A thousand lies can’t dwarf the giant Nehru was

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

Former Chief Minister, Haryana

Today is the day when Jawaharlal Nehru left us in 1964. He was so much in our lives that it was hard to dispel from our minds the fact that he was no more.

Whenever I see the Bhakra Canal and the green fields of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, which were barren sand dunes barely 58 years ago, I reverently remember Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Along with Nehru, I remember my father Ch Ranbir Singh, who was the Irrigation and Power Minister of Punjab, when Nehru dedicated the Bhakra Dam project to the nation on October 22, 1963. As a 16-year-old, I had accompanied my father to the inauguration. I also recollect how diligently and dedicatedly Nehru evinced personal interest in the completion of Bhakra project and made his team, including my father and the team of engineers, work day and night. As Prime Minister, he visited the project 13 times and even signed the Panchsheel agreement with the Chinese Prime Minister at the site of the Bhakra project. Needless to say that this transformed the lives and livelihoods of millions of half-starved people in this regard.

Likewise, several big hydroelectric projects on major rivers of the country were built during his tenure as the Prime Minister. When India became independent, millions of its people were dying of hunger and the nation was struggling to survive on ship-to-mouth conditions. Nehru who had great empathy with his people, famously said, “Everything can wait but not agriculture.” Heavy investments were made in irrigation projects, technological research, fertilisers and agri infrastructure that paved the way for the Green Revolution in the country. Lal Bahadur Shastri, known as the alter ego of Nehru, gave more impetus to this policy and changed the image of India from the holder of a begging bowl to a self-reliant and self-respecting country.

Nehru was essentially a nation- builder. If we assess the major achievements or successes of our country after Independence, we can unhesitatingly claim that it is a democratic polity. He was a passionate democrat. Everyone knows that he vehemently argued in the Constituent Assembly for universal adult suffrage, knowing full well that an overwhelming majority of his countrymen were poverty-stricken illiterates. He silenced his critics and cynical opponents with his emotionally powered arguments. He could do so because he had tremendous faith in his people.

Nehru respected dissent and believed that divergence of opinion, debates and discussions were integral to democracy. He was of a firm conviction that in a democracy, the majority has its way but the minority must have its say and not the ‘My way or the highway’ approach. Nehru included in his Cabinet stalwarts like Dr BR Ambedkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee and C. Rajagopalachari who did have views different from Nehru and founded their own separate political parties later. This was dubbed as the Team of Rivals. Yet, rising above his personal liking and in the larger interests of the country, he roped them in to utilise their talent for building the nation. He carried no rancour even against his bitter critics like Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and others, rather valued their views.

Thus he laid strong democratic traditions, processes and conventions on whose foundation our democratic institutions were built. Every Indian can feel proud that he built such a strong base of a resilient and vibrant democracy in the country that no attempt to dismantle it can succeed.

Nehru was indeed the architect of modern India. It was a most daunting task to build a nation from scratch. He was a votary of scientific socialism and helped the country to imbibe a scientific, secular temperament. He was a visionary statesman and established a concrete base for scientific and technological advancement of the country by establishing IITs, AIIMS and other premier institutions of study and research.

Nehru was a multifaceted and charismatic personality. Besides all, he was a warm human being and took personal care of his colleagues and friends. My father used to fondly recount an interesting anecdote about him. Someone told Nehruji that Pratap Singh Daulta, the first elected Communist Party MP from Jhajjar parliamentary constituency in Punjab (now Haryana), was a close relative of my father. Nehru was curious how a communist could win in Punjab, a comparatively prosperous state with no strong base for the Communist Party of India. When my father met Nehruji, he asked how Daulta was related to him. The fact was that Daulta was the brother of his real aunt. He humorously said, “My relation with him is that when Daulta had to get some work done, I would be his jija and when he had none, I would be his sala” (brother-in-law is the word in English for these relations). Nehruji burst into laughter.

No doubt, Nehru trode the political firmament like a colossus and shall remain so. No vicious propaganda against him can belittle his contribution to this country and a thousand lies cannot dwarf the giant that he was.

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