The opposition party has challenged a statement by the defence minister, calling it a deliberate distortion of history.
Indian National Congress has demanded a public apology from Rajnath Singh after he asserted that Jawaharlal Nehru planned to rebuild the Babri Masjid using government funds — a claim that Congress says lacks any documentary or archival support, and misrepresents entries from the diary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s daughter.
In a public address at Sadhli village in Gujarat’s Vadodara district, the minister had claimed that Nehru proposed state-funded reconstruction of the Babri Masjid, and that Patel stood firm against using public money for such a purpose. He cited a book attributed to Patel’s daughter as backing for his assertion.
Congress countered by sharing what it describes as the “original” Gujarati diary entries from the recently published book Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno. Party general secretary for communications Jairam Ramesh posted scanned pages on the social media platform X, saying the entries do not support the minister’s version. He accused Rajnath Singh of spreading falsehoods “simply to improve his relationship” with the Prime Minister.
The Congress emphasised that there is no archival record—no cabinet files, memos, letters or trustworthy independent documentation—that shows Nehru ever proposed funding the Babri Masjid from the public treasury. Senior party leaders reiterated that when the question of state funding for religious structures arose in earlier years, Nehru had maintained that reconstruction should depend on public donations, not tax-payer money.
Supporters of the minister’s claim pointed to another book — Inside Story of Sardar Patel: The Diary of Maniben Patel — which allegedly contains an entry where Patel objected to Nehru’s suggestion regarding the mosque. The minister’s allies say that on page 24 of the book, Patel distinguishes the Babri Masjid issue from the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple, which had been funded through a trust set up for that purpose, and therefore rejected any proposal for public funding of a mosque.
But Congress insists that the version of the diary being circulated by the minister and his supporters differs drastically from the original Gujarati diary entry they have published. Ramesh described the difference as “huge,” and demanded that the minister retract his statement and apologise for distorting the record of both Nehru and Patel.
Critics argue that this dispute reflects a broader pattern wherein political actors engage in selective interpretation of archival material to reshape public memory. They point out that the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi controversy has long been steeped in contested narratives, and attempts to anchor modern political rhetoric on ambiguous historical claims risk undermining the integrity of documented sources.
As the controversy deepens, scholars and historians are calling for transparent access to archival material and deeper scholarly scrutiny. Some have suggested that the full diaries, correspondence, and cabinet minutes from the 1940s be digitised and made publicly available to facilitate independent assessment.
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