Sonia at Nehru conference: 'No India without secularism'

Seeking to reassert Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy, Sonia Gandhi on Monday said his ideas were under threat from "misrepresentation and distortion", a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, and stressed on the compelling necessity for secularism as Congress sought to reach out to non-NDA parties.

Mamata Banerjee from Trinamool Congress, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury from CPI-M, former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JD(U) President Sharad Yadav, CPI's D Raja, NCP general secretary D P Tripathi attended the conference organised by Congress on the 125th birth anniversary of Nehru.

However, representatives of SP, BSP, DMK, NC and TDP were not present. Though RJD leader Lalu Yadav was not present, party MP Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav was present at the conference

In her opening remarks, the Congress president said the whisper of knowledge about Nehru's life and work has weakened in recent years in the country, "drowned out by misrepresentation and distortion".

Holding that secularism, a state neutral in matters of religion, respecting all faiths equally was an article of faith for Nehru, Gandhi said, "... There could be no Indianness, no India, without secularism. Secularism was, and remains, more than an ideal; it is a compelling necessity for a country as diverse as India."

She also said that Nehru's belief that only Parliamentary democracy and a secular state could hold the country together in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-linguistic and multi-regional society, has been proved right.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Commemorative International Conference is the first major event organised by the party after its worst-eve drubbing in Lok Sabha polls.

While the Left parties, which supported UPA I government led by Cong had parted ways from it in 2008 on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue, Mamata Banerjee's party had left the UPA II in September 2012.

This is the first Congress event since then which is being attended by Banerjee as well as the Left parties.

Congress has not invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other BJP leader for the conference.

Holding that Nehru's achievements were not only for the past and continue to bear fruit, the Congress President said the conference is "not only a commemoration of his 125th birth anniversary, it is an opportunity to reassert the relevance, durability and indispensability of his legacy...

"I hope that this conference will contribute significantly to that objective," she said.

At a time when the Congress is still struggling to come out of its worst electoral defeat both in lok sabha as well as assembly polls, Gandhi quoted Nehru as saying, "In a democracy, we have known how to win and how to lose with grace.

"Those who win should not allow this to go to their heads; those who lose should not feel dejected. The manner of winning or losing is even more important than the result. It is better to lose in the right way than to win in the wrong way," Gandhi said.

The conference, which seeks to highlight the legacy and world view of the country's first prime minister is also being attended by a host of international leaders and representatives of various political parties from India and abroad.

Former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, John Kufuor of Ghana, General Obasanjo of Nigeria, former Prime Minister Madhav K Nepal of Nepal and Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, Queen Mother of Bhutan, Pakistani rights activist Jehangir, veteran South African freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada and leadership delegations from 11 political parties across the world were present at the conference.

The New Delhi conference has two subject sessions -- Inclusive Democracy and People's Empowerment, and Nehru's Worldview and a Democratic Global Order for the 21st century.

The two-day conference will conclude with a commemorative declaration on Tuesday, which will capture the essence of the deliberations and convey a message of global import.