later to us.
04:13Of course, because we were not able to spend on the very basic fundamental necessities.
04:17Fair enough.
04:18Tuhin Sina, respond, respond that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, you know, Mahima Singh says,
04:24wasn't opposed to the temple, was only opposed to either, you know, public funding,
04:28the government spending, where Babu said, let it be public spending.
04:33Two, when the prime minister noted that Jawaharlal Nehru was not supportive of associating
04:37top constitutional authorities with temple reopening, Dr. Rajendra Prasad stood firm,
04:43the rest is history.
04:43This is what the prime minister said.
04:45Now, tell me this, why Dragon Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru today?
04:49Very clearly, the Congress spokesperson has provided you the wrong reasons for Nehru not
04:54allowing or requesting Dr. Rajendra Prasad to not go for the inauguration of the temple.
05:00Very clearly, it had to do with Nehru's flawed understanding of secularism, flawed perception
05:07of secularism.
05:08But Gaurav, I think, you know, these are separate issues.
05:11Our cultural identity, taking pride in our cultural identity is a separate thing.
05:15You know, fast-tracking the reformist agenda, which our government has done throughout the
05:19last year, has been, is a different thing.
05:21Governance is different, but taking pride in our culture, why should the Congress Party
05:25grudge that?
05:26Imagine there were 40,000 temples which were destroyed by Mughals and by invaders.
05:32We take pride in resurrecting, you know, only those which, which, which are so eternal
05:37that they define our existence as a civilization.
05:40Why should the Congress Party have a problem with that?
05:43Okay.
05:44Mahima Singh, you ought to respond to this.
05:46Absolutely.
05:46Because Defense Minister Rajnath Singh was quoted saying words to the effect that Pandit
05:50Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to build the Barbary using public funds, but
05:55it was Sardar Patel who opposed that, that no public funds will be used either for Barbary
06:01or for Somnath and even Ram Temple was, you know, built using the common people's money
06:06and not government money.
06:08Let me, let me, indulge me for a fair opportunity.
06:12But before I go forward to say that, let me just say that the BJP spokesperson has certainly
06:18not gone through the very much available correspondence between Dr. Rajinder Prasad and Pandit Jawaharlal
06:24Nehru, excerpts of which, two excerpts I will just read out.
06:28One is Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's first response to Dr. Rajinder Prasad.
06:33My dear Rajinder Babu, I confess that I do not like the idea of your associating yourself
06:37with the spectacular opening of the Somnath Temple.
06:40This is not merely visiting a temple, which can certainly be done by you or anyone else,
06:45but rather participating in a significant function, which unfortunately has a number
06:49of implications.
06:50Whereafter, Dr. Rajinder Prasad wrote again on 10th March 1951 and said that, well, he
06:55would like to participate.
06:57Whereafter, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru very much wrote to him and said, I am sorry for the delay
07:02in answering your letter of the 10th March regarding your visit to Somnath Temple.
07:07I have already conveyed my reactions to this, but if you feel that it will not be right for
07:11you to refuse the invitation, I would not like to press my point any further.
07:16Now, compare this with the Pran Pratishtha that we saw the last year.
07:21Compare this with the treatment of our Rashtrapati today, Dr. Draupadi Murulji.
07:26The last 30 seconds I have on this part of the show, let me quickly get to Hint Sinah to respond to this.
07:31When we talk of 1,000 years of resilience, it's also taking everyone together.
07:37Analysts say that this effort is an attempt to show the Congress as anti-Hindu, sir,
07:44which many analysts argue is incorrect.
07:50Governor, it's the Congress party which has shown itself as anti-Hindu.
07:54We just remind the people, it's our job as a political party to remind what the Congress party is doing.
07:58As, you know, what did Rahul Gandhi say about the Pran Pratishtha in Ayodhya?
08:03He ridiculed it, calling it, you know, Najkana.
08:06What did he say about the Chhat Puja in Bihar?
08:08He ridiculed it, saying drama.
08:10So we have seen the behavior of the Congress party,
08:13their sheer disrespect for Hindu traditions over the years.
08:16And by the way, let me also remind you, this was not the Congress culture in 1988,
08:20where Rajiv Gandhi started his election campaign for 1989 elections from Ayodhya,
08:26saying he's going to install Rahul Rajiv.
08:28Okay, my last 30 seconds, Adam.
08:30Last 30 seconds, I've run out of time.
08:32But since a specific point I've been raised over the Congress.
08:34Respond, ma'am.
08:36You have to allow me to finish the point I was making earlier.
08:38You see, the BJP spokesperson is speaking, you know, without any idea of what...
08:44I have just two questions of the BJP spokespersons to ask.
08:48I want to ask him, why was Draupadi Murmoji not invited to the inauguration of Central Vista,
08:54which was done twice.
08:55Also, I want to ask...
08:56So unrelated to today's show, specifically,
08:59and I've run out of time today,
09:02but perhaps in the days and weeks ahead,
09:04when this becomes a talking point,
09:06we will revisit the story.
09:08Mahima Singh and Tuinsana for joining me here.
09:10Many thanks.
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