Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the exclusion of Jawaharlal Nehru’s picture from a poster released to mark the 75th year of Independence showed the Centre’s “narrow mindset”, and asked the government why it “hates” India’s first Prime Minister so much.

Raut, in his weekly column in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, said the Indian Council of Historical Research had excluded the pictures of Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad from its poster, and alleged that it was an act of “political vindictiveness”.

“Those who had no participation in the freedom struggle and creating history are keeping out one of the heroes of the independence struggle. This act, done out of political vindictiveness, is not good and shows their narrow mindset. It is an insult of each and every freedom fighter,” Raut said.

“What has Nehru done to hate him so much? In fact, the institutions he built are now being sold to keep the Indian economy moving,” he said, referring to the Narendra Modi government’s National Monetisation Pipeline.

It was because of Nehru’s “long-term vision” that the country was saved from economic devastation, Raut said.