Lets go one at a time :
1. Jawaharlal Nehru :
Nehru and his illicit love affair with Lady Mountbatten which got us into the whole Kashmir mess, as her husband, Lord Mountbatten very cleverly used her to convince Nehru, to approach the United Nations, which was itself at a nascent stage, for resolving the tribal invasion of Kashmir in 1949. And see, where it has led us to. Kashmir is a violence-torn state, with most of it not in our occupation any more.
Nehru and his illicit love affair with Lady Mountbatten which got us into the whole Kashmir mess, as her husband, Lord Mountbatten very cleverly used her to convince Nehru, to approach the United Nations, which was itself at a nascent stage, for resolving the tribal invasion of Kashmir in 1949. And see, where it has led us to. Kashmir is a violence-torn state, with most of it not in our occupation any more.
Too close for comfort? : Nehru with the MountbattensAnd who can forget the 'Hindi-chinii' bhai-bhai (*coughs*) slogan which had been glorified during his time. A naive PM, who couldn't see it coming that the country he was trying to make his 'Rakhi-brother', attacked us in 1961, thousands dying in the process and now occupies over thousands of Sq. km of Indian territory
Pakistan, which has a turbulent relationship with India after the Indian Partition, improved its relations with China after our war with China. Prior to the war, Pakistan also shared a disputed boundary with China, and had proposed to India that the two countries adopt a common defense against "northern" enemies (i.e. China), which was rejected by India. However, China and Pakistan took steps to peacefully negotiate their shared boundaries with Pakistan, beginning autumn 1962, and concluding in December of that year. Ever since, Pakistan and China have been united in their Cold War against India.
I think I would be disagreeing with most people, when I would say that even without Nehru we would have gotten our freedom. And probably would have been better off, with say a Sardar Patel as our PM then. Had Gandhi not pushed the post for his student (Nehru), Patel would have been the appropriate choice for the post.
Pakistan, which has a turbulent relationship with India after the Indian Partition, improved its relations with China after our war with China. Prior to the war, Pakistan also shared a disputed boundary with China, and had proposed to India that the two countries adopt a common defense against "northern" enemies (i.e. China), which was rejected by India. However, China and Pakistan took steps to peacefully negotiate their shared boundaries with Pakistan, beginning autumn 1962, and concluding in December of that year. Ever since, Pakistan and China have been united in their Cold War against India.
I think I would be disagreeing with most people, when I would say that even without Nehru we would have gotten our freedom. And probably would have been better off, with say a Sardar Patel as our PM then. Had Gandhi not pushed the post for his student (Nehru), Patel would have been the appropriate choice for the post.
Mentor & Mentee : Gandhi with NehruBeing fair to Nehru though, his intentions were alright and he was an honorable man like the thousands of others who died for our freedom, but his governance was at best a train-wreck. Most of the International and security problems we face even today, can be put on the decisions and mismanagement done at that time by Nehru. His statesman like charm could not compensate for the lack of foresight and inability to control things; many believe that is the cause of the start of corruption and mishandling by the Government at that nascent stage itself.
2. Indira Gandhi :
A woman power-hungry and rife with corruption; would have been unmatched in both these traits, had Jayalalitha and Mayawati not come along. Her transformation of India into an almost autocratic governance, was something which would have made even her father turn in his grave.
The Jan Sangh movement, followed by the Emergency declaration, and finally Operation Blue Star, is what comes to my mind first when I think of her time.
In 1975, the High Court of Allahabad declared Gandhi's election invalid on the grounds of corrupt practices. Technically, this constituted election fraud, and the court thus ordered her to be removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. This decision had the effect of removing her from office. Gandhi appealed the decision; the opposition parties rallied en masse, calling for her resignation. Strikes by unions and protest rallies paralyzed life in many states. A huge rally surrounded the Parliament building and Gandhi's residence in Delhi, demanding her to behave responsibly and resign.
Gandhi advised the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency, claiming that the strikes and rallies were creating a state of 'internal disturbance'. Ahmed being a longtime political ally, gladly obliged. Even before the Emergency Proclamation was ratified by Parliament, Gandhi on the night of June 26, 1975 moved to put an end to any and all opposition to order the arrest of all her principal opposition, including those within the Congress Parliamentary Party. Many of these were men who had first been jailed by the British in the 1930s and 1940s.
