thanks-to-bjp-congress-remembers-nehru

Had it not been for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s relentless criticism of first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress might well have forgotten him long ago. As the BJP continues to glorify Nehru’s deputy Sardar Patel as the “greatest leader” of the post-independent India and trying to side-line and even malign Nehru, the Congress, in recent past, has not done anything to remember his great services and contribution to the nation.

 

Except for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who off and on recalls Nehru’s great contribution towards building the modern democratic, progressive and prosperous India, no other party leader does that. Even the heir apparent to the Congress throne Rahul Gandhi or his sister Priyanka rarely mention Nehru in the speeches. Nehru is their great-grandfather and they owe everything to him. They mostly mention Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar for obvious and understandable reasons.

 

The BJP’s stance towards Pandit Nehru is well known. The party seeks to blame him for every ill the country is facing. The party for obvious reasons does not give him any credit for the strong democratic foundation he laid down for the country on which the world's largest democratic edifice stands today. Not just democracy, the industrial trajectory Nehru had put India on, also helped the country to grow. Although Nehru remained a socialist to the core, he did encourage private industry as well.

 

Besides, globally recognised and acknowledged institutions like the IITs, IIMs and other scientific institutions Nehru set up, have provided India an edge in expanding and exporting its soft power to the world. The Indian dominance in the Silicon Valley owes much to the IITs, which produced the best engineers who made their mark in a country like the US.

 

Nehru’s achievements are too many. Among his greatest achievements are not just building the strong democratic foundation for the country, but also saving it from falling to communism like most of the East European countries. In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a great traction for Communism, particularly among the developing countries. He strongly resisted the Communist temptations. He did not succumb to capitalism either. Instead, Nehru wanted to build a ‘socialist’ model, something that most of the European countries have adopted today and even New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has promised to do in capitalist America.

 

Nehru is often wrongly faulted for having mishandled Kashmir. In fact, it is the other way round. It was mainly because of Nehru that popular Kashmiri leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah opted for a secular India instead of an Islamic Pakistan, despite him being a Muslim and Kashmir being a Muslim majority area. It was actually the ambitious Maharaja Hari Singh, who was fiddling with the idea of remaining independent, which is the root cause of the Kashmir problem.

 

As regards Nehru having gone to the United Nations and having “internationalised” the Kashmir issue, he did not have any other option that time. Pakistan had illegally occupied a large part of Kashmir, which it continues till today, even after the State of Jammu and Kashmir had legally acceded with India. The UN was the only forum available for India that time. If the UN took a hostile position, that cannot be held against Nehru.

 

There can be no bigger proof that when it came to choosing between national interest and personal friendship, Nehru chose the former. For him, the nation always came first. When after six years of accession, Sheikh reportedly started fiddling with the idea of an “independent Kashmir”, Nehru took no time to sack him and put him behind bars.

 

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The BJP really does not owe anything to Nehru that it should praise or glorify him. Being ideologically opposed to Nehru, it has every reason to be critical of him. However, decency demands that criticism must be fair and based on facts, which is not the case here. Leaving aside acknowledging Nehru’s contribution, the BJP leadership has been accusing him of the things he didn’t do.

 

But what is the compulsion for the Congress to completely ignore Nehru? In fact, the Congress should be proud of Nehru’s great and glorious legacy. India owes so much to Nehru from institutionalising democracy, developing scientific temperament, ushering in industrial and agricultural progress, elevating people from poverty and a lot more. Nehru even used to criticise himself anonymously through newspaper articles.

 

Nehru was a towering national leader of international repute. His great legacy belongs to the entire nation. Those who relentlessly try to malign him must learn from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. When the Janata Party government was formed in 1977 and Vajpayee became the Foreign Minister, he noticed that Nehru’s portrait, which used to hang in the South Block, was missing. This had been apparently done by some overenthusiastic bureaucrats, who had in order to please and appease the new political dispensation, removed all portraits of the Congress leaders, including that of Nehru from Central government offices.

 

Vajpayee took strong exception to it and ordered that Nehru’s portrait be restored and placed there again. He later mentioned it himself during a Parliament debate while emphasising the importance of respecting the legacy of the nation while rising above partisan prejudices or preferences. Something that needs to be followed today.

 

As far the “Congress of today” goes, forgetting Nehru and replacing him with Dr Ambedkar is understandable. Nehru may not be able to get a single vote for the party today, Ambedkar indeed can and that explains the party forgetting one of its few greatest leaders.

 

The credit indeed goes to the BJP that forces the Congress to remember Nehru and defend him also. Otherwise, the Congress has never been proactive in cherishing the great contribution of Nehru towards nation building. “Ambedkar’s Constitution”, that Rahul Gandhi often flashes during his speeches, is “as much that of Nehru as that of Ambedkar, if not more.” Lest we forget.