A Toast to the Man who put India center stage as the largest democracy in the world

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 leading globally respected leader of his times – without resort to gimmickry of first names and jaddo ki jhappies.

Perhaps his achievement was possible because of  his acknowledgement of the talents of colleagues to best effect; Ambedkar’s steering of the Constitution, Sardar’s uniting of the Princes, Nehru’s pushing forward, building consensuses, and free democratic elections that wielded India into a modern democratic India, that would not have been possible on Gandhian policies alone.


A Toast to the Man who put India center stage as the largest democracy in the world!! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deepika Vs Madhuri

The music channels are full of the  “Deewani Mastani” song. It takes one back Madhuri Dixit’s so many kg ghagra kothawali dance in Devdas.  Pet obsession? Chitpavan women would never be caught in public watching such a performance, as Priyanka Chopra is seen, with perhaps the most authentic expressions crossing her face as she looks on at the interplay between Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone. Deepika, in   her pale gold avatar in a net outfit reminiscent of flamenco dancers, with many   co-dancers, seems to inhabit the same Madhuri  space.   She dances in a huge ornate space, more European than Peshwai in design.    Peshwai architecture was noted for its long, perhaps narrow halls and tall distinctively fluted and carved wooden columns based on stone to prevent damp and   insect damage --- all topped with intricately carved wood ceilings and all polished black in color.   Noted examples are the Mastani resurrected palace at ...
Read more

A New Mastani

MASTANI is  unique book in that it is India’s first historical novel that offers its readers two endings, diagrammatically opposed to each other;  the second one  plugs all the holes left in the story of Mastani left by traditional renderings of the myths and legends that surround the second wife of Peshwa Baji Rao I, widely accepted as India’s answer to Napoleon Bonaparte as a unbeaten general.  Congratulations are due to Mr. Kapish Mehra of Rupa Publications for allowing this to happen. As a history buff, every reading of Maratha history left me bewildered at the steadfastness of historians in never failing to mention Mastani as leading influence in Baji Rao’s life; and then leaving that mention as a single sentence or paragraph without any elaboration of such a ‘towering’ personality, so to speak. Hence the research that went on and on and on to explode all the myths and legends that surround Mastani, to expose her tragedy, her true character and her royal...
Read more

A UNIFORM CIVIL CODE?

This was first published on Jan-2007.   How much has the situation changed? What is this Uniform civil Code? Is it possible? Reasonable? Soon after Independence, Hindu inheritance laws were codified to give weightage to the females of the family. Later others ‘favoring’ women have been added. Despite this codification, dowry continues. Daughters’ inheritance remains as dicey as when the Christian community battled for those rights in the Courts.
 Meanwhile daughters have already been made as responsible for upkeep of aged parents as their brothers. Would the promulgation of a Uniform civil Code push the conservative elements off center stage and allow women their rights? Much of the focus has been on the "plight" of Muslim divorcees, especially victims of talaq, talaq, talaq. In that community, the order of male relatives who must support the woman has been laid down. Whether they do so or not, is another matter altogether. 
But what of our Hindu women, rejected by ...
Read more