Nehru & the root of India's problems

Nehru

India was incredibly unlucky in the leadership she received in the immediate aftermath of Independence. Jawaharlal Nehru was a man with little experience of administration even at the purely municipal level, a rich man's only son who had never been confronted with the need to earn a living, leave alone to provide for a family.

In fact, the root of many -- some would say most -- of the problems we face today are thanks to decisions made by our first prime minister.

It was he who chose to refer the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, a decision he made against the advice of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. It was he who chose to stand by in silence as Communist China invaded Tibet (ironically invoking rights claimed by the emperors) in 1950.

On November 7, 1950, the Sardar wrote to Nehru to challenge the basic assumptions of his foreign policy. 'For the first time in centuries,' he warned, 'India's defence has to concentrate itself on two fronts simultaneously... In our calculations we shall now have to reckon, apart from Pakistan, with Communist China in the north and the northeast.'

But the Sardar was a dying man -- he would pass away a little over a month later -- and Nehru continued unfazed.

The last restraints on Nehru had been removed by the Sardar's death, and now the mistakes started coming in thick and fast. Socialism was enshrined as the official policy of the ruling party at the Avadi session of 1955, inaugurating an era that would stifle private enterprise and encourage corruption. Linguistic states would follow a year later. India's defences would be ignored, leading to decay in what had been, immediately after World War II, one of the best, most professional armies on the planet. Article 356 would be invoked to pull down the first elected Communist ministry in Kerala...