Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday hit out at external affairs minister S Jaishankar for his comments on Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, accusing him of indulging in Nehru-bashing to gain favour with the current Prime Minister.

“Every time I read statements made by the erudite and dapper External Affairs Minister on Nehru, I can only recall the numerous parikramas he would make around Nehruvians for his plum postings,” said Ramesh in a social media post on X.

“I can understand that he is a neo-convert who has to indulge in Nehru-bashing to ingratiate himself even more with the Prime Minister. But in doing so, he has lost all intellectual honesty and objectivity. He was expected to bend. He is now crawling. People with integrity are cringing. Very sad.”

The criticism from Jairam Ramesh comes in response to an interview Jaishankar gave to ANI, where he discussed India’s approach to engaging with China. Jaishankar advocated for a realistic approach, aligning with the strain of realism that he believes extends from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to Narendra Modi.

Jaishankar underlined the difference in the approaches of Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, particularly regarding the UN Security Council seat, saying Nehru’s stance prioritised China’s interests, which he found peculiar.

“Even when it came, for example to the UN Security Council seat, it’s not my case that we should have necessarily taken the seat, it’s a different debate, but to say that we should first let China — China’s interest should come first, it’s a very peculiar statement to make,” said Jaishankar while dealing with the approach of Nehru and Sardar Patel’s realism.

When asked whether the two nations will bury the hatchet in 2024, the external affairs minister said, “It takes two hands to clap. I pose the issue in this manner if you look at the last 75 plus years of our foreign policy, they have a strain of realism about China and have a strain of idealism, romanticism, non-realism. It begins right from day one, there is a sharp difference of opinion — how to respond to China between Nehru and Sardar Patel.”

(With ANI inputs)