'NEHRU
' --
TESTING TIMES
When I was young at the University of Allahabad being critical of Nehru was perhaps
fashionable among us , maybe we were idealistic, influenced by Gurudutt's 'Pyaasa
' and the immortal song 'Jinhe
naaz hai Hind par vo kahan hain?' (
where are those who are proud of India?
), maybe the left leanings were at work, maybe it was expected of students to be
critical of the ruling regime and its 'ideologues '. Later the prejudices were
discarded and a more balanced approach was taken to assess Nehru. Reading
habit, discussions, comparisons, age, experience multiple reasons, realism!
This
year on the 14th of November falls the
125th Birth Anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of India.
What struck me was the news item stating that in the newly constituted
committee for celebration of Nehru's anniversary there is no one representing the Gandhi
family ! meaning Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are not in the committee. I felt
good that that the Government is remembering its first Prime Minister though it
was odd for Mr Modi to not mention his name in his Independence day speech even
though he named other makers of modern
India. He mentioned him among the many Prime Ministers without naming him, he
also announced the burial of the Planning Commission which was initiated by
Nehru . I had found that strange and politically incorrect . Whatever the
difference in ideology, Nehru after all was the builder of modern India and
cannot be wished away . Many others felt so and commented that there is an
attempt to erase Nehru's name from the
public memory. However with the celebrations in place there seems to be some consideration toward his
contributions and memory ;to what extent and in what form
is yet to be seen.
The Congress party in general and the
Gandhi family in particular have not done justice to many Great leaders of the
party who fought for freedom and contributed toward Nation building and so the
anger of the people is directed toward
Nehru who has been the beneficiary of all the attention. Innumerable institutions
are in his name , but leaders such as Patel, Rajaji, Azad , Ambedkar ,
Shastri, Netaji and many others have not
been given proportionate attention and regard. The Party and the Family could
not ignore Mahatma but others they have. The actions have adversely affected
all the good work of Nehru, who is treated in the same category as Indira,
Rajiv, Sonia and now Rahul! Whereas Nehru belonged to the Nation and should
continue to do so. This was being stated recently by Ramchandra Guha the
eminent historian in a NDTV programme.
The Statue
of Sardar Patel
bigger than the statue of 'Liberty' being planned in Gujrat, the
contract of which has been bagged by the L&T Limited
is in my opinion a reaction , a
compensation to all those freedom fighters who have been ignored at the cost of
the Nehru-Gandhi family.
The
excesses of the Congress have made people skeptical and suspicious of the
achievements of Nehru as the youth and his other critics see it as mere propaganda and a
fair analysis is not done. Nehru was a multifarious personality and as many
have observed he would have been famous as a writer had he not achieved what he
did in politics . He was the star campaigner of the party in 1937 and 1942
elections in which the Congress participated. People loved him, therefore he
could not be curtailed by his competitors in the party. He was a Democrat and
of modern ideas and therefore during the freedom struggle leaders and people of the various sections of
the society could confer to him which includes, so called extremists such as
Chandrashekhar Azad, the minorities, the English , leaders of other Nations .
His organizational skills were known to
the older leaders and therefore he was General Secretary of the party to many
Presidents who were elected annually. He gave a balanced economy to the Nation
a mixed economy which was also accepted
by the capitalists at that time as they
needed big industries under the Government control to supplement them. He
contributed in the drafting of the
constitution and steered it in the Constituent Assembly. He did not compromise
on the question of 'Secular' principles and did not allow to impose Hindi
hurriedly otherwise this Nation would have been torn apart by sectarian
violence. He established the IITs, he initiated the 'Asian Games'. He gave thrust
to foreign affairs and made an impact in the world stage with his personality
and ideas. He started the 'Non Aligned' movement with Nasser and Tito. He was a
man of Science as well as Arts and gave impetus to atomic research. The list is
long.
His
failures are many too. Failure of J&K issue, the Chinese debacle, lack of
emphasis to primary education, being blind to
the flaws of some of his close aids such as his Defence Minister Krishna
Menon.
Therefore I am happy that he is out of the
safety of the Congress regime and out in the open and so his actions , success
and failure would be discussed without
any fear or favour, which would perhaps be his 'litmus test'. I am confident
that the new generation and all those who have not read him and are fed on the
popular perception would give him a fair hearing and a balanced verdict