Within a few months, President's Rule was imposed on the two non-Congress (party)-ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu thereby bringing the entire country under direct dictatorial rule from Delhi. Police were granted powers to impose curfews and infinitely detain citizens, while all publications were subjected to substantial censorship by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The Jan Sangh movement, followed by the Emergency declaration, and finally Operation Blue Star, is what comes to my mind first when I think of her time.
In 1975, the High Court of Allahabad declared Gandhi's election invalid on the grounds of corrupt practices. Technically, this constituted election fraud, and the court thus ordered her to be removed from her seat in Parliament and banned from running in elections for six years. This decision had the effect of removing her from office. Gandhi appealed the decision; the opposition parties rallied en masse, calling for her resignation. Strikes by unions and protest rallies paralyzed life in many states. A huge rally surrounded the Parliament building and Gandhi's residence in Delhi, demanding her to behave responsibly and resign.
Gandhi advised the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency, claiming that the strikes and rallies were creating a state of 'internal disturbance'. Ahmed being a longtime political ally, gladly obliged. Even before the Emergency Proclamation was ratified by Parliament, Gandhi on the night of June 26, 1975 moved to put an end to any and all opposition to order the arrest of all her principal opposition, including those within the Congress Parliamentary Party. Many of these were men who had first been jailed by the British in the 1930s and 1940s.
Within a few months, President's Rule was imposed on the two non-Congress (party)-ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu thereby bringing the entire country under direct dictatorial rule from Delhi. Police were granted powers to impose curfews and infinitely detain citizens, while all publications were subjected to substantial censorship by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Before the imposition of the emergency, it is believed that the Gandhi asked for the Army's support in the venture, but General Raina(Chief of Army) bluntly told the Prime Minister that the army would not be used to 'further her ends' but obey only those orders of a 'legally construed government.' . This was considered a crucial moment that kept the Indian Army out of politics at a critical juncture; a key difference between India and Pakistan.
At the peak of the Khalistan movement, the leader of the Sikh religious group, was arrested in Amritsar, but was released twenty-five days later due to lack of evidence. After his release, he relocated himself from his headquarters within the Golden Temple precincts. Gandhi and president Zail Singh ordered the Army to the Golden Temple to remove the militants. In response to the alleged desecration of the Golden Temple, two of Indira Gandhi's own Sikh bodyguards, assassinated her with machine guns in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi.
At the peak of the Khalistan movement, the leader of the Sikh religious group, was arrested in Amritsar, but was released twenty-five days later due to lack of evidence. After his release, he relocated himself from his headquarters within the Golden Temple precincts. Gandhi and president Zail Singh ordered the Army to the Golden Temple to remove the militants. In response to the alleged desecration of the Golden Temple, two of Indira Gandhi's own Sikh bodyguards, assassinated her with machine guns in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi.
Smiling Buddha : Indira at Pokhran Nuclear Test siteThough, on the other hand, she was one of the few strong PMs we have had (atleast pre-1977), and she did lead us to a convincing victory in 1971 and made us a nuclear-weapon nation. The initial success of Green Revolution too could be attributed to her. But, the internal harms she caused has ever since, still remains a dark chapter in our country's post-independence history.
3. Sanjay Gandhi
In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Cabinet proposed the production of a "people's car" - a cheap, affordable and efficient indigenous machine that middle-class citizens could afford. While Sanjay had no experience, design proposal or tie-ins with any corporation, he was awarded the contract and the exclusive production license. Maruti Udyog, today India's premier automobile manufacturing corporation, was founded by Sanjay Gandhi. Public perception turned against Sanjay, and the government to be perceived as full of corruption.
He seemed to have been the real PM for Indira Gandhi from around 1974 onwards, and one of the biggest influence on her for implementing the Emergency. Rife with corruption himself, he seemed to have inherited the power-craze from his mother; calling all the shots in the Government and abusing all of them as well.
