Nehru remembered on 48th death anniversary

Mangalore, May 27: Congress party workers in the city on Sunday remembered the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his 48th death anniversary

Floral tributes were paid to the late leader at a programme organized by Dakshina Kannada district Congress Committee at parity office here.

KCC secretary Ivan D'Souza was among prominent citizens who paid floral tributes at the memorial.

Jawaharlal Nehru, who was born on November 14, 1889, died on May 27, 1964.

Nehru, often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was Prime Minister of independent India from 1947 to 64 and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India's independence movement in the 1930s and '40s.

Nehru was elected by the Indian National Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and re-elected when the Congress Party won India's first general election in 1951 and 1952. Nehru contributed to the establishment of a Parliamentary democracy in India and was one of the founders of the international Non-Aligned Movement.

The son of moderate nationalist leader and Congressman Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Congress when fairly young. Rising to become Congress President under the mentorship of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic leader, advocating complete independence for India from the British Empire.

Throughout his life, Nehru advocated Democratic socialism/Fabian Socialism and a strong Public sector as the means by which economic development could be pursued by poorer nations. He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who would later serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India respectively.