India
#ThankstoNehru became one of the top trending topics in India.
Updated : Mar 09, 2018, 01:48 PM IST
It’s bizarre how things trend. It could be an optically illusive dress, a simple wink or someone whose singing is akin to a cat of screeching bags. On Friday, it was India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru who was suddenly among the Twitterati’s thoughts after Rahul Gandhi’s panel discussion in Singapore.
It all started after PK Basu, author of the book Asia Reborn, questioned Rahul Gandhi asking, ‘why ‘per capita income of India grew much less than world average when his family ruled’.
He said: “That gentleman thinks nothing has been done by the Congress party the other thinks everything was done. However, anybody in this room who thinks the Congress party is not part of this success needs to write a new book.”
He then went on to mention the various achievements of Congress.
He added: “I just want to complete that who has been taught to love my opponents, have no animosity towards anybody who says i have achieved nothing. I respect your opinion to say that I achieved nothing. I am proud to sit in a room and have a gentleman say this to me. Mr Modi would never do that. You will never have the ability to say this in front of Modi. I want to give you a hug and i want to tell you and you are very important to me. You represent a different opinion.”
Responding to this, Congress leader Sanjay Jha shared the video and wrote on Twitter: “Watch this everyone, and you will know the difference between @OfficeOfRG and @narendramodi . RG’s extraordinary decency and liberal values shine through brilliantly. A true leader. Very proud of you, Congress President. Share, RT.”
Replying to the conversation, journalist Sagarika Ghose, who has written a book on Indira Gandhi wrote a slightly bizarre comment where she claimed without Rahul Gandhi’s great grandfather, PK Basu ‘wouldn’t be in Singapore, wouldn’t speak English and instead would be a cow dung trader busily drinking cow urine’.
She wrote on Twitter: “Without @OfficeOfRG 's great grandfather @PrasenjitKBasu wouldn't be in Singapore, wouldn't speak English, wouldn't have written a book in English, instead would be a cow dung trader busily drinking cow urine and puzzling over ten headed demons riding flying chariots.”
While there’s no denying the first PM did play a pivotal role in forming modern India, to say that that PK Basu wouldn’t be in Singapore or wouldn’t know English is perhaps giving the first PM too much credit. Soon after Ghose’s proclamation, Twitterati started trending #ThankstoNehru piling up imaginary achievements of the first Congress PM:
Watch this everyone, and you will know the difference between @OfficeOfRG and @narendramodi . RG’s extraordinary decency and liberal values shine through brilliantly. A true leader. Very proud of you, Congress President. Share, RT. https://t.co/PA8kZtgBlR
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) March 8, 2018
#ThanksToNehru or else I wouldn't know how to write today. pic.twitter.com/GBnywgi3Sb
— Vinayak Jain (@vinayak_jain) March 9, 2018
Rubbish, Lalu @sagarikaghose His greatgrandfather was made PM of the dominion at Britain’s behest. The PCCs chose Patel and Kripalani. My grandfather outdid JL Nehru at Cambridge. So stop trying to be such a politician and patronise me without an iota of facts.
— Prasenjit K. Basu (@PrasenjitKBasu) March 9, 2018
PK, have also criticised Nehru-Gandhi economic illiberalism but you have to accept that It was Nehruvian modernism, like it or not, that gave India its modern institutions & orientation, now being irretrievably reversed by your ilk peddling its mythological gau mutra economics https://t.co/Hej3YJdu55
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) March 9, 2018
Without @OfficeOfRG 's great grandfather @PrasenjitKBasu wouldn't be in Singapore, wouldn't speak English, wouldn't have written a book in English, instead would be a cow dung trader busily drinking cow urine and puzzling over ten headed demons riding flying chariots https://t.co/OWWMrOQ90E
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) March 9, 2018
Just had breakfast. #ThanksToNehru else I would be starving somewhere.
— Mohit (@sailorsmoon) March 9, 2018
What would India be without Nehru and #English?
— Sankrant Sanu सानु (@sankrant) March 9, 2018
Try Japan—a high per capita technologically advanced society.#ThanksToNehru we are still paying people to dig ditches by hand. https://t.co/yuUzxFypam
-Sun shines
— Raju Srivastava (@Gajodhar_007) March 9, 2018
-Earth rotates
-Water flows
-Stars twinkle
-Sky is blue
-Oceans are full of water
-Sagrika born
-Congress president is an idiots#ThanksToNehru
Nehru secured India by bringing ocean on 3 sides and Himalayas on on side. #ThanksToNehru
— Bulla 2002 (@BullaDmello) March 9, 2018
#ThanksToNehru I am typing on a smartphone and not baking messages on clay tablets.
— Roshi CBG-san (@OnlyNakedTruth) March 9, 2018
#ThanksToNehru gravity exists, otherwise we would be floating around in a Hindu patriarchy.
— Aakash Raj Razdhan (@Ateendriyo) March 9, 2018
#ThanksToNehru for the brain drain pic.twitter.com/sLbstJGMwK
— Connected MRI (@ExSecular) March 9, 2018
Visionary Nehru said this long back ‘At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom’
— Bhaiyyaji (@bhaiyyajispeaks) March 9, 2018
It was a hint that Demonetisation will happen. #ThanksToNehru
I totally agree with Sagarika Ma'am.
— PhD in Bakchodi (@Atheist_Krishna) March 9, 2018
- He wouldn't be in Singapore - cuz Nehru discovered Singapore
- He wouldn't have written a book - cuz Nehru invented Paper
- He wouldn't speak English - cuz Nehru invented English language#ThanksToNehru pic.twitter.com/MiJ0oTGn6x
As I look around my desk, I just realised everything here: Laptop, Cellphone, Table lamp, paper, headphones, pen, pencil, sharpener, dustbin, stapler, charger, post its, tissues, scissors...everything is here #ThanksToNehru
— Ram (@ramprasad_c) March 9, 2018
#ThanksToNehru for teaching Leonardo DiCaprio how to act. pic.twitter.com/KH0iaX2kcd
— PhD in Bakchodi (@Atheist_Krishna) March 9, 2018
#ThanksToNehru
— Pradeep Kumar (@GudduKumarm2272) March 9, 2018
Bcz he was 1st person to introduce self sponsored Bharat Ratna. pic.twitter.com/1hLynhj6TM