Relevance of Nehru today

    19-Nov-2019
 Dr Priyadarshni M Gangte
Contd from previous issue
Now as we turn towards the North-East of India, particularly the Naga issue, it may be equated with that of Kashmir. It was generally considered that the opportunity to settle the
Naga problem once and for all came when the Prime Ministers of India and Burma, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and UNu respectively visited Kohima on March 30, 1953. But the then Deputy Commissioner of Kohima, for reasons best known to him, did not allow the Nagas to submit a Memorandum to the visiting Prime Ministers. The several thousand Nagas gathered at the venue to receive the VIPs turned and left the ground enmass when they learned they were not to make themselves heard before the Prime Ministers. Visibly disappointed with humiliation Nehru was reported to have murmured to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, that he would never visit Nagaland again in his life-time, and so did he live thus till he breathed his last, shelving all possible solution of the Naga problem till date.
Conclusion: And thus his relevance today is best said in the words of Reid Escott12 (Envoy to Nehru
: 1952:57) 1981, Oxford University Press, Canadian High Commissioner to India which runs as follows :
“He will become even more conscious of his place in the history of India and of the world. He must already know that he will be ranked with India’s two great rulers of the  last 2500 years, Ashok and Akbar, that if India succeeds he will be called the Creator of
Modern India, and that whatever happens, he will go down in history as one of the great men of the world…”.
Nehru was a vanguard for social change. He needed peace for development. He had therefore made no compromise on nuclear armament despite India’s deep concern of the Chinese threat to its frontiers. His worst fear had come true. Sino India relationships had never dived during his lifetime. India had been subjected to aggressive Chinese intrusions in NEFA and other areas. India’s friendship stood shattered. Pained as he was he never recovered from that set back and we lost him, his statesmanship and the dynamism that his policies had displayed. Relevance of Nehruvian policies remained much longer after he has died. His progenies carried on with his policies in frontiers of education, industries and foreign policy.
His daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi displayed Nehruvian acumen in politics and in understanding the needs of the country. However, all said and done about Nehru’s ideology at the end we cannot but conclude that some of the nagging problems like that of Kashmir and Sino-Indian relations have been the gifts of his prolonged inactive policies. In order to gain international accolades for being projected as apostles of peace Nehru had compromised India’s interests for which several times questions had been raised in the Parliament. The other aspect was that of corruption. Though he was against corruption of his colleagues he sheltered them and sometimes interfered in the process of law to save them. This soft-pedaling made politicians of different times to follow more and more corrupt ways in public life. His soft attitudes had created more problems than solving them. This was a bare to our society. Today we are more corrupt because of the relevance of his policies.