Overview
- At a press event and in posts on X, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi released 17 letters attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru related to the Somnath temple’s reconstruction and consecration.
- Trivedi said the correspondence instructed Indian missions not to assist the Somnath Trust, including discouraging requests for sacred river water such as from the Indus for the consecration.
- He also cited an April 21, 1951 letter to Pakistan’s Liaquat Ali Khan in which Nehru called the narrative about the temple gates being brought back to India “completely false.”
- The BJP portrays the letters as proof of “appeasement,” claiming Nehru tried to minimize President Rajendra Prasad’s involvement and media coverage, while Congress says the context shows he objected only to government funding and official endorsement.
- Congress points to Gandhi and Sardar Patel’s opposition to using state funds and notes reports that the Saurashtra government contributed ₹5 lakh, as media highlight the timing days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned Somnath visit on January 11.