Nehru Era And Bharat’s Missed Opportunities by R.Chandra Prakash

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of free India. His tenure continued unabated between 1950 and 1964, for nearly fourteen years with successful massive victories in the elections. During his entire tenure Nehru enjoyed unprecedented popularity among the people.  Several felicitous events in Nehru’s lifetime had helped in building up his political image and power.

Gandhi’s open unfair preference to Nehru  over more meritorious Congressmen, which  has already been detailed, was substantially responsible for generating such an extraordinary public sentiments. During the independence movement this had also given Nehru a commanding influence of several decades on  the Indian National Congress [INC]. 

Early demise of many stalwart colleagues contemporaries like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhai Patel,  Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Shymaprasad Mukherji and many others, helped Nehru to exercise more or less a dictatorial powers during his entire tenure. 

Development Policy – Failed Modernization

Nehru’s economic development policy was to create a modern welfare state with Socialism and Secularism as its main planks. For this the  focus was to be on poverty, unemployment, industrialization, agricultural growth and infrastructural development. All these were to be achieved through centralized planning. Though modeled on Soviet state planning mechanism, the political system to control economic functioning  was parliamentary democracy. Nehru evolved Non-alignment as a foreign policy for an independent India. This was to get developmental support from countries with different ideologies.

First Five Year Plan focused on agricultural development. Whereas the second Five Year Plan on Industrial development. The Third Five Year Plan was a balanced economic plan covering not only agriculture and industry but also tertiary sectors.

During the year 1956 several policy decisions with far reaching changes in Education, Industrial, Banking, Mining, Transport, Insurance and Trading were carried out. And a series of nationalization of existing private enterprises were carried out in many of these sectors, and several new Public sector units were established in important technologies to further these business activities. 

Nehru’s drive for economic development and modernization through the state apparatus which was molded during the colonial period could not meet objectives and targets. Lack of trust in the private economic initiative, which was the  innate strength of Bharat, only resulted in enlarged dreams, enhanced demands and all-round shortages. Consequently, the collapsing administrative and political structures generated all-round corruption and  distortions.

Further, the State Reorganization on the linguistic bases changed the socio-political geography of the  post independence India. How far this has been beneficial to Bharat is a matter of debate. Because, at one end of this spectrum if the country’s cultural moorings seem to  have been strengthened, at the other end it cannot be ignored that it has also created sharp regional-linguistic tensions and divisions.  Best examples  are: division of Punjab and Haryana; the way Andhra Pradesh was created, and the way it got further divided into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, even though Telagu is the language of both the states!  

Idealism sans Pragmatism

Nehru’s idealistic penchant for secularism lead to many constitutional amendments and policy pronouncements during this era. Emphasis on secularism ignored the fact that country was divided on communal grounds and Pakistan was created for those who wanted an Islamic state. A genocide of gigantic proportion, might not be lesser than Nazi massacre of the Jews, had taken place. Under these highly tragic circumstances, a newly minted independent Bharat, needed a pragmatist, and not an idealist. 

Consequently, during the post-independence the entire emphasis has been on one-sided secular policies endangering the Bharat’s heritage and innate cultural ethos. Kashmiri Pandits’ exodus from Kashmir during 1998 stands testimony to such unrealistic national policies. 

A glimpse of economic disaster during the Nehruvian economics has already been provided. But it is the political bankruptcy etched deeply into the psychology of a nascent nation which has continued to cause irreparable damage to Bharat.  

Because,  Nehruvian Era did not end with the demise of Nehru.

Nehruvian Era - Instituted Political Dynasty 

Nehru did not facilitate other leaders in Congress to take over after him. With the demise of all his seniors and equals, Congress gradually became his fiefdom. Finally, Nehru’s successor was none other than his daughter Indira Gandhi. She was fully trained under Nehru and she only furthered Nehruvian Era. With graver political consequences to the nation. Only marginal difference was that she carried a surname of ‘Gandhi’.

Interestingly, her husband’s name was Feroze Jehangir Ghandhy. However, having been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi,  Feroze had changed the spelling of his surname from Ghandy to Gandhi]. Such innocuous act has played  diabolic political consequences in the Indian politics. It provided Indira Gandhi a powerful political hallow of both Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, two stalwarts of country’s independence movement.

