My dear Jawaharlal Ji,Yet another birthday and yet another letter addressed to you. You would probably remember that in my first ever letter to you on November 14, 2014, I had sought your permission to keep writing to you if the situation at home did not improve and the denigration project against you is not halted. Unfortunately, nothing has changed, and frankly speaking, things have worsened.The current regime is at war with the ideas you loved and the institutions you and your colleagues built so meticulously. I have grown up hearing that even your ardent critics seldom deny that the vibrant institutions of modern India withstood regressive contestations due to the solid ideological foundation of a secular, socialist and democratic India. An agnostic by training and temperament, you had great faith in democracy. You believed that the parliament, the judiciary, the press and the civil society needed to work in tandem and enrich each other in the process. You believed that secular political democracy cannot sustain itself without simultaneous democratisation of economy and society.But looking around in these dark times, one has to sigh, “alas!” only too frequently.Also read: ‘We Need More Youthful Dreamers Like You’: A Letter to Jawaharlal NehruThese days, changing names of cities, towns and lanes is more important than changing the context which breeds inequality. They shall not care, but I wish to read out a few lines from your convocation address on the diamond jubilee of the Allahabad University on December 1913, 47 (They have not yet clarified whether it too shall be known as Prayag Raj University).What kind of India are we working for? And what kind of world? Are hatred and violence and fear and communalism and narrow provincialism to mould our future? Surely not, if there has been any truth in us and in our profession. Here in this city of Allahabad, dear to me not only because of my close association with it but also because of its part in India’s history, my boyhood and youth were spent in dreaming dreams and seeing visions of India’s future.Dear Jawaharlal ji! I am unable to even imagine how you would have reacted to successive governments trying to unmake the very idea of public funded education and public universities. I wish you could come back and see how this regime is virtually at war with universities all over India. They are coming up with HEFA, CCS rules, etc., almost on a daily basis, commodifying education to make it accessible only to the privileged. Critiquing such anti-people policies would get one the epithet of ‘anti-national’ or ‘urban Naxal’ or both. In the same convocation, you had so beautifully defined the idea of a ‘University’ thus:A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for progress, for the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth. It stands for the onward march of the human race towards even higher objectives. If universities discharge their duty adequately, then it is well with the nation and the people.”But if the temple of learning itself becomes a home of narrow bigotry and petty objectives, how will a nation prosper or a people grow in stature?The story of decimating ideas and institution does not end here. Those at the regime’s top echelons have transmogrified themselves into historians with a perverted sense of counter-factuals, brutalising our memory by pitting you against your long-term comrade Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. They have gone on to include Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as your nemesis. This war on the nation’s collective memory is hardly seeing any resistance. These people are out to destroy the beautiful drapery of the freedom movement, where consent and subsequent convergence of divergent opinion were the hallmark and where the heart mattered more than the chest size. Let me remind them what you told to the congress delegates on July 28, 1940:I want the congress to become as powerful an organisation as it could be. I want it to remain the same well-knit, united organisation it has been. I want the wise leadership of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. I want the great captaincy of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. I want the brilliant talents of Rajaji. I want every one of you, comrades, who are the leaders of your provinces and districts.Nehru, Gandhi and Patel differed with each other vehemently, but they had great respect for each other.Let us also remind them of a letter written by Vallabh Bhai to Bapu on July 26, 1936:…the smooth and harmonious working reminds me…it has been more like a gathering of family members than a formal committee meeting. The manifesto was prepared and speaks too highly of Jawaharlal. He has done wonderful work and has been burning the candle at both ends.We all know why the present regime is pitting national heroes and martyrs against each other. Bereft of any icon of their own, they are keen to appropriate a few of your comrades so that they attend to their inadequacies. In the process, they are doing irreparable damage to the civilisational ethos that shaped the outlook of your generation and the ones that followed.It is no secret that both you and Sardar Patel were committed secularists and were highly critical of the activities of the RSS. Thus in response to your letter of May 2, 1948, he wrote two days later:We have already warned provincial governments about this danger and have asked them to take all appropriate measures. We ourselves have been ever-watchful in our centrally administered areas and have not allowed as far as possible, anything which would have any resembling to usual RSS activities.And referring to partitions and the massive task of unfinished rehabilitation of Hindus and Sikhs and possible discontent on account of delay, he wrote to you further: “…this discontent might be the breeding ground of communal poison on which activities of organisation like the RSS thrive.”Also read: My Dear Chief Minister … Three Letters Nehru Wrote That Indians Today Need to ReadThere are hundreds of letters which speak volumes about the nature of your relationship with Subhas Babu. In fact, you had differences even with Bapu, despite him calling you ‘Hind ke jawahar’ or the jewel of India. At times, Bapu and you were not on the same page and yet you agreed to go with him.Can we expect the present narcissist leadership to fathom the beautiful depth of the relationship you all enjoyed? You all had differences on vital issues impacting the national life, but the differences were on account of a continuous conversation from diverse vantage points. None of you believed in the unquestionable monologues or in the cult of an infallible supreme leader. Had you all not been what you were, the idea of India would have been clumsy.The rulers and most members of today’s political class are incapable of understanding the warmth that defined the vibrant camaraderie amongst your peers. I recall a letter written by Sarojini Naidu on your election as Congress president in 1929. I wish to sign off this letter with the affection and warmth evident in her words:As I watched your face while you were being given the rousing ovation on your election, I felt I was envisaging both the coronation and the crucification – indeed the two are inseparable and almost synonymous in some circumstances and some situations: they are synonymous today especially for you…On those beautiful metaphors – coronation and crucification – I sign off, dear Jawaharlal ji.Yours truly,ManojManoj K. Jha is a professor at the University of Delhi, member of the Rajya Sabha and national spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.