RSS claims Jawaharlal Nehru ordered his birthday to be marked as Children's Day, compares him to Adolf Hitler

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has claimed that Congress stalwart and the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, celebrated his birthday as Children’s Day almost a decade before he died in 1964. In its mouthpiece ‘Organiser’, the RSS claims that Nehru had issued orders for the same as he wanted to make the whole generation his followers and admirers. In an editorial published in the ‘Organiser’, the RSS claims that Nehru emulated the German dictator Adolf Hitler by doing so. It cited an article published in it in 1955, written by veteran journalist RK Malani, claiming that it is a widely held misconception that 14 November is celebrated as Children’s Day after the death of Nehru. It substantiated its claim by saying that reports and documents suggest that Nehru’s birthday was celebrated as Children’s Day in 1955, ie nine years before his death. It further claims that Nehru’s step was allegedly his bid to please the leaders of erstwhile Soviet Union. “It had nothing to do with children or Chachaji’s eternal love and affections for India’s young buds. It was merely a public relations exercise, organised to please his Soviet Union masters Comrades Bulganin and Khrushchev who embarked on an India visit during that time.” [caption id=“attachment_4829961” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. AFP[/caption] The editorial added that the move was aimed at creating a base of youth followers similar on the lines of the Nazi Party’s youth wing ‘Hitler Jugend’, which was Nehru’s first move to allegedly establish a dictatorship. “It has been said of Hitler that he built up his dictatorship on the devotion of ‘Hitler Youth’ organisation. We must confess that the above preparations remind us of the ‘Hitler Jugend,” the editorial stated. “For three weeks now, the entire educational machinery in the capital has been put out of gear. Since a number of students from every class in almost all the schools have been out rehearsing and re-rehearsing their allotted role for a couple of hours every day,” it added. The editorial further claimed that “in the name of Children’s Day celebration, truckloads of Delhi students, both boys, and girls, had been daily transported to the Qutb Minar ground for lessons in drilling, smiling, garlanding, clapping and shouting slogans!” “This is a new variant of the invisible colonialism Nehru warned against in his Discovery of India,” it concluded.