Dubey cites Nehru letter, says Communist ideology meant ‘treason’

NewsBharati    12-Sep-2026 12:52:06 PM
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New Delhi, September 10: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has demanded a ban on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s foreign travel and questioned whether his parliamentary membership should be terminated, citing a 1955 letter written by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Dubey cites Nehru  
 
Speaking in Deoghar, Jharkhand, Dubey claimed that Nehru had regarded Communist ideology as tantamount to treason and had opposed granting a government scholarship to historian Irfan Habib because of his Communist association.
  
“Communist ideology means treason; speaking against the government abroad means treason,” Dubey said, arguing that the same benchmark should be applied to Rahul Gandhi. He further alleged that speaking against India abroad in alliance with foreign powers and indirectly supporting Pakistan amounted to treason, and said that restricting Gandhi’s foreign travel would be constitutional.
 
 
Dubey's reference was to a 12 August 1955 letter from Nehru to Zakir Husain concerning Irfan Habib's proposed government scholarship for studies abroad. The original letter is available in the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru.

In the letter, Nehru said that his information was that Habib was a member of the Communist Party and had participated in Communist activities. Nehru wrote that a government scholarship was intended to train someone who could subsequently serve the State and said the Government could not be expected to provide such a scholarship to someone on whom it could not rely or who might engage in activities harmful to the State.
 
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Nehru also wrote that his experience with Communists was that their party loyalty could override other loyalties. However, importantly, he did not describe the issue simply as a difference of political ideology, saying explicitly that it was not merely a question of differing political views. He also stated that he personally had “no animosity against the communists.” Archival records also show that the matter originated with Home Ministry objections to Habib receiving the scholarship because of his Communist connection, after which Nehru met Habib following Zakir Husain's intervention.

Dubey subsequently argued that if Nehru's 1955 position is taken as the benchmark for judging political activity abroad, the same principle should apply to Rahul Gandhi. He asked why Gandhi should not face a foreign-travel restriction and loss of parliamentary membership.
BJP Jharkhand Dubey Rahul Gandhi Communist Party Nehru parliamentary membership