In 1976, Sanjay Gandhi launched a drive to cleanse the city of slums and force their residents to leave the capital. Sanjay reportedly ordered officials of the Delhi Development Authority, headed by his associate Jagmohan, to clear the heavily populated, mostly Muslim slum, near the Turkmen Gate and Jama Masjid in Delhi, forcibly destroying thousands of ramshackle ugly huts, which left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and thousands killed, and led to the permanent ghettoization of the nation's capital.
Sanjay also publicly initiated a widespread family planning program, his "vision" for a contained population growth and a nation without crowding. But this resulted in government officials and police officers forcibly performing vasectomies and in some cases, sterilizing women as well. Officially, men with two children or more had to voluntarily submit to this, but many unmarried young men, political opponents and ignorant, poor men were also believed to have been sterilized. This program is still remembered and criticized in India, and is blamed for creating a public aversion to family planning, which hampered Government programmes for decades.
He seemed to have been the real PM for Indira Gandhi from around 1974 onwards, and one of the biggest influence on her for implementing the Emergency. Rife with corruption himself, he seemed to have inherited the power-craze from his mother; calling all the shots in the Government and abusing all of them as well.
In 1976, Sanjay Gandhi launched a drive to cleanse the city of slums and force their residents to leave the capital. Sanjay reportedly ordered officials of the Delhi Development Authority, headed by his associate Jagmohan, to clear the heavily populated, mostly Muslim slum, near the Turkmen Gate and Jama Masjid in Delhi, forcibly destroying thousands of ramshackle ugly huts, which left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and thousands killed, and led to the permanent ghettoization of the nation's capital.
Sanjay also publicly initiated a widespread family planning program, his "vision" for a contained population growth and a nation without crowding. But this resulted in government officials and police officers forcibly performing vasectomies and in some cases, sterilizing women as well. Officially, men with two children or more had to voluntarily submit to this, but many unmarried young men, political opponents and ignorant, poor men were also believed to have been sterilized. This program is still remembered and criticized in India, and is blamed for creating a public aversion to family planning, which hampered Government programmes for decades.
Sanjay's stunning wife(Maneka - a model; actually came dressed in a Bombay-Dyeing towel in an Ad in those days) and mother-in-law, like leeches sucking off the royalty name, were despised by Indira.
Some blame Sanjay for the kind of negative and destructive effect he had on his mother, and how he used his emotional control for getting things done, often not in the best interest of the country. She was obviously unhappy with the state of things happening around her, both personally and professionally as her power slipped out, but had no choice.
Then, Sanjay Gandhi died in a freak plane crash at his flying club (soft death for someone so notorious, I believe). Though, her reaction was astonishing when she didn't even think twice before throwing out her son's widow and her grandson(Varun Gandhi), barely a week after the death of her son.
Some blame Sanjay for the kind of negative and destructive effect he had on his mother, and how he used his emotional control for getting things done, often not in the best interest of the country. She was obviously unhappy with the state of things happening around her, both personally and professionally as her power slipped out, but had no choice.
Then, Sanjay Gandhi died in a freak plane crash at his flying club (soft death for someone so notorious, I believe). Though, her reaction was astonishing when she didn't even think twice before throwing out her son's widow and her grandson(Varun Gandhi), barely a week after the death of her son.
Maneka, Varun and Maneka Gandhi at Sanjay's funeral
4 comments:
pretty interesting stuff... call it my ignorance but with the exception of the forced sterilisation campaign I didnt know a lot of details about Sanjay Gandhi...I always thought of him as a strong leader who dared to take some strong measures, cuz of that reason I've always had a positive image of him, also because now all we see of him is his widow doing all that good work and the son who maintains a low profile unlike his cousins
good going.. eagerly waiting for part 2 of this post :)
this was a very interesting post. it triggered a wiki-ing spree which led me to read more about Jinnah, which I must say, is also very interesting to read about.
I am looking forward to your post on Rajiv Gandhi.
Well, Maneka (Sanjay's widow) is no cow (being such an animal lover); she has a very notorious history; and probably I would have thought of covering her; had she not been so inconsequential and pointless in the broader picture.
Varun, I see as potential, but I guess keeping a low-profile is never a good thing in politics; so doubts cast on how far he would really go if he were to continue like this.
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