While at school I had heard of Nehru rolling a clutch of rupees and lighting them as a cigar to prove to British that he was as rich as they are. That his clothes were sent from Eton to India for washing and pressing. My mother said that I was lucky to receive a garland Nehru threw when she carried me as an infant to look at his motorcade in Madurai. I was impressed. He was the best bet to impress the world in British style, I had imagined.
Nehru’s oft quoted tryst with destiny is often lauded without understanding the substance behind it. Rhetory excites. For a person educated in the west, supposedly groomed by Mahatma and taking over the reigns of an independent India, tryst with destiny sounds ideal but fatalistic.
On independence, Indians were euphoric. But that was all. There was no striving to build a strong India. Happy and content. PM Nehru despite his education in capitalistic Britain was impressed by the Soviet model of economy. Mahalanobis became his guide. The five year plans were launched with the idea of raise per capita income through industrialisation. And industrialise through heavy industry public sector. Gross error was that it didn’t focus on job creation and per capita income improved by a negligible 1.7 %. Nehru admirers claim this as a success as India had stagnated since 1900 & India was ahead of China in the gdp (Which is a bluff ) while the inflation was hovering many times more.
The problem was Nehru lived by his dreams. Easily distracted by anything he never concealed his short temper even on public platforms. Irritable, pleasure speaking man. Gab was enough to makeup for guts. There was no fiscal prudence. Brits used the excuse of Nehru’s indiscipline on finance by claiming that he was responsible for the anarchy that set in. Rupee was sinking and debts mounting. How many remember the infamous PL 480? It was handy for the defensive British that the then Governor of RBI complained that Nehru was running through sterling balances as if there was no tomorrow. Pitfalls of a rich man leading a poor nation.
How many knew that Nehru requested for not lowering of the Union Jack when the Indian flag was raised on the Indian soil? That he toasted with the British monarchy even after 11 years in jail. Spectator called Sashi Tharoor’s bluffs and said Congress was a Collaborationist Movement with the Colonial British. Distracted, Nehru failed to understand the economic needs of India. Sadly, his daughter Indira was worse than him.
The 1970s saw a growth of about one percent. Secularism was incorporated into the constitution. Banks nationalised we were told to serve the poor. Serve they did but not the poor with service nonexistent. PSUs began floundering and were used by politicians to curry favours. Poor India which earlier supported the British with their sweat, blood and taxes received the same treatment from the Indian National Congress. During her period the income tax reached record 90+% . Reason: Poor need to be taken care of. Poorer they remained.
India is now paying to sustain the PSUs. While China leap frogged, even now attempts are on by propaganda to keep Indians as frogs in the well by the change that has been ushered in recently.
Making any system accountable including bureaucracy and judiciary will certainly bring in backlashes. Corruption and easy money can’t build a nation and India has forgotten the scars inflicted by the British. And the Emergency.
Sadly the British thought it was their right to maim India and felt they were doing Indians a favour. So does the dynasty of Nehrus which believes that come what May Indians don’t deserve better governance and they are doing India a favour by scams, subterfuge. We need to change India’s tryst with destiny into a battle with challenges.
Remember Dr Radhakrishnan’s words on Congress “Credulity and negligence marks Congress rule”. Even Nehru in one of his rare introspection’s later had confessed that “We have been reliving in an unreal world of our own creation”. Time for Indians to wake up and understand the credible from the credulous.
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