Leave Panditji, Patel alone, get down to work
Tara Saxena
Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, both doyens of the freedom struggle and great leaders of the Indian National Congress, worked hand in hand to make India a strong nation — politically, morally, scientifically, technologically and democratically. They tried to transform India, which was steeped in poverty, superstition and chaos, into a modern self-reliant nation.
To try to create a wedge between Nehru and Patel is sheer madness. This trend is unnecessarily poisoning today’s younger generation. They have no understanding of the India of those times and the contribution of both in building a strong India that was left by the British in total disarray.
The reality is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should now concentrate on the agenda of development. He should pick up the thread where Nehru left. I feel Modi, who was born in 1950, witnessed the China war debacle as a 12-year-old as a frustrating experience. So he is rabidly against Nehru. I feel the Congress has come to this sorry state of affairs by drifting away from Nehru. I was very impressed by Indira Gandhi when in 1969, she nationalised banks and stopped privy purses and showed an uncanny skill during the Bangladesh war. I had worked a lot in those days for the Congress. Even a person of the stature of Atal Bihari Vajpayee had showered praise on her. But, in 1975, after the Allahabad High Court judgment, she displayed a dictatorial tendency and slapped Emergency. Later, in 1977, she tried to legitimise her reign by holding elections. I remember the CID people coming to me and asking about the fate of the Congress. I told them bluntly how the “Congressi” won’t be allowed to even enter villages. Indira and the Congress were mauled like anything. The Janata Party leaders were mostly individualistic and nurtured high personal ambitions to rule a country as vast as India; none of them could sustain their positions. Once again, Indira Gandhi returned to power. Unfortunately, when she died, another holocaust came in our country due to the petty leaders of the Congress and we witnessed the ghastly crime of Sikh genocide. My colleagues and I at least did not allow this to happen in Rewari and saved the Sikhs and their properties from hooligans and held a peace march in the city. Modi has a vision which was missing during the Sonia-Manmohan Singh era (UPA-II). It was full of scams. The last straw was a statement by Manmohan Singh that the minorities have the first right on the resources of our country. Instead of saying that all Indians have equal rights to our country’s resources irrespective of caste, creed or religion, he gave a foolish statement. The party got a sound bashing in 2014. Why I endorse Pandit Nehru’s ideology is because he worked for national integration, social justice, secularism, a democratic way of life (dissent is the essence of it), international understanding and a scientific approach to the problems in our society. Knowingly or unknowingly, Modi is trying to give the same direction to our great country, but is not able to contain some of his followers who are bent upon fuelling religious bigotry. All right-thinking, democratic people condemn the bad phases in Congress regimes. But what is really disturbing is the lynching of a man based on rumours. This incident is indicative of “mobocracy” and nothing else. This anarchy and lawlessness should have been condemned by the Prime Minister and no one would then have tried to do what all followed because of his silence and irresponsible statements by his colleagues. To attribute a dynastic impression about Sonia, Congress or Rahul is uncalled for. They actually do not represent Nehru anymore. I wonder if either of them has even read Nehru’s Discovery of India or Glimpses of World History. They are trying to make a ridiculous attempt to grab power by trying to fish in troubled waters. People are still hopeful of Modi, who has to take the plunge and contain the obscurantist outfits like the RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena, etc. He should work for inculcating a scientific and democratic temperament. The slogan that nothing has happened in the last 68 years is a travesty of facts. We could not have reached the moon in a few months’ time. Progress would not have occurred without the institutions set up by Nehru and the new generation is enjoying these fruits. Modi has to address the problems of employment and development. On one hand we have schools without teachers, and on the other millions of educated unemployed. On one hand we have unmanned dispensaries and on the other, medical graduates roaming around. He cannot sit idle on religious bigotry anymore.
The writer, a Rewari-based doctor, did her MBBS in 1954.
