Remembering Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi
November 14, 1889 was the day and year India’s first prime minister was born; his daughter Indira, India’s third prime minister was born on 19 November 1917. Father and daughter guided India through the turbulent early decades of its Independence when it faced existential challenges. Many observers in Britain and America were sceptical of the country’s ability to survive. The prevailing wisdom in the West was that India was unsuited to democracy and lacked the steel to surmount the vicissitudes of multiple ethnicities, faiths and the babble of tongues. These people weren’t convinced that Nehru was the right man to be at the helm, but Mahatma Gandhi, a superb judge of character, thought otherwise. Early on in Nehru’s career, Gandhi said: “Those who know [our] relations know that he being in the [presidential] chair [of the Indian National Congress] is as good as my being in it….In bravery he is not to be surpassed. Who can excel him in the love of the country…..He is pure as crystal, he is truthful beyond suspicion.” This expression of faith from the Father of the Nation was justified in the fullness of time. Rabindranath Tagore described Nehru as “Rituraj” [Lord of the Seasons]. The burden of expectation he carried he carried was exceeded only by the burdens of office.
The surgery of India’s Partition took its toll in human lives and weakened the fabric of society. Chaos and uncertainty had drained national confidence. This was compounded by the Pakistan-sponsored Pathan invasion of the Kashmir valley within two months of Independence. This and other crises were surmounted by Nehru and his lifelong comrade Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who, alas, died in December 1950, having performed the yeoman service of forging the Indian Union from a patchwork of princely states. In his next 15 years in office, Nehru helped fashion the democratic platform of the Indian state based on the rule of law and buttressed by a secular Constitution whose architect was the Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar. India’s first general election was held in 1952 on the basis of universal adult franchise. It was a daunting exercise for a poor country with a largely illiterate population, but this leap of faith has been amply justified by history. Under Nehru’s direction the Indian economy was released from its colonial fetters and the foundations were laid for industrialization. That economic management has inevitably had to undergo reforms to bring into kilter with the needs of a changing domestic and global economic environment. It is significant that such reforms were only possible because there was something substantial in place that could be reformed. Industrial development could only be sustained in the long-term by science and technology and Nehru’s visionary investment in science under the guidance of a distinguished scientist, Dr Homi Bhabha, has paid off wonderfully well. Nehru’s foreign policy of nonalignment in the Cold War was designed to preserve India’s strategic autonomy. It has been justified by international events. Along the way, mistakes were made, which was inevitable given the uncharted nature of the journey. But India today is stronger than it has been in two millennia, and it will surely grow stronger with the passage of time.
Indira Gandhi built on the platform bequeathed by her father. She kept true to his policy of investing and encouraging India’s scientific endeavours. Her finest hour was undoubtedly the courage and resolution she displayed in facing up to the military challenge of the Pakistan dictatorship, backed by the Nixon-Kissinger duo in Washington acting in concert with their newly found allies in Beijing, Chairman Mao Dzedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. They aimed to contain India within the Subcontinent. To counter this, Indira Gandhi played the Russian card, and India triumphed. None of her failings, including the emergency, can obscure Mrs Gandhi’s historic achievement. A grateful nation has much cause to remember a remarkable man and his remarkable daughter.
Message of the US Congressional elections
The much hyped mid-term US Congressional elections are over. The results as predicted by numerous opinion polls ended with a swing to the Republican party now controls both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Barack Obama is likely to be a lame-duck President for his remaining two years in office. His poll ratings, already low at 40 per cent, are poised to plumb the depths. Congress gets an all-time low rating of 15 per cent The cost of these was the largest ever at $4 billion. President Obama’s domestic legislation is likely to be stalled; on foreign affairs he will face less opposition since America’s overseas record under his administration has borne a strong likeness to that of the previous Bush administration. George W. Bush reduced Iraq to a desolation, President Obama, with ISIL aid, has made it a nightmare. The adjoining state of Syria is a parallel nightmare, with contending jihadi groups jostling for power. The entire region is plagued by anarchy, by death and destruction. President Obama, meanwhile, has compounded this dismal record with massive surveillance measures of ordinary American citizens, citizens and leaders of other countries like the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s telephoned was tapped by America’s top spying agency, she promptly cancelled her state visit to Washington. The United States is now a national security state. Its political class has two solutions to every foreign crisis: send in the Marines or bomb. The looming spectre of a Third World War has every chance of becoming a reality. The dysfunctional American political system is in desperate of an overhaul. The two-party state on the ground is a one-party state with two factions, one Republican, the other Democrat, in other words, of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The low voter turnout is clear evidence of the American public’s loss of faith in the political system. An infusion of independent candidates and those belonging to a multitude of parties seeking to break the mould with enlightened domestic and foreign policies should be given their head rather than ignored, as they presently are, by the mainstream media. Time is running out for America. Everyday gun crime continues to rise, the widening black-white racial divide grows ever wider, a crumbling infrastructure needs urgent attention and money, even as defence spending keeps moving upward. A sick society needs a healing and compassionate touch, not the barrel of a gun, the warhead of a missile or a hovering Drone. The blowback from past American follies is taking a heavy toll in lives and property. How long can failed American policies be repackaged and sold to a gullible public? Now is the time for change.
Salute to a brave girl
Anoyara Khatun was a full 13 year-old when she led an army of children across a canal in a Sunderbans district of West Bengal and nailed a child trafficker whose victim was destined to be sold for a bogus marriage. She has till now foiled 85 trafficking attempts and helped rescue and reunite 200 children torn from their families. Anoyara is not one to waste time and effort on bureaucratic inertia. She believes in direct action. Time was when she and her compatriots waylaid the state education minister, Kanti Biswas, who was on tour, and forced him out of his car to accede to their demand for more schools in the area. Today, they have 84 schools. Militant feminism of such tender years can surmount obstacles that appear immovable to some of their seniors. Now a bright 18 Anoyara Khatun’s work has created waves at home and abroad. Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousefzai has opened a fund in her name to promote education among deprived girls. Anoyara has received a grant to help her extend her activities. It all began when 13 year-old Anoyara was trafficked to Delhi and escaped after a year of this hell. Her experience drove her to do the work she has been doing ever since. She is one of four siblings born into a poor family. When her father died, her mother took work as a cook in a local school. Anoyara Khatun is reluctant to dwell on her unhappy past. It is the present and future she likes talking about. A lively, pretty young woman of 18, her enthusiasm is infectious and inspiring. A local newspaper carried a feature on her and her work. Restoring missing children to their families is her passion. More power to her elbow.