Further, it helped in perpetuating family’s stronghold over the Indian National Congress. On the hindsight  it is clear that Congress became a weaker political party with every succeeding Nehru-Gandhi heir gaining control over it. During her own regime, INC was divided multiple times like Congress(O) and Congress (R), later on as Congress(I) and so on. With weakened Congress Nehru-Gandhi domination in country’s politics grew stronger.

Thus, political nepotism began with Indira Gandhi coming to power after Nehru. And due to her assassination, the emotionally weakened political atmosphere launched her son Rajeev Gandhi on to the Prime Minister’s post. It must be noted that he was not into active politics. After Rajeev’s unfortunate assassination his widow Antoio maino, of foreign origin,  [later on renames as Sonia Gandhi] took charge of the Congress Party, and by 2004 she was a very dominant controlling figure of the party. 

Sonia Gandhi practically would have taken charge as the Prime Minister in 2004, but for the mysterious reasons  she preferred not to and nominated Dr.Manmohan Singh instead. Interestingly, soon it became an open secret that it was Sonia Gandhi who  was functioning as  the de-facto Prime Minister,  whereas Dr.Manmohan Singh was only a  de-jure Prime Minister! [The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjay Baru (2014). Author was his Media Advisor between 2004-2008].

Ever since 2004 fourth generation Nehru-Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi has been seen taking very active part in the country’s politics. In 2014   it was rumored that he would be anointed with the family’s fiefdom – the Prime Minister’s post. Again in 2019, and 2024 similar noises were heard,  but the public has thought better of it. Finally, in 2024 he is the Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha. 

Just a few weeks ago another Nehru-Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka Vadra Gandhi has entered the political arena as a member of Lok Sabha.!

Therefore, the saga of independent  India has been the story of four generation Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. So much for the democratic values of Nehruvian Era. 

Slogans Replace Philosophy

Since Indira Gandhi’s period slogans have replaced political philosophy. At the end of 1977, she was such a dominating figure in Indian politics that Congress party president D. K. Barooah had coined the phrase "India is Indira and Indira is India."

Soon after Indira Gandhi took over as the Prime Minister of India, she resorted to announcing economic programs of mass  appeasement such as nationalization of private banks, abolition of Privy Purse constitutionally promised to erstwhile Rajas and Maharajas. Soon she announced Garibi Hatao, a slogan as a state policy. This only confirmed that entire Nehruvian Era had  only resulted in enhancing poverty! But the emotive power of such actions and slogans were benumbing on the masses who not only forgot past policy  failures, but started to believe in their newer slogans. 

So much so, her grandson’s slogan today is “Jis ki Jitni Aabaadi, Uski Utni Bhagidari”, based on demand for and promise to carry out Caste Census. Lebanon had followed a similar policy based on religions, today it is a shattered country, overtaken by once a marginal Islamic race as soon as it gained comfortable share in the population. But Congress party and leaders are least bothered about the history lessons. They can go to any extent to regain the seat of Prime Minister.

My Way or Highway

Economic failures during Congress regimes have created only created poverty and masses who are susceptible to money and short-term benefits. Congress party has been continuously failing to retain its nationalistic position with repeated failures at the national elections. 

From the theatrics of fourth generation Rahul Gandhi since 2014, both inside and outside the Parliament, one can only conclude that now Congress believes that the Gandhi Family’s ‘sacrifices’ justifies its entitlement to the post of Prime Minister. No one else can occupy that post.  Hence for Nehru clan it is My Way or the Highway!

Missed Opportunities

On the hindsight it becomes clear that elongated Nehruvian Era has overlooked the intrinsic values and strength of Bharat. Its policies has been anti-Bharat, anti-Heritage, and anti-Hindu. A peep into the economic explosion soon after Dr.Manmohan Singh’s liberal economic policies in 1990 and thereafter exposes our losses during Nehru Era. 

The way Bharat provided solutions for much feared and challenging computer problems, popularly referred to as Y2K error to the world in 2000,  the way Bharat has gained world position in computer software technology and services since then, the way Bangaluru became a world’s second Silicon Valley, and more so the tempo of overall growth during Modii’s regime since 2014 raising from the tenth position to 5th position in the world GDP ranking all speak about opportunity lost during entire Nehru Era. Nehru Era for the Bharat,  is similar to a tragic Polio attack to a child.