NEHRU -- AN APPRAISAL ON HIS 57TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY

NEHRU -- AN APPRAISAL ON HIS 57TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY 

Yes, indeed. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was, along with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the young Turk of India's independence movement, its most progressive face at a time when the nation was in bud with ideologies struggling for a foothold in the emerging nation's polity. The twain worked for long in unison and were in close conference on issues pertinent to the politics of the day. The Planning Committee of 1938, whose idea and execution was Bose's, was headed by Nehru at Bose's request. Occasional differences notwithstanding, they carried ahead the progressive agenda of the Congress in tandem till matters came to a head post Tripuri. Nehru's non-commital betrayal of Bose's trust by his ditching him to gain Gandhiji's favour created a rift that even the highly civil and selfless Bose could not bridge, although, on paper he continued to be on affable terms with Panditji to the extent that he even named a brigade of his Indian National Army the 'Nehru Brigade'. When Netaji fatefully disappeared after 17 August, 1945 -- the day he was last photographed --, the mantle of governance by quirk of fate fell on Nehru. Those were turbulent, treacherous times and the country, freshly dismembered and devastated by civil war, was in ruins even before it had gathered its act together to set forth its first steps. Sardar Patel stood the strong man amidst this raging typhoon and integrated India but, alas, he was to pass away in 1950 when India needed him the most. Gandhiji had been assassinated in 1948, Netaji had disappeared in 1945, Rash Behari Bose was dead in 1945 and now Patel passed away in 1950. Detractors of Nehru quote these as being fortuitous which allowed Nehru preeminence and predominance in the polity. Whatever it be, Nehru now had to almost singlehandedly steer India through the early phase of India's freedom to secure democracy which was highly threatened in those initial years. A section of British politics had predicted the quick breakdown of the Indian federation but Nehru's stewardship averted such a precipitous fate for the emerging nation which went ahead from strength to strength on the firm foundation of sterling democratic institutions which Nehru built. His vision guided India through those dark days of diabolic devastation and placed India on a pedestal of which we should be proud of. There were colossal mistakes which Pandit Nehru made on account of his gentle nature and the complexity of the problems which required deft handling instead of brutish delivery. The consequence was Partition to begin with, Tibet, Kashmir and China. His mishandling of the first Indo-Pak War over Kashmir and the untimely calling of the ceasefire followed by UN involvement, his handing of undue Constitutional advantages to Kashmir arbitrarily which precipitated so much subsequent turmoil in the Valley till they began to envisage themselves as separate from the Indian Union, his quiet acceptance of China's sovereignty over Tibet, his indifference to Chinese occupation of Aksai Chin, his allowing Pakistan to occupy Balochistan and his monumental mishandling of the Northeast which led to India's humiliation in the Chinese aggression of 1962 and loss of territory in the Arunachal, all these do paint him as a leader of sublime flights of statesmanship in the global sphere and abysmal failure nearer to home in India's neighbourhood. The Non-aligned Movement which he co-founded, the general tenor of his foreign policy, enlightened, albeit internationally oriented instead of towards narrow nationalism, these were the luminous landmarks of Nehru's reign at a time when the Cold War was tearing the world apart through its secluded icy chill. You see, today undue emphasis is being laid on Nehru's failures just as undue glorification was made of his achievements earlier by successive Congress Governments at the Centre. What is now needed is a balanced assessment of Nehru's reign devoid of partisan outlook and prejudiced view thereof. So, get going to unravelling the truth by intense reading of the history of modern India.

Written by Sugata Bose