Sengol labelled 'gift to Nehru' for misappropriation: Jethmalani alleges Cong coverup

BJP MP and senior Supreme Court advocate Mahesh Jethmalani accused the Congress of attempting to cover up "a case of blatant misappropriation of a priceless symbol" which is the Sengol. This comes after the BJP pointed out that the Sengol, which will be installed in the new Parliament and was a symbol of the transfer of power, was displayed at Prayagraj's Anand Bhavan as Jawaharlal Nehru's "walking stick."

"The Congress...is at pains to point out that the narrative of the Sengol as a symbol of transfer of power is a fake one spun by the BJP," Jethmalani tweeted. "Seems to me a major reason for this Congress defense is a cover-up for a case of blatant misappropriation of a priceless symbol of India’s sovereignty by passing off the Sengol as a gift to Nehru," he further wrote. 

Anand Bhavan the Nehru family home ( now owned by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust with Sonia Gandhi as its President) in which the #Sengol was displayed before its recovery for its restoration to Parliament is already embroiled in a house tax issue for Rs 4.35 crores with the…

— Mahesh Jethmalani (@JethmalaniM)

The MP also pointed out that the Anand Bhavan is owned by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust whose President is Sonia Gandhi. According to Jethmalani, the Sengol "is embroiled in a house tax issue for Rs 4.35 crores." He claimed that the house tax might be a result of the Anand Bhavan being used for commercial purposes. Alleging that the Sengol became a "property belonging to the Nehru family," he underscored that the "Anand Bhavan is a private trust controlled by the Gandhi family."

The Sengol, which was made by a jeweller in Tamil Nadu, went from Lord Mountbatten to India's first PM Nehru on the night of August 14, 1947, as a symbol of the transfer of power. The tradition of transferring a scepter dates back to the Chola dynasty when a new King was handed over the Sengol before ascending the throne. This Sengol, however, was lost in history and ended up in the Anand Bhawan where it was displayed as a "Golden walking stick gifted to Jawaharlal Nehru."

Apart from the dynasty politics, Jethmalani has posed several questions before the Congress party in the past, including the infamous Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which it signed with China in 2008. He had termed the MoU a “controversial document” stating that it should be treated as nothing more than a private affair. Other than Jethmalani, S Gurumurthy, thought leader and editor of the Thuglak Magazine, also spoke on the same lines as the BJP MP on the Sengol being reduced to 'Nehru's walking stick.' Gurumurthy even called this a moral and legal crime against the nation and demanded a probe into how the Sengol got lost for 75 years. 

Speaking to Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Gurumuthy said, "British did not directly hand over power or sovereignty to Nehru. It was done through the sacred protocol of Sengol. But how did such a sacred symbol disappear? This is something which needs thorough enquiry. It should have been the prime symbol of the Indian government like the Ashok symbol and Satyamev Jayate."