New Delhi, Apr 22 (PTI) Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday cited former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s apology letter to a Supreme Court judge in 1959 to assert that this is how democratic foundations, which are now under assault, got built.

In a post on X, Ramesh said, “On June 26, 1959, Nehru wrote to the Chief Justice of India S R Das and to a Supreme Court Judge Vivian Bose expressing his deep regrets at the remarks he had made at a press conference in New Delhi on June 10, 1959, that were taken to be criticisms of Justice Bose who was then inquiring into the Mundhra affair.” “This is how the democratic foundations — that are now under assault — got built,” he added.

Ramesh was supported by his party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP, Abhishek Singhvi, who said, “Tweeted by friend Jairam Ramesh shows how we live in different times; how magnanimity and humility were naturally embedded in psyche of great people.” “Am sure many today, including those holding high offices, will never understand what made such people and values special,” Singhvi said.

The posts came in the wake of a row over the Supreme Court’s criticism by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma on the recently passed Waqf (Amendment) Act, which has been challenged in the apex court.

Ramesh also shared a copy of a book that contains Nehru’s letter to Justice Bose.

In his letter, Nehru said, “I should like to express personally to you my deep regret at the remarks I made in this connection at the press conference I addressed in Delhi earlier this month.

“I realise fully that those remarks were improper and I should not have allowed myself to utter them. I was taken rather unawares by the questions put to me and I was thinking of many other things at the time also. I trust you will be good enough to accept my apology for this impropriety which I have committed.” The book said Nehru also wrote to CJI Das on June 26, 1959 in the same vein, adding “that was an impropriety which I regret greatly as I have believed that the judiciary and, more especially, the judges of the Supreme Court deserve the highest consideration and respect”. PTI SKC RC