History hangs in shame: Did Prakash Javadekar say Nehru was hanged?

Many on social media rejoiced when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his cabinet reshuffle and snatched away the critical human resource development portfolio from gaffe-prone "Yale" graduate Smriti Irani. A set of people were miffed though, because her replacement was Sangh favourite Prakash Javadekar.

They argued that one would rather have the limelight-hogging Irani over Javadekar, who likes to work in the shadows and is much more entrenched in the RSS ideology.

Javadekar's dedication was much too evident at a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Chindhwara on Monday, where the HRD minister's warped sense of history took over bare facts. And Nehru and Patel found themselves in the hangman's noose.

Also read: Why HRD ministry was snatched away from Smriti Irani

A report in Hindustan Times quoted the HRD minister as saying, "The fight for independence that began in 1857 ended 90 years later when we threw the British out. We salute freedom fighters... Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Pandit (Jawahar Lal Nehru), Bhagat Singh and Rajguru who were hanged."

#WATCH HRD Min Prakash Javadekar says "SC Bose, Sardar Patel, Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru sabhi phaansi par chade"https://t.co/JSgXjcVmAm

Now this gentleman is entrusted with the educational framework of the youth, Digital India, and has overlooked the fact that our first and longest serving PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, died of natural causes in 1964, at 74.

Patel died in 1950 and no one knows what happened to Bose, the declassification hooplah notwithstanding. We're looking at you, Modiji and Didiji.

This happened after PM Modi called on lawmakers to spread awareness about India's freedom struggle and inculcate a feeling of nationalism.

Conventional (read liberal) wisdom would dictate that the PM asked every Indian to get a Savarkar tattoo on their forehead, but Javadekar went a step ahead and changed the way one of our greatest leaders died.

Perhaps, he is learning from his PM who, riding on the "Modi wave", had actually said that Chandragupta Maurya was from the Gupta dynasty. Not a big deal, we're just off by about 500 years there, Sir, give or take.

At a rally in Patna, he had said, "When we are reminded of the Gupta Dynasty we are reminded of Chandragupta's rajneeti."

Modi did a one up when, in the same rally, he said that "Alexander's army conquered the entire world, but was defeated by the Biharis."

History books we read in independent India, however, disagree with Modi and say that Alexander's army never crossed Ganga to be defeated by Biharis.

#BackToSchool, eh?