Kusum Choppra

For those who slept through history, some happy memories of Progress: seeing our grandmas enjoy a ripe old age, from radio to TV, color TV, STD booths, then Internet and mobiles. Now Aadhar. Gadgets came along with grain surpluses, milk and eggs; goodies like Metro, Autobahn, IIM, IIT, AIMMS,   low cost airlines, etc.    Now Made in China has replaced made in India, which only assembles. Our educated masses of young people have caste certificates, speak broken English, have no job skills.   Lakhs of science students know all about some branch of science, but nothing of the humanities through which to glimpse at humanity. Bas degree hai, mere paas naukri kyon nahi hai?   Usko kyon diya? Mujhe kyon nahi?    Boom, boom, boom .. unemployment figures zoom.   Is rioting and stone throwing   as easy and profitable   as selling pakoras? Earlier educated classes, even collegians talked and debated, exchanged notes in a civilized fashi...

It’s neither May nor November, yet suddenly Jawarharlal Nehru is being recalled. Perhaps memories triggered by the calumny poured over him and his descendants. Why forget the Other PMs of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri – the short man with a long shadow,   Gulzarilal Nanda, I K Gujral, Morarji Desai – first Gujju PM, Charan Singh, V P Singh, Chandrashekhar – once reputed to be in the kitchen cabinet now on the other side of the fence, Deve Gowda – first PM aghast at Davos, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Narasimha Rao—who actually began solid economics reforms and Manmohan Singh?     The only names with recall are Indira, Rajiv, and Namo & Co. Nehru was very much a man of his times, when socialism was on its way up.   His successors veered towards License Raj, chucked out in phases by Narasimha Rao …. now seeking a new Nom d’Plume. Democratic enough to listen, plead, cajole, bully, bargain to maintain the unity of democratic India, earned Nehru kudos as a le...