Viewpoint

NEHRU'S RELEVANCE - Capt. Praveen Davar

Shri H.Y. Sharada Prasad deserves kudos for The Relevance of Chachaism (The Editorial Page, Asian Age, July 7). He has rightly summed up the four salient points which the Sangh Parivar and anti-Nehruites hold against Nehru who was not only India’s greatest Prime Minister, but also one of the greatest statesman of the 20th century. But the writer has not provided the answers to the four points which, in my opinion, are the following :

	NEW DELHI: The President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on 5 July appointed Governors for Gujarat, Goa, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. A senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, Shri Nawal Kishore Sharma, is the Governor of Gujarat; the former Nagaland Chief Minister, Shri S.C. Jamir, will be the Governor of Goa; Shri A.R. Kidwai, a former Bihar Governor and now Rajya Sabha member, will take up the responsibility in Haryana; and the former Intelligence Bureau chief and former Governor, Shri T.V. Rajeshwar, will be the Uttar Pradesh Governor. Lt. Gen. M.M. Lakhera (Retd.), Chairman of the AICC Ex-Servicemen Cell, has been appointed the Governor of Pondicherry. "The appointments will take effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices," a Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqué said. (From top to bottom: Shri A.R. Kidwai, Lt. Gen. M. M. Lakhera, Shri Nawal Kishore Sharma, Shri S.C.Jamir & Shri T.V. Rajeshwar

1. It is Nehru’s vision of secular India that has ensured that the country remains united and does not disintegrate on ground of caste and religion. Despite Ayodhya, Godhra, Gujarat and hundreds of communal riots master-minded by the Sangh Parivar, our country has remained one as Nehru’s secularism has taken deep roots. Nehru never pampered to the minorities. In fact, he always condemned and fought against both majority and minority communalism. However, as the Hindus are in a majority, he wanted them to show greater magnanimity and spirit of accommodation.

2. But for Jawaharlal Nehru, Kashmir would never have been a part of India. The people of Kashmir led by Sheikh Abdullah consented to Kashmir’s accession to India as they felt that their Kashmiriyat would be safe in Nehru’s secular India rather than in Jinnah’s theocratic Pakistan. It was Nehru’s government which took prompt action to throw out the invaders from J&K. It was again Nehru’s brilliant strategy that prevented Kargil and Zojila Pass from falling into Pakistan’s hands thus securing Ladakh’s destiny with India. Only that part of Kashmir was lost where Sheikh Abdullah had no hold over the people, and ceasefire was the right decision, jointly taken by Nehru and Patel to which Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Maulana Azad also consented.

3. It was Nehru’s foreign policy and his concept of non-alignment which ensured that India, despite being a poor country, enjoyed high prestige in the comity of nations. It was due to his tall international stature that India, in the formative years of its independence, received aid worth billions of dollars not only from Soviet Russia, but also from US, UK, France, Germany and many other countries. Nehru’s popularity in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe has not been surpassed by any world leader before or after him.

4. At a time when the private sector did not have resources to invest in infrastructure and large scale industrial projects, it was Nehru’s concept of "mixed economy" which was the only option for a newly independent nation marching on the path of development and self-reliance. The country took gigantic strides in areas of science and technology, atomic and space research, industrial development, irrigation and farm output, not seen in any other country within a relative period. It is not for nothing that Nehru was known as the "Architect of Modern India." So loved and adored was he by the people of India, that "anti-incumbency" never existed when he was Prime Minister for 17 years.