Nehru, the archictech of modern India

Nehru being the first PM would naturally be he pioneer where public sector and many other nation building steps were concerned. However, Nehru in fact was a dreamer and a romantic person not suited to be a leader of strength - his closeness of Madame Mountbatten was instrumental in the partition of the country which is a well known fact and later too because of his indecisiveness he created the Kashmir issue which has exploded now.He also brought in the psuedo secularism which has only gone on create unrest and communalism in our country. One can go on listing his shortcomings but with all that he did try to the best he could uder the circumstances which amounted to very little anyway...Public sectors have been white elephants bleeding the nation and we have been constantly in debt with the world bank which has been writing off our debts year after year..

Nehru being the first PM would naturally be he pioneer where public sector and many other nation building steps were concerned. However, Nehru in fact was a dreamer and a romantic person not suited to be a leader of strength - his closeness of Madame Mountbatten was instrumental in the partition of the country which is a well known fact and later too because of his indecisiveness he created the Kashmir issue which has exploded now.He also brought in the psuedo secularism which has only gone on create unrest and communalism in our country. One can go on listing his shortcomings but with all that he did try to the best he could uder the circumstances which amounted to very little anyway...Public sectors have been white elephants bleeding the nation and we have been constantly in debt with the world bank which has been writing off our debts year after year..

Nehru being the first PM would naturally be he pioneer where public sector and many other nation building steps were concerned. However, Nehru in fact was a dreamer and a romantic person not suited to be a leader of strength - his closeness of Madame Mountbatten was instrumental in the partition of the country which is a well known fact and later too because of his indecisiveness he created the Kashmir issue which has exploded now.He also brought in the psuedo secularism which has only gone on create unrest and communalism in our country. One can go on listing his shortcomings but with all that he did try to the best he could uder the circumstances which amounted to very little anyway...Public sectors have been white elephants bleeding the nation and we have been constantly in debt with the world bank which has been writing off our debts year after year..

Couldn't have put myself any better than this! Nehru's followers will certainly not like this one bit, but they need to analyse the truth to understand this reality!

It is height of ridiculousness to say that country's partition took place because of Nehru's relation with Madam Mountbatten. It took place because Muslims rightly or wrongly believed that in a democratic India with one person one vote they would never come to power as a religious group because of Hindu majority and therefore under leadership of Jinnah succeeded in forming a Muslim majority Pakistan. The process of Pakistan's formation took many years and was finalised between Congress, Muslim league and British in 1946. What has Madam M got to with all this is not understandable.

The Kashmir issue arose because the Maharaja of Kashmir did not exercise his right of either joining India or Pakistan but chose to remain independent on 15 August 1947 thus giving birth to a new nation. When Pakis attacked him, under fear of losing his kingdom to them he turned to India for saving him. India refused to help unless he acceded which he did but under special terms which are now known as Article 370. In fact it is on record that Sardar wanted to allow J&K to go to Pakistan as the majority population was Muslim, similar to what he did to bring into India Hyderabad and Junagadh.

Secularism means not taking decisions based on one's religion and keeping it and politics separate. Was it wrong on Nehru's part to introduce it.If later on and present day politicians are anti secular because of narrow political gains why must Nehru be blamed. It is like blaming a grandfather because the grandson is not following the right lessons he should have inherited.

Please go to the share market and see the capitalisation of public sector companies. When in 1947 the private sector lacked capital and foreigners did not give loans to them was the decision to accelerate industrial growth via public sector taken. At no point was private sector stopped from growing/expanding.

Will someone tell us in the past five years what are the amount of Indian debts written off by the world bank, year after year? 

Being dreamer and romantic is far more respectable than being ignorant and victim of vicious propaganda. It is clear, for many, history of India has began only in mid 2014 !!!

It is not fair to say that Nehru did not understand rural people. Someone else says he did not understand neighboring countries. Yet someone says he did not understand economics and investment.For someone who wrote "Discovery of India" these type of comments indicate a calculated indifference and inability to understand Nehru the person. He belonged to a cultured family and was an educated person who loved his country and its people so much that he fought for its freedom w/o knowing that he will become its PM one day unlike today's leaders who fight only for chair. If some of us for ideological reasons find it difficult to accept him let us at least not try to find whimsical reasons for the immense love then Indians showered on him.

 

 

Who wanted secularism once this country was divided based on religion? If certain politicians said so they said it in their own interest for vote politics. We are paying in the name of secularism while they have declared themselves as Muslim countries where Hindus have no place.   

