two of its defeated Lok Sabha candidates — Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar and Ram Dayal Munda

BJP on Sunday kept up its attack on Congress for nominating
two of its defeated Lok Sabha candidates — Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar and
Ram
Dayal Munda — to the Rajya Sabha. BJP said the action amounted to
defying Jawaharlal Nehru’s stand on the issue.

“Pandit Nehru, in his speech in the House of the People on May 13,
1953, had categorically stated that such nominees (to Rajya Sabha)
should not represent political parties. There should be a high water
mark of literature, art or culture,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap
Rudy said.

“By nominating two active party members, Congress has defied the stand
taken by their guiding leader,” he said. Both Mr Aiyar and Mr Munda
had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls while contesting from their
constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand, respectively.

“It seems the RS has become a refuge for defeated Congress candidates.
Congress is making a mockery of the nomination category,” he said. He
quoted Gopalswamy Iyengar, a Constituent Assembly member, to drive
home his party’s point. “Iyengar in his speech in the Constituent
Assembly on July 28, 1947, said that those seasoned people who may not
be in the thickest of political fray, but who might be willing to
participate from art and culture should be given an opportunity
through such nominations.”