A day before Jawaharlal Nehru's birth anniversary, UPA chairperson and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for undermined the legacy of the first Prime Minister of India.

“Precious legacy of Nehru is being undermined daily by those who rule us today. They express disdain for Nehru for all that he did to build India that they are bent upon changing for worse,” said Gandhi at an event to relaunch Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's book 'Nehru: The Invention of India' on Tuesday evening.

"Today we must honour him by fighting with determination to safeguard our democracy against those who are undermining it," she added.

“It was Nehru who instilled a democratic culture in our country by his regard for democracy,” she said.

"What are these values. Shashi Tharoor summarises them as the core pillars of Nehruvianism -- democratic institutional building, staunch pan-Indian secularism, socialist economics and foreign policy of non-alignment. These values were integral to a vision of Indianness that is fundamentally being challenged today," she added.

Tharoor also lauded Nehru for strengthening democratic institutions and always encouraging "constructive criticism".
 
He added that a concerted campaign of vilification, calumny and an astonishing amount of lies was being spread on the internet against Nehru.

"If today, the government can boast about Mangalyaan, ask who created ISRO. Who decided that even a poor Indian can dare to aim for the skies. Who created the IITs who send so many bright young men to the Silicon Valley.

"All of this in the poor country was optional. You had to have the vision to say we need to do all these things. We need to lay the foundations to build India of the future," Tharoor said.