It is a well known fact that India is among the top 25 loan defaulters in the world owing over 170 billion dollars to world bank(s)..

http://finmin.nic.in/reports/ind_ext_debt.asp

As far as economic growth is concerned it started with Janatha Government which opened up private sectors and later it was under P V Narsimha Rao that the economic growth got a real push with Manmohan Singh as the FM...But the same Manmohan Singh had to become mum, and take a back seat when he became a puppet PM under Sonia....This has been trhe one tradition faithfully followed by Nehru and his family - make Congressmen and the nation dance to their tunes , no matter how wrong or inefficient they were and are !!!

Kashmir issue, had it been handled right by Nehru, probably would never have become this bad. It is his poor judgment and lack of vision that has led to many such steps because of which the entire nation has had to suffer until now...

Nehru, as much as he was scholar and an idealist, he too was as flawed as any other individual. While we do respect his certain qualities and principles, it is no use denying that he was a perfect human being and a flawless administrator, which he was not. Here is a link which is an eye opener of sorts.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/coverage/myindia-myvote/chunk-ht-ui-myindiamyvote-homepage-topstories/sardar-patel-jawaharlal-nehru-viewed-secularism-differently/sp-article10-1152546.aspx

It is not right to say that India is a defaulter in World Bank loans. It shows lack of understanding of WB financing. It is currently financing infrastructure projects in India. The chief function of WB is to provide financial liquidity to developing and emerging economies and the loans are on very long time periods. Incidentally India is a founder member of WB and IMF and has a assured share in loan disbursements. Wrong statements that India is a top defaulter in the world is simply laughable and what Nehru has got to with it is not understandable.

Kashmir problem is the sole creation of the then Maharaja of Kashmir who wanted to become an independent nation and in the process lost his kingdom to both India and Pakistan. SARDAR WANTED TO GIVE AWAY J&K TO PAKISTAN but Nehru was against it. Now it goes against him.

Nehru did not start a dynasty. He was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri. After his unfortunate death it was the old leaders who propelled Indira to become PM. It is they who should be blamed and not Nehru. 

There is no denying the fact that Nehru was not a perfect man and did commit errors of judgement. Are only his errors to be constantly remembered - unless one belongs to a particular ideology.

It seems that because a neighbor has declared itself a Muslim nation therefore India should also do so and declare itself a HIndu nation.By doing so we will create a Hindu Pakistan -- is that agreeable?

Secularism is a noble concept which requires a mature society to nourish it. 

Indians live in a false world of secularism without knowing real meaning of it. for them secularism means vote bank politics and nothing more. Secularism in fact means no interference of religion  not even mention of religion in politics. In India when one talks about secularism it means votes of a particular community. 

India which has an external debt of over 300 billion dollars is certainly no laughing matter, of course Congress party and its supporters may try and dilute the situation since it shows them in a bad light, bur truth has to be faced that we are steeped in debt because of wrong policies adopted by the previous governments since the time we got independence.Congress also institutionalised corruption which ate away into the nations reserves plunging the country deeper into debt if we decide the gloss over the facts , then we have only ourselves to blame...

Neither is it a crying matter. India's annual budget is around Rs 16 lakh crores equivalent to 266 billion dollars. The reference quoted earlier on by the BJP supporter at its last para say as as follows ;

Multilateral sources continue to dominate India’s sovereign external debt and Japan remains the single largest bilateral creditor. A substantial portion of sovereign external debt is denominated in SDRs mainly on account of borrowings from IDA, as well as inclusion of ‘IMF Credits’ in the country’s external debt liabilities since 2004-05. The composition of multilateral sovereign borrowing is undergoing a transformation with increase in the share of IBRD and ADB over the last few years. This implies lesser access to loans on concessional terms in the coming years, especially with terms on IDA borrowings beginning to harden. This carries implications for future debt service payments under Government Account; but remains at manageable levels as per projections for the same up to 2023-24.

The above report is presented by BJP govt.current and they do not have a problem. The connection with external debt and Nehru is not clear. I would like to make it clear that I am not a Congress supporter nor a BJP basher. I go by facts and do not look at them as Congress and BJP. One has a right to dislike an ideology and a party but in constantly condemning them facts should not be twisted. The handling of India's economy since 1947 is praised by global economists as we have never busted nor have our banks defaulted or financial institutions let us down.We may have progressed slowly but have done so commensurate with our resources, abilities, and a sense of justice. Corruption arises because of greed and in developing/emerging economies is high because people are relatively more poor.These are universal phenomenons as they are connected with human nature. Yes political corruption needs to be condemned. What is connection between Nehru and corruption.

One would enjoy factual debates and discussions rather than seeing every thing as Congress and BJP and twisting facts to score brownie points.  

Nehrus flip flop policies which lacked direction was the root cause of economic probloems that India faced and is till facing. We are not self sufficinet even after 67 years of independence...I am not sure who these global economists are who have praised Nehrus policies...

