Just like every individual every country also has a destiny. And every destiny has a burden. And every burden has a cost. An integral burden of India’s destiny is the Nehru-Gandhi family. And the cost of this burden has been immense down the ages.
Nehru was a man in a hurry. He did indeed have “miles and miles to go before he slept”. In his eagerness to acquire a global stature he blundered many times at home. Nonetheless, something that he did fool proof and none of his peers (some like Sardar and Bose were with even better credentials) could was to institutionalize a process that would continue to anoint his heirs to the throne he would vacate.
To me the Nehru family is a big liability. A bigger liability is our mentality to let it stay at the helm of the country killing the essence of the democratic process. The country has returned to them much more than the sacrifice that they made. Game is being laid for Rahul to be the next prime-minister. Our current PM (a very learned man) is perpetually supplicating to the matron willing to bow out in favor of Rahul upon signal of the matronly Sonia.
Rahul is of course a very eligible prime ministerial candidate. He has now even lived in a dalit home and broken bread with them in all earnest. He is serious about becoming the PM. He has equated RSS to SIMI. He has always shown great understanding of this lands variegated culture, and now courtesy Wikileaks he has even shown great networking skills by sending an SMS to Obama that Hindu terror is a bigger threat than the perpetrators of 9/11.
The matron of course has on many occasions in the past given many positions of public power a go by as her primary objective is to see her son in saddle in a bid to preserve the dynasty than usurp power for herself. In fact, it is best to have authority without any accountability as she does. In India, Prime Ministerial berth can be manipulated. The democratic system shall not have the option to decide.
The politicians and even bureaucrats have this uncanny capability to dismember good institutions, even emasculate them and give political masters reasons and means to constrict any form of opposition.
I very clearly remember my mother tell me a story how Gen JN Chaudhary one of the best soliders that this country had, opposed Nehru (some people say JNC even threatened Nehru with house arrest) just out of disgust at the stupid decisions that he was taking in the context of both Pakistan and the China. Nehru with the support of Krishna Menon dismembered the institution of Joint Chief which threatened his unencumbered sway on the country.
Just about when the Indian forces got their act in order in JnK and started the process of recouping the land lost to Pakistan inch by inch, Nehru dug his heels and pulled the troops back. What a disaster!
Indira did make some gains at the Simla pact but failed to get LoC recognized as the international border despite the release of 90,000 prisioners of war. Again, Nehru despite internal and American warnings refused to see the irredentist designs of the Chinese in the Nefa.
Indira Gandhi clearly did integrate Nefa as Arunachal - first as a UT and then as a full fledged state - but the same could not be done with Kashmir. Again Nehru made a blunder of escalating Kashmir to the UN and agreeing to plebiscite.
Of course the integration of Arunanchal was much simpler, as the local population was not muslim. If NEFA had been predominantly muslim may be government would not have liked to integrate it. I think all governments work on the premise, probably unfounded, that Muslims are not Indians. Else how can hanging the joker who masterminded the Parliament blasts in which so many people were killed be construed to hurt muslim sentiments. Most quarters believe this to be the reason for the case to drag. I don’t speak for Muslims but I cannot imagine why their sentiment would be so sinfully parochial.
May be the signal intended is that no matter what you do, till you vote for us, we will turn a blind eye to what you do even if it is defiling the sanctum sanctorum of democracy – the Parliament. Of course, any group of citizens will like this special treatment, why only the Muslims. That the muslim brotherhood enjoys this and also uses to propagate the fear psychosis is another matter. But clearly one aberration that the muslims must rectify is their propensity to cast block vote. They must cast with their mind on not based on Fatwa.
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