Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said the present rulers did not have the wisdom and capacity to protect the Nehruvian legacy, and were taking India backward.

Delivering the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture on the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, Sonia said: “What are the values that can be summarised as the four pillars of Nehruvianism? Democratic institution-building, staunch secularism, socialist economics and a non-aligned foreign policy. These were integral to his vision of India. Today, this vision is fundamentally under attack, but it remains at the core of the true India that we must continue to fight for.”

Sonia said: “It is lamentable that those who are in power today are blind to this truth. They lack the capacity, the vision and the wisdom to uphold this legacy. The forces unleashed by our present rulers want to dictate to us what we can do, say or think. Their idea of unity is uniformity. They disrespect and fear diversity which means they deny our pluralism, our freedom of choice, which are integral to our fundamental rights.”

She added: “Their language may be modern, but they seek to take India backward, not forward. For, after all, they made no sacrifices to shape India’s destiny. It falls on each and every one of us to pull away this hypocrisy and reveal the darkness lurking beneath. We must unite and speak up against the bigotry, injustice and mismanagement of the last six years. Not just for ourselves, but for the millions of our fellow brothers and sisters who continue to suffer.”