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-why-jawaharlal-nehru-is-the-root-cause-of-indias-economic-troubles-1564479

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=1fq8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=nehrus+wrong+economic+policies&source=bl&ots=h610NA926Q&sig=FipGtXUJbknVOkHhK5FxOItnMYk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RnmAVL3DAsuMuATsoIGYBQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=nehrus%20wrong%20economic%20policies&f=false

Poor Nehru could do nothing right. He was PM for 17 years. All mistakes of next 50 years are ascribed to  him. It is no use informing that no country in the world is self sufficient. It is an impossible economic dream not worthy of attempting. What are the economic problems that India is facing? Even USA is in recession since 2008 so should they blame George Washington?

Any development will bring about both direct and indirect benefits.  Let us understand that some superb Public Sector Undertakings like BHEL were the products of the superb Vision of Nehru.

Let us take BHEL, Tiruchirapalli.  The number of direct employees, even today, is around ten thousand.  Those who are indirectly employed would not be less than thirty thousand.  And then one has to count the number of educational institutions - the schools or the colleges or the specialized colleges -- that have come up, mainly because of BHEL.  There is a huge amount of knowledge sharing between BHEL and the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, which is not so far away. 

Why did the private sector captains not invest in huge enterprises at that time?  Yes, they are not keen.

Now, come back to the BHEL story.  This single enterprise feeds sixty thousand families, if one counts the number of shops and establishments in the city and in the surrounding areas.  So, there has been development, and some of this has actually impacted the rural people in the areas in and around the BHEL plant.  One can go on giving such examples. 

NLC, which supplies electricity is another example.  We need to go back in time and then talk about Nehru.  What about our present day politicians who are so corrupt?  Nehru was a true leader, the kind of whom the country is not likely to see for decades to come.

The PSU's today are being used to earn revenues by offloading 5% and above of govt's holdings in the share market. 5% of SAIL has netted Rs 1800 crores. Poor Nehru what did he do ?

Nehru was nowhere in the picture when SAIl was incorporated by merging 5 steel plants in the seventies and SAIl was a loss making company for most of its,It is showing marginal profits only since a few years now. No doubt that it it among the 30 largest steel companies in the world ranking either 23rd or 26th worldwide.

I remember the shares were priced at Rs 4 in late 1990's and rose to 200 only once after NDA came to power...Then it was back to stagnate between Rs 65 - 85 until now.It is a good idea to sell it off since it brings in better revenues for the government than running all of it...They shd do so with all PSUs. Compare the share price with tata steel and one can see how efficient or rather inefficient our PSUs are.Incidentally ,Infosys shares worth 50 paise in 1995 is today worth over Rs 2000 ..the same is the case with almost all private sector companies..

PSU's were required to carry many social burdens which private sector is not burdened with. In the 1950's till about 1980's the Indian economy was developing from a least developed stage to the present emerging stage.In this stage it is very essential that government acts as a catalyst even for industrial growth.The decision to set up PSU's was taken because the then private sector was financially very weak and could not raise capital for setting up basic industries like steel, needed for a developing country like ours. Those days foreign govt's gave financial aid only to govt's and not private sector nor there were financial availability mechanisms existing as today. Looking to low purchasing power of people those days artificially low prices were kept and these also made PSU's look less profitable or go into loss.However they have withstood test of time and today are successfully competing with private sector in almost all cases. It is not at all fair to judge the events of a bygone era wearing the spectacles of today. The decisions of each era should be evaluated in the environment they were taken. Otherwise there will be a serious judgemental mismatch leading to perennial pessimism and condemnation and development of misplaced biases.

Nehru was more a dreamer than an architect . After inheriting the devastated India after independence, Nehru started thinking about the ways to bring glory to India without thinking the feasibilities of his plans. That's why many of his thoughts could not take shape.

Nehru nourished India immediately after 1947 and today we are a vibrant democracy. In absence of a viable private sector he went for establishing PSU's, majority of which are flourishing today and helped India achieve industrial development. He established IIT's and IIm's and CSIR labs which have brought laurel to the country and in the first two institutions getting admission is one of the toughest in the world. He supported Homi Bhabha to establish a viable program in Atomic energy and India today is a nuclear power. His policy of non alignment during the period of cold war saw more than 100 countries form a neutral but powerful bloc and served its global utility in those times. One can go on. But there are many who only see Nehru as a failure and delight in making abstract statements with no proof to back up.Yes like any other leader some of his initiatives did not achieve desired results, that is normal after all no man is god. Time his detractors softened their hard attitude unless they are also part of an ongoing agenda.

I agree. Though some of his thoughts and plans failed to takeoff. Nobody can deny his sincerity to make India a global power.