New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday responded strongly to BJP's views on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, saying his critics were not being objective and "those who denigrate him reject his vision of India anchored in parliamentary democracy".

"What is being attempted on Jawaharlal Nehru by some forces in our country is not based on objective scholarship or critical inquiry," Gandhi said.

"It is based on innuendo, insinuation and falsehood, on self-serving political intent aimed at character assassination," she said during the annual Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture.

Gandhi is the chairperson of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund which organised the annual lecture delivered by British author Judith Brown.

Speaking in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh Nov 15, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi criticised Rahul Gandhi, saying: "The shehzada (Rahul Gandhi) had come here and was talking about changing the system.

"In the first place, he should know that the system was made by his father (Rajiv Gandhi), his grandmother (Indira Gandhi) and great grandfather (Jawaharlal Nehru) for 60 years during their rule."

Sonia Gandhi said, "those who malign him (Nehru) reject his vision of an India celebrating its many diversities while strengthening the bonds of its unity".

"Those who castigate him, oblivious of the larger political and historical context of his times, reject his vision of an India in which the state is the catalyst for socio-economic transformation," she said.