Jairam Ramesh says Nehru India’s ‘best PM’, Patel ‘best PM India could not have’

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh described Jawaharlal Nehru as the finest prime minister India has produced, while naming Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the country’s best prime minister who never got the opportunity to hold the office.In a wide-ranging interview with news agency PTI, Ramesh also launched a sharp attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling its members “fraudulent nationalists”, and labelled Prime Minister Narendra Modi “the master of falsehoods”.During a rapid-fire segment, the Rajya Sabha MP was asked to give one-word responses to a series of questions. When asked to identify India’s best prime minister, he replied, “undoubtedly Jawaharlal Nehru”. On who he considered the best prime minister the country could not have, Ramesh chose Sardar Patel.Asked to pick between his previous ministerial assignments, Ramesh said he preferred his stint as environment minister over rural development minister. He also favoured his role overseeing the Congress party‘s communications strategy over serving as an AICC in-charge for any state.When presented with three different descriptions of himself, writer, strategist and environment conservationist, Ramesh said all were part of the same individual.“I enjoyed writing a large number of books in the last 10 years. I enjoyed researching, going to the archives. Topics that had been on my mind that I could write and which I wrote on. So each role is different. I enjoy being an MP, I enjoy raising questions on environment and I enjoy writing,” Ramesh said.The Congress general secretary also reflected on his entry into politics, crediting former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for encouraging him to join the party full-time.Asked how his political journey began, Ramesh said, “That’s entirely because of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi you know through Mr. Sam Pitroda, we had worked with the then prime minister on technology missions and then Mr. Gandhi lost the election and in 1990 sometime Mr. Pitroda and I had spoken to him and Mr. Gandhi said come and work with us full-time for the party because elections are around the corner.”“So that’s how it started and then I continued. So this is my 35th year with the Congress party,” he added.Ramesh said he had previously worked with the Rajiv Gandhi government in the Ministry of Industry and the Planning Commission, before collaborating directly with the then prime minister through Pitroda on technology missions.“So, he (Rajiv) was the inspirational figure and he was the one who encouraged a lot of younger people from non-political backgrounds. I come from a completely non-political background. So he encouraged all this and no doubt that he was the inspiration, the starting point,” Ramesh said.