Poem on Rani Lakshmi Bai or Nehru’s book? History is weapon as Scindia & Ramesh battle on Twitter

While Congress leader Jairam Ramesh quoted a Subhadra Kumari Chauhan poem to claim the Scindias were ‘traitors’, Jyotiraditya Scindia cited Nehru’s book to argue otherwise.

File photos of Union minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh | ANI

New Delhi: Union Minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia’s scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has triggered a war of words between him and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Twitter, with both the leaders digging into history to prove their point.

Scindia Wednesday accused Rahul Gandhi of pressuring the judiciary with regard to his conviction in the defamation suit and called the Congress a party without ideology, accusing it of working with an anti-national agenda. 

Reacting to his attack, Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, took to Twitter and quoted famous Hindi poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s poem on Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, where she called the Scindias a “friend of the British”. Pointing to a sentence in the poem — “the Britishers’ friend Scindia left the capital”, Ramesh asked whether Jyotiraditya had forgotten the poem.

Following Ramesh’s tweet, a war of words ensued between the two former colleagues on the social media platform. Asking Ramesh to “read more history and less poetry”, Scindia went on to quote from Jawahar Lal Nehru’s ‘Glimpses of World History’ and other books to express his disagreement. 

कविताएँ कम और इतिहास ज़्यादा पढ़ें।

“Thus they (Marathas) had practically inherited the Delhi Empire.The Marathas remained to challenge British supremacy.But the Maratha power went to pieces after the death of Mahadji Scindia”

– Nehru in his book ‘Glimpses of World History’
1/3 https://t.co/AI2J8kr13H

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) April 5, 2023

 

Delving into history

In the famous poem by Chauhan titled ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’, it has been stated that the then Maharaja of Gwalior Jayajirao Scindia, the great-great-grandfather of Jyotiraditya, supported the British.

This bit in the poem was reportedly removed by the Rajasthan BJP while publishing it in its fortnightly magazine in 2007, when Vasundhara Raje — a member of the Scindia dynasty — was chief minister. The move, according to a report by The Indian Express, was then criticised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which said that “history cannot be rewritten, changed or ignored”.

Meanwhile, Scindia, in a series of tweets, pointed out the following lines from Nehru’s book: “…Thus they (Marathas) had practically inherited the Delhi Empire. The Marathas remained to challenge British supremacy. But the Maratha power went to pieces after the death of Mahadji Scindia. The Marathas defeated the British in the South in 1782. In the north, Scindia of Gwalior was dominant and controlled the poor hapless Emperor of Delhi.” 

Further adding to his arguments, Ramesh claimed that all historians are unanimous on the issue of Scindias’ betrayal of the Rani of Jhansi in 1857. 

“Your new God Savarkar has also mentioned Scindia’s betrayal of Rani Lakshmibai, Tatya Tope and others in his book ‘The Independent Summer of 1857’. You should read history,” he said.

Scindia in turn accused the Congress of “divisive politics” and suggested that Ramesh read another book — ‘Operation Red Lotus‘, written by Parag Tope, a descendant of revolutionary Tatya Tope. The Marathas — Scindia, Peshwa and Newalkar of Jhansi — were together against the British, he said, adding that Marathas are still one. 

Congress vs Scindia 

It is not the first time Scindia has been questioned about his ancestors’ past by the Congress. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, at an event in 2017, said that these “so-called valorous maharajas” were less concerned about their honour when the British were trampling all over it. In response, Scindia was quoted as saying that Tharoor should study history. “I am Jyotiraditya Scindia and I am proud of my past.”

Close on the heels of Scindia’s attack, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad criticised Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders in his autobiography released Wednesday. 

Slamming Scindia and Azad, Ramesh said both have been “huge beneficiaries of the Congress system and its leadership in the past”.

“With every passing day, they give powerful evidence that this generosity to them was undeserved,” he added. 

Scindia had joined the BJP in 2020 following differences with the Congress leadership.  

(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)