Chandigarh: Close on the heels of a sharp attack on the Left, the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) today (Oct 24, 2004) targeted first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru for imposing a "western concept of development" on the country which it said later "utterly failed" and became cause of many ills.

Addressing a function in Chandigarh, RSS chief K S Sudarshan alleged that Nehru had "reversed" Mahatma Gandhi's concept that if India had to become developed in the real sense, the development should start from its villages, where 80 per cent of the country's population lived.

Fully backing Gandhi's concept, Sudarshan said that Gandhi had written a letter to Nehru just before independence in this regard, but the late Prime Minister wrote back disapproving the Mahatma's concept.

Quoting from Nehru's letter, he said, "Your (Gandhi's) ideas I had read even 20 years ago. If we follow your concept we will be left behind...I don't like your idea."

Alleging that Nehru was heavily influenced by the western ideas and western culture since he had major part of his education in England, Sudarshan said Nehru had once in a communication to a British Ambassador allegedly mentioned that he (Nehru) will be "the last Englishman to rule India."