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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The Gandhi and J. Nehru’s fiasco called Independent India

The Gandhi and J. Nehru’s fiasco called Independent India
                                           Or
By hero worshipping Mahathma Gandhi and J.Nehru we have retarded our economic developmental agenda by at least half a century.


The article by P.P.Hegde is very interesting[1]

Here is my rejoinder

There is something known as Burr’s Law: You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, and that’s sufficient.


There is also other techniques like brain washing, propaganda etc all the more easier when operated through a popular figure whom people are willing to believe and follow as a flock of sheep and/or through mediums/subjects which are of common interest to the people in that particular period of time.

This is not unique to India but all over the world. Allowing certain preferred images and conditioning to prejudice our perception or even the very perception being carried on through a prism of such preferred images and conditioning.

I am not passing any judgment but placing on record my observation of facts.

Outward show of humility, simplicity, generosity and religious affiliation were hot cakes of 1940s. It is like Pizzas/cokes/jeans of present day or promotion of any of them by popular stars like a Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh, Rajnikanth etc .

Certain personalities realize consciously this weakness of the masses and capitalize them or use them occasionally. Even they [personalities] start it off as an intentional hypocritical tool imbued with artificial posturing [sometimes justifying it as a part of necessary grooming/identification etc] but gradually for some of them it becomes a second nature and then it becomes their very nature and priority or preoccupation.

This is actually a natural hormonal aberration in adolescents. Normal human beings grow out of it but public figures do not because they are subconsciously aware of the fact that they are the cynosure and therefore presume that  they have to necessarily carry out certain image make- over physically, psychologically, sociologically etc.

So, we had stories of J.Nehru’s father donating things making J.Nehru seated on one side of the balance and provisions on the other.

We had pages and pages of Gandhi’s religious ways of life, strict austerities that he was observing much greater than the sages, his reading of Bhagawath Geetha etc. All said and done Gandhi had lot of great qualities as an extraordinary human being unlike J.Nehru.

But we Indians more than any other nationality have a peculiar weakness at least to a very great degree compared to others, that is, we view, review , judge, analyze, criticize, love etc personalities for  irrelevant reasons, though this is prevalent all over the world, we end up forgetting the main role of those personalities.

If it is M.S. Subhulakshmi we start admiring her Diamond earrings and silk sarees, nothing wrong in that, but we end up discussing only about her Diamond earrings and silk sarees forgetting that M.S. Subhulakshmi is primarily a caranatic vocalist. I can go on and on with examples in all walks of life. Even last year during music season this stupidity was accorded importance by The Hindu newspaper.[2]
Herd mentality, some 20 years back one Shankaracharya said it is auspicious to wear green color sarees in that particular year [ probably he was trying to be secular in selection of color or some weaver at kancheepuram must have had excessive stock of green fabric].Many women cutting across caste, religion etc were buying crazily green colored sarees

Coming to the subject of Gandhi and Nehru, there is hardly any record anywhere of their skills or achievements in Governance, Administration, Economic development etc which are the most vital qualities/aspects/concerns of any political leader of any civilized society /country/nation state at least after 1930s.

But for leaders of tribes, clans, religions, sects etc these things are not required as they are propelled by different parameters.


So going by the normal standards of matured political leadership with at least those three primary requirements namely Governance, Administration, Economic development etc neither Mahathma Gandhi nor J. Nehru can be termed as leaders and in fact hero worshiping them and thereby pushing aside others who were immensely qualified and capable we have retarded our economic developmental agenda, failed to prioritize modern methods of governance, failed to develop region specific/relevant administrative models etc by at least half a century .

In the early 90s a sane leader outside of the Nehru clan who was allowed to rule for a full term of five years called P.V.Narasimha Rao showed us what real modern leadership is but then by opting for Nehru clan/tribe again from 2004 we have set our progress on rewind mode.


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