On 3rd August 1959, Y. B. Chavan, the Chief Minister of Bombay, told the Bombay Legislative Assembly that there was a Shri Jawahar Shakti Mandal at Dabhoda village in Ider Taluka of Sabarkanta District (now in Gujarat). This body of village folks was worshiping Jawaharlal Nehru as the 'tenth avatar'. This incident was reported by the PTI in its report published in 'The Tribune' on 5 August 1959.
Mahavir Tyagi might have shared the press clipping with Jawaharlal Nehru with a note suggesting that Nehru might issue a statement to the effect that he did not like the PTI news that the residents of a village in Bombay state worshipped Nehru as the “tenth avatar.”
On 5th August 1959, Nehru replied Tyagi as follows:
My dear Mahavir,
I got your note in Parliament today, with the Press clippings. All this is, of course, ridiculous nonsense, and I have written to the Chief Minister of Bombay accordingly and asked him to convey my message to these village folk. But I do not think it would be right for me to attach too much importance to it and issue a special statement.
In a Press Conference at New Delhi, on 7 August 1959, Nehru was asked:
We heard the other day that some people in Gujarat have put up a mandir and you are being worshipped as the tenth avatar. Are you happy about it?
To this, Nehru replied:
You see … Well I won’t say it (laughter). Really, why newspapers should give publicity to this kind of nonsense, I do not know. I might tell you that I wrote to the Chief Minister when I saw this and protested that this Government, which I thought was a progressive Government, should put up with this kind of things.
Note: Kalki is the prophesied tenth and final avatar of Lord Vishnu. According to Hindu cosmology, he will descend to Earth at the end of the current dark age (Kali Yuga) to destroy all evil, eradicate chaos, and restore cosmic order and virtue to the world.
For reference, see:
Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, Vol. 51.