'Inventors' trying to rewrite history: Ansari

Taking what seems to be a dig at the NDA government, former vice president Hamid Ansari on Sunday said some "inventors" are trying to invent time machines to go back to history and "rewrite" it.

Ansari's comments came at the launch of a book on country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the presence of former President Pranab Mukherjee and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The book, edited by senior Congress leader A Gopanna, was lanched by Mukherjee and Singh.

Addressing the gathering, Ansari referred to H G Well's iconic Time Machine, a science-fiction novella written in 1895 that dealt with time travel using a time machine.

"Well, it was a great success. But today, I notice another set of inventors, not writers. Inventors trying to create a time machine by which you can go back in history and rewrite history. Now, such an effort is not going to succeed. History is history. It has to be read. You can draw lessons from it, you can draw encouragement from it or you can just read it as a college student preparing for term examination. History cannot be changed," Ansari said at the function, held on Nehru's death anniversary.

His comments come at a time when the NDA-led government is accused by the Opposition of "rewriting history" and trying to erase the legacy of Nehru and other leaders.

Incidentally, in this month's 'Mann Ki Baat', while Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged Nehru's death anniversary, he went on eulogising Veer Savarkar, whom the Opposition considers a polarsing figure.

At the function, Mukherjee said comments and observation on Nehru could never come to an end.

"History of modern India is closely associated and rather integrated with a few personalities. Jawaharlal Nehru is one of them... 54 years ago on this day, we lost him ...he is truly the architect — not euphemism — of the modern, democratic set up in India."