In the beginning of the 20th year of the 21st Century, it is being increasingly felt that it is time for the intelligentsia to acknowledge the fact that India had committed some pieces of grave blunder by concentrating more on global peace, instead of domestic and foreign policies, and national interests, in the first 17 years after its Independence (in 1947). The Government under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did not take notably major steps to alleviate poverty, but thought about liberation of oppressed people in Asia and Africa! While doing so, India seemingly had documented some policies based on fantasy!
The first Prime Minister of India had unjustly dismissed the world’s only elected Communist Government (in southern Province of Kerala under E M S Namboodripad in 1957) in the name of Socialism, and adopted the Soviet concept of Command Economy. The outcome was not so good for the South Asian nation, as such a move gave birth to ‘Licence Raj‘ (or the ‘Rule of Licence‘) and in a way encouraged bureaucrats to get corrupted! Pandit Nehru had also invited experts from the US and the UK to help his Government in making some structural cosmetic reforms in the administrative and tax systems!

Pandit Nehru

During the Freedom Movement, Pandit Nehru had reportedly described the ‘Indian Civil Service‘ (ICS) as a symbol of British colonial oppression. He even accepted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s proposal to change the name of the ICS during the Transfer of Power. However, he followed the same old structure and method of the Civil Service after becoming the PM! Thus, he detached the Bureaucracy from People, and allowed corrupt business leaders to influence the Government policies…
The Nehru Government’s wrong policies made it difficult for the Indian industrialists to achieve their targets. On the contrary, India created State Capitalism by taking loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In the name of Socialism, Pandit Nehru’s Government built a structure that could exploit the poor people. And, his daughter Indira Gandhi, the only female Prime Minister of India, further strengthened that structure! Her decision to nationalise banks, the official name of which was ‘Bad loan & non-performing assets‘, destabilised the Indian economy. The Indian economy still feels the pain, as the moves made in the late 1970s flooded the Indian market with ‘Black Money‘, rather money-not-accounted-for! And, India became ‘Asia’s Brazil‘ or ‘Argentina‘… although the GDP has increased in the last four decades, the poverty, too, has increased!

Indira Gandhi

The Nehruvian concept of Secularism was his another remarkable invention! Any modern State was bound to be Secular in the second half of the 20th Century, and the Uniform Civil Code was the prerequisite for Secularism and Democracy. Dr B R Ambedkar and (first Indian) President Babu Rajendra Prasad were in favour of the Uniform Civil Code. However, Pandit Nehru seemingly forced President Rajendra Prasad to sign the Hindu Code Bill, stating that otherwise, he would resign. On that day, the then Indian president did not want to sign the Bill! Nehru’s grandchild and 6th Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi had set a new benchmark of Secularism by criticising the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Shah Bano Case (1985). Major political parties in India are still playing the religious card in the name of Secularism.

Rajiv Gandhi

India’s biggest asset is its people, and the greatest danger to its Unity and Solidarity lies in its political outfits. The politicians might have considered people as fools… however, people can change the equation at any time. One should not forget that History repeats itself!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das