'Was Nehru communal as he wanted to protect religious minorities from Pak': Modi to Congress
New Delhi, Feb 6: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at the Congress in Lok Sabha over its opposition to the CAA and asked if first premier Jawaharlal Nehru could be described as "communal" for seeking citizenship for religious minorities from Pakistan.
Replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address, Modi said that even Nehru had wanted Indian citizenship for religious minorities from Pakistan as he defended the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
He said the first prime minister of India (Jawaharlal Nehru) wrote to the first chief minister of Assam (Gopinath Bordoloi), saying there was a need to differentiate between Hindu refugees and Muslim migrants.
Modi said Nehru was of the view that even laws can be changed in this regard.
He said Nehru had wanted to defend minorities in then West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
"Was he communal, did he want to create a Hindu Rashtra...I want to ask the Congress," the prime minister said.
He said Nehru was a big thinker. Why did he not include all citizens but mentioned only religious minorities in the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement? Modi asked.
Liaquat Ali Khan was the then prime minister of Pakistan.
He said his government is saying today what Nehru had said decades ago.
Modi said the government was fulfilling the wishes of the founding fathers.
While referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act, President Ram Nath Kovind in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament on January 31 had said that Mahatma Gandhi was in favour of bringing back religious minorities facing persecution in Pakistan.
Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks, Shashi Tharoor of the Congress had said Mahatma Gandhi was only partially quoted by the government to defend the amended law.
The prime minister went on to cite examples of Bhupendra Kumar Dutta and Jogendra Nath Mandal, two freedom fighters who decided to stay back in Pakistan after the Partition.
Modi said Dutta told the constituent assembly of Pakistan that Hindus were being targeted in that country.
Dutta later migrated to India before his death.
Mandal was the first law minister of Pakistan and he too flagged systematic ethnic targeting of religious minorities in Pakistan, Modi said.
The prime minister said that he in his youth had touched the feet of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (popularly called Frontier Gandhi in Pakistan) and named other greats such as Ashfaqullah Khan, Begum Hazrat Mahal and A P J Abdul Kalam to assert that they were all Indians.
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“Bleeding on the road, I begged for help but no one came”: Bengaluru woman recounts husband’s death
Bengaluru: A woman in Bengaluru has shared a painful account of how her husband died after they were repeatedly denied medical help and ignored by passersby during a medical emergency, NDTV reported.
The victim, 34-year-old Venkataramanan, a garage mechanic from Balaji Nagar, developed severe chest pain around 3.30 am. His wife immediately took him on a motorcycle in search of medical help.
"He complained about chest pain, and we went to the first hospital. However, the doctor was not on duty. At the second hospital, we were told he had a stroke and to go to another hospital. When we called for ambulance services, they did not respond properly. Humanity failed, but we did our bit by donating his eye." NDTV quoted his wife as saying.
According to the report, after being turned away twice, the couple met with an accident on the road. CCTV footage later showed the woman, covered in blood, pleading with folded hands as vehicles passed by, but no one stopped to help.
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The wait ended after several minutes when a cab driver stopped and rushed Venkataramanan to a nearby hospital. Doctors there declared him dead on arrival.
As per the report, the family decided to donate Venkataramanan’s eyes, giving sight to others even in death.
Venkataraman's mother, who had lost her last surviving child, had no words to express herself: "I have no words. I do not know what to say. My son is gone."
"The government should understand a health emergency. My daughter is left with two children. Who will look after them?" asked his mother-in-law. His wife, mother, and two children, a five-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter now survive Venkataramanan.
The incident has once again raised serious questions about emergency healthcare access, ambulance response, and public apathy in the city.
