Congress slams BJP, Modi sarkar
New Delhi : Such information has been anonymously circulating on the internet for several years now, but on Tuesday for the first time the Wikipedia profile of India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was edited to show that he was a ’Muslim.”
An infuriated Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi charged that the party had factual information to prove that these anonymous edits emanated from an internet protocol address belonging to the government’s National Informatics Centre.
“This is a blatant attempt to further the BJP’s agenda of communal polarization, and it could not have happened without the clearance from the top,” he charged.
Singhvi said: “As they talk about Digital India, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad should explain as to what action has been taken against those who have indulged in this cheap tactics and insulted a man who is the architect of modern India and a globally respected statesman. The act is reprehensible.”
The anonymous edits to Nehru’s Wikipedia profile described his grandfather Gangadhar as having been born as Ghiasuddin Ghazi, a Muslim, who took to a Hindu name; the edits also included references to Nehru and the last British viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten’s wife Edwina.
However, these anonymous edits were removed after sometime by the official editors of the encyclopedia website. In a symbol of freedom of expression on the internet, the website has a facility that allows anyone to enter information on a particular page. The changes regarding Nehru’s profile were facilitated by this route.
“The identity of the person or the computer from which the changes were made can be traced and the government can lodge an FIR in this matter. We demand that the government should take this action,” added Singhvi.
“This is a sinister attempt to show that Jawaharlal Nehru was a Muslim. It doesn’t matter whether he was a Muslim or a Hindu: he was an Indian, but the government should conduct a full enquiry,” added chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
