On 19th April, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi paid a personal tribute to his great-grandfather and first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, via a podcast-style conversation with Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit. While doing so, he claimed that Nehru’s legacy lies not in politics but in giving the people of India the courage to confront fear and seek truth.
Nehru didn’t teach us politics – he taught us to confront fear and stand for the truth. He gave Indians the courage to resist oppression and ultimately claim freedom.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 19, 2025
His greatest legacy lies in his relentless pursuit of truth – a principle that shaped everything he stood for. pic.twitter.com/chnckg02DB
During the discussion, which was shared on multiple social media platforms, Gandhi talked about the values he believes he has inherited from Nehru. He said, “Nehru didn’t teach us politics – he taught us to confront fear and stand for the truth,” while describing the freedom struggle as rooted in truth, not just ideology.
Gandhi claimed that Nehru was a “seeker” who faced danger with a smile. He credited his grandmother, and former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, with stories that shaped his understanding of his lineage. He said, “My mother still watches birds in the garden. I do judo. These aren’t just hobbies – they reflect who we are.”
Speaking on the current political situation in the country, Gandhi said, “In today’s India – where truth is inconvenient – I’ve made my choice. I’ll stand for it. No matter the cost.” He further claimed that he believes leadership is about compassion, not control. He said, “Whether I speak to Bill Gates or Chetram Mochi, I meet them with the same curiosity,” while calling truth and courage the foundation of resistance, art, and science.
While his statements look glittery from the outside, the reality is different from what has been said about Nehru, especially when it comes to facing “fear” with “courage”.
How Motilal Nehru pulled strings to get Jawaharlal out of Nabha prison
According to the plaque at the Nabha jail site, Nehru was arrested along with K Santanam and AT Gidwani on September 22, 1923, for defying an order banning entry into the princely state of Nabha. He was awarded a jail term of 2 years. However, not being able to withstand the complexities, Nehru, only after two-weeks signed a bond, never to enter the princely state of Nabha again. Prof Chaman Lal, renowned chronicler of India’s freedom struggle and an ex-professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had confirmed that “Nehru was detained for a few hours in the Jaitu police cell, while he was kept for around two weeks in the Nabha jail.”
Prof Lal stated that compared to other jails where Nehru was kept, including Naini and Gorakhpur, he received ill-treatment at the hands of the police and jail authorities in Nabha. “Nehru was released from the Nabha jail only after he signed a bond that he would never enter the princely state again!” he said.
It is believed that Nehru’s father, Motilal Nehru, had even reached out to the Viceroy asking for a recommendation to get him released. K Santanam, a freedom fighter who was imprisoned with Nehru, in his famous memoir ‘Handcuffed with Jawaharlal’ had said: “Our imprisonment in the Nabha jail was not known to the outside world. Pandit Motilal Nehru got worried and tried to ascertain our whereabouts from various officials and non-officials in Punjab. Failing to get any reply, he approached the Viceroy himself who got the information from Nabha.”
“This took two to three days. The authorities of the Nabha jail suddenly changed their attitude and arrangements were made for our bathing. Our clothes were given to us and friends from outside were allowed to send fruits and other eatables,” Santanam had recalled.
In his autobiography, Nehru had himself mentioned that the atrocities, he and his colleagues, faced in Nabha Jail, prompted them to sign a bond of compliance with the British, to never enter the territory of Nabha, again.
“In Nabha Jail we were all three kept in a most unwholesome and unsanitary cell. It was small and damp, with a low ceiling which we could almost touch. At night we slept on the floor, and I would wake up with a start, full of horror, to find that a rat or a mouse had just passed over my face,” wrote Jawaharlal Nehru.
Jawaharlal Nehru had deserted his colleague Acharya Gidwani
When violence broke out on 21st February February, 1924 during which 19 Sikhs were officially believed to have been killed, Nehru’s aide Acharya Gidwani had visited Jaitu to help the wounded. He was in turn arrested by the Nabha State police and had to spend almost a year in jail, before he was released on health grounds. A shrewd Jawaharlal Nehru, who conceded that he did not want to relive his short jail term in Jaitu, deserted Gidwani and chose not to remain loyal to his colleague and visit Jaitu.
In his own words, the former Prime Minister recounted, “I took shelter behind the advice of friends and made of it as a pretext to cover my own weakness. For after all it was my own weakness and disinclination to go to Nabha Gaol again that kept me away, and I have always felt a little ashamed of thus deserting a colleague. As often with us all, discretion was preferred to valour.”
While the Congress party and its trolls have been busy shaming freedom fighter Veer Savarkar despite the torture and ill-treatment meted out to him, a ‘valiant’ Jawaharlal Nehru was quick to get his sentence suspended by signing a bond with the aide of his influential father.
Ironically, Nehru who buckled under mere two weeks pressure and deserted his colleague is branded as a great leader, freedom fighter and a nationalist by the Congress.
