MyNation has accessed photos in which Nehru, in June 1950, can be seeing vacationing on INS Delhi, a Leander-class light cruiser built for the Navy in 1933. It was known as HMS Achilles in the British Raj and had commissioned into the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1937.
New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of using warship INS Virat as a "private taxi" for holidaying, the former Indian premier of the 1980s was not the first from the Gandhi family to have done so. The tradition seems to have been heralded by the first PM of India and Congress president Rahul Gandhi's great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950.
MyNation has accessed photos in which Nehru, in June 1950, can be seeing vacationing on INS Delhi, a Leander-class light cruiser built for the Navy in 1933. It was known as HMS Achilles in the British Raj and had commissioned into the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1937.
In the pics: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, young Rajiv and Sanjay vacationing aboard INS Delhi, during their voyage to Indonesia in June 1950
The vessel was returned to the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War and in 1948 was sold to the Royal Indian Navy to be recommissioned as HMIS Delhi. In 1950 she was renamed INS Delhi and remained in service until decommissioned at Bombay on 30 June 1978.
Prime Minister Modi had on Wednesday questioned whether using Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier for a personal use of Gandhi was not akin to compromising national security. PM Modi launched this fresh attack on the Congress dynasty while addressing a gathering at the Ramlila Maidan, Delhi.
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