Historian rubbishes Modi’s claim that Nehru never met Bhagat Singh

During the Karnataka election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at Rahul Gandhi for meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav who has been convicted in several fodder scam cases. He said that the Congress has time to meet corrupt people, but had no time to meet jailed freedom fighters who were arrested by the British.

"When freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar Dutt were jailed while fighting for our independence, did any Congress leader go to meet them? But the Congress leaders have the time to meet people who're corrupt and have been jailed," Modi said at a rally.

This claim has however been countered by historian, S Irfan Habib who has also authored a book on Bhagat Singh, To Make the Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and His Comrades.

Go and read history before misusing it for politics. Nehru not only met them in prison but also wrote about them. Several Congress leaders defied Gandhi to speak for them," he said.