Buried For Decades: Here Are 4 Big Takeaways From Nehru's 17 Forgotten Letters On Somnath Temple

Last Updated:January 07, 2026, 19:58 IST

While it is true that the BJP has the habit of bringing Jawaharlal Nehru into every political discourse, these letters will indeed leave the Congress in discomfort

The Narendra Modi-led BJP released 17 letters penned by India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru that reveal his opposition to rebuild the ancient Somnath temple in Gujarat. (Image: AFP/File)

Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a long op-ed to kickstart the year-long ‘Somnath Swabhiman Parv’ – to mark 1,000 years since the first invader attack on the Somnath temple in Gujarat – the ruling BJP released 17 letters penned by India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru that reveal his opposition to rebuild the ancient structure.

These letters are between Nehru and various historical figures – from addressing the then Pakistan PM Liaquat Ali Khan as “Dear nawabzada" in one dated April 21, 1951, where he describes the story of Somnath’s doors as “completely false" to dismissing the temple inauguration as unnecessary “fuss" and admitting that he had tried to stop cabinet ministers from being linked to it in another dated June 13, 1951 to then vice president Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.

The BJP has laid bare 17 threads of one historical truth that the Congress cannot dismiss as “just another Nehru syndrome" of the saffron party. While it is true that the BJP has the habit of bringing Nehru into every political discourse, these letters will indeed leave the grand old party in discomfort.

Beyond what Nehru told KM Panikkar, the then Indian ambassador to China, about the Somnath temple in his letter or what was his view on the same matter while writing to UN Dhebar, who was the chief minister of Saurashtra back then, the bigger picture is what are the four big takeaways today?

SKIPPING SOMNATH TO RAM MANDIR

In 2024, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, former president Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had turned down the invitation for the Ram Mandir inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22.

They said the BJP has made it a political event. Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was sending out invites to VIPs across India and the world.

The temple trust had also extended invitations to the three Congress leaders. “Lord Ram is worshipped by millions in our country. Religion is a personal matter. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has obviously been brought forward for electoral gain. While abiding by the 2019 Supreme Court judgment and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Smt Sonia Gandhi and Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have respectfully declined the invitation to what is clearly an RSS/BJP event," a Congress statement read.

In his letter to Panikkar in 1951, Nehru openly admitted that he had “tried to tone down the effects" of the President’s visit to the Somnath temple, clearly acknowledging an active effort to reduce the visibility and significance of the temple’s inauguration rather than merely staying neutral. While one may acknowledge his views, many may see this to be consistent in the Congress over generations, and that the argument of “RSS/BJP event" in 2024 was an excuse by its leadership.

‘COMPLETELY FALSE’: THEN TO NOW

Nehru went so far as to write reassuringly to Liaquat Ali Khan, dismissing the Somnath gate narrative as “completely false" and stressing that nothing of the sort was happening in his letter dated April 21, 1951.

The “narrative" of the Somnath temple gates involves a disputed historical claim that the original gates, allegedly looted by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1026 CE, were recovered by the British in 1842 and brought back to India. While Nehru may be right, his assuring the Pakistani PM is problematic.

When the gates were brought to India, experts, including archaeologists, determined they were not Indian in origin or design. Politically, it brings back memories of the UPA era when the Congress-led government told the Supreme Court that there was no historical evidence to establish the existence of Ram or the other characters in Ramayana during the hearing on the Sethusamudram project in 2007. 

BIG CHARGE AHEAD OF PM’S VISIT TO SOMNATH

The BJP released 17 letters and held a high-voltage press conference in New Delhi just days ahead of Modi’s visit to the Somnath temple, keeping the discourse alive.

Top government sources told News18 that Modi will visit the temple on January 11. Ahead of that, on Wednesday, the BJP made a strong charge against Nehru after they read from the 17 letters.

“Somnath was plundered by Mahmud Ghazni and Khilji in the past, but in independent India, Pandit Nehru harboured the greatest hatred towards Lord Somnath," alleged BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi.

Knowing how the Prime Minister likes to respond, it is quite probable that the BJP is building a tempo in the run-up to his Somnath visit, when he will be in his home state of Gujarat and, in between celebrations, take a sharp dig at the Congress. 

INDIA BLOC IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION

The BJP has not only put the Congress at discomfort with these 17 letters, but by virtue of their association with the Congress, many of their INDIA bloc allies are feeling the heat.

In poll-bound states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Assam, the TMC, DMK, and Asom Sonmilito Morcha (ASOM) are likely to face issues if they enter into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in their respective states.

Written on August 1, 1951, in a letter to chief ministers, Nehru blamed the “pomp and ceremony" of the Somnath temple inauguration for creating a “very bad impression abroad" and weakening India’s secular image. In this letter, he directed that embassies should be instructed not to pay the slightest attention to requests for sacred river water from the Somnath Trust. He formally disapproved of the use of Indus water for the Somnath consecration, conveying through the foreign secretary that the request did not have his approval.

Now, as the election nears and the BJP rakes up these letters in every campaign in the local language, many Tamil, Bengali or Assamese who may not have visited Somnath temple may feel connected to it as a symbol of Hinduism whose survival is now being celebrated by the Modi government.

News politics Buried For Decades: Here Are 4 Big Takeaways From Nehru's 17 Forgotten Letters On Somnath Temple

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