Sonia sees threat to Nehruvianism

Congress president Sonia Gandhi seized the 50th death anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to focus on Core Beliefs of the Congress, which she summarised as the four pillars of Nehruvianism -- democratic institution-building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and a foreign policy of non-alignment. “All of them were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally challenged by some in the prevailing political climate, but which remain at the core of the party’s beliefs,” she said. These principles form the core of Indian nationhood and the Congress will do everything to defend and uphold them, she said. Sonia Gandhi signalled that these very values would be challenged under the new dispensation.

Political observers attached great importance to it, as Sonia Gandhi literally flagged the direction in which it is moving. The Congress would do everything to resist any move to change the direction of the national development. During the Janata Party Government in 1977, the first attempt was made to challenge the Nehruvian framework, and now again a determined bid is on. Nehru laid the foundation for parliamentary democracy, brought in Fabian Socialism, anchored Indian political system in Secularism and unveiled Non-Alignment as the cornerstone of his foreign policy, which went on to become the international credo.