When nation attained freedom from British yoke after centuries of oppression, we were in a state of trauma, badly bruised, fractured and bleeding. Nations psyche too, was deeply hurt. In that phase of intense agony, nation desperately needed a healing touch. That was a monumental exercise in view of sub-continental size of the nation and 33 crore strong population which required a statesman probably taller than even Himalayan cordillera. To the utter misfortune of this nation, reins of the nation went into hands of a lilyputian whose loyalty and commitment to the nation had always been under strong suspicion. Jawaharlal Nehru was a first rate devious manipulator with a flair for dictatorial propensities. Nehru manoeuvred to capture Congress Party Presidentship in 1951 and continued till 1954 defying the very principle of his Party of ‘one man, one post’. He was magnanimous enough to relinquish the post in favour of his ‘yesman’ UN Dhebar only to dodge public ignominy for a short period till such time his daughter Indira Gandhi was ‘matured’ enough to take over. He engineered a resolution in 1953 through the Party to ensure, no State Party President held two positions concurrently. It was meant to ensure no one could outgrow his daughter in politics. In fact Kamaraj Plan-1963 too, was implemented with the same objective though logically, he should have been the first to quit the Government. The last Mughal was an embodiment of duplicity in his every action and thought.
As his mechiavellian ways were known to all, he feared either Sardar Patel for his integrity and resoluteness or Netaji Bose for his patriotic fervour and commitment to the nation. Hereinasunder are a few select quotes from well known personalities of Congress and other walks of life who had been unanimous on Nehrus autocratic and criminal ways of functioning that ruined the nation.
Veteran Congressman DP Mishra voiced it in so many words so bluntly, “The last straw has been our Prime Minister becoming a full-fledged dictator by contriving the ejection of PD Tandon from the Presidentship of the Congress and himself taking his place. I regard it as treachery to the nation to continue in the Congress in the face of this last development… A political murder committed yesterday is a murder of democracy in the Congress. This is merely the beginning of the slaughter of democracy in India.”
The shrewd old man MK Gandhi, also dubbed ‘Chatur Bania’ by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had contrived a situation of ‘There Is No Alternative To Nehru’ very well in cahoots with Jinnah-ites and successfully ejected legends like Netaji Bose from the domain of Congress. Consequently the last Mughal Nehru was the sole political player calling all shots first in Congress, then in politics as Prime Minister having enormous authority without accountability. Rajaji called him ‘the Congress dictator’ so explicitly, “The single brain-activity of the people who meet in Congress is to find out what is in Jawaharlal’s mind and to anticipate it. The slightest attempt at dissent meets with stern disapproval and is nipped in the bud.” Thus Rajaji added one more dimension to the Congress nurtured sycophancy by revealing acute tension prevailing in everyones mind to discover what was there in Nehrus mind at any moment of reckoning !!
After demise of Sardar Patel, dictatorial traits of the last Mughal became exceedingly blatant and brazen. He had the option to emulate ‘dictatorial governance’ of the then Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew and that would have transformed the nation into a mighty power. Alas ! that was not to be. His prime focus happened to be unrestrained gratification of his five senses no matter what havoc his shenanigans wrought upon the nation. Dr. BR Ambedkar did not mince words in his resignation letter of Sept. 27, 1951, “The Cabinet has become a merely recording and registration office of decisions already arrived at by Committees. They work behind an iron curtain. Others who are not members have only to take joint responsibility without any opportunity of taking part in the shaping of policy…” KM Munshi was more forthcoming on autocratic ways of Nehru, “Jawaharlal was a dictator by temperament but had an intellectual aversion to dictators like Hitler and Stalin. He swore by the Constitution but was ever ready to defy or ignore it. Entrenched as he was in unlimited powers, he could never realise the harm that he was doing to the country by twisting the Constitution to his liking.” His autocratic traits led to deep sense of frustration and several resignations including Sardar Patels in 1947. Nobody knows why MK Gandhi didn’t intervene to restrain the last Mughal from his dictatorial ways of reckoning.
Cabinet Minister John Mathai was so much disgusted with Nehrus shenanigans that from being an ardent Nehru supporter, he metamorphosed into Sardar Patel supporter, “Under Nehru the Cabinet had never functioned, and all decisions were taken privately by the Prime Minister and the individual Minister concerned. Even when a decision was endorsed in the Cabinet, the Prime Minister went back on it and reversed the decision… The only time when the Indian Cabinet really functioned was when Nehru was away in Washington for a few weeks towards the end of October 1948 and when Sardar Patel was acting as Prime Minister. For the first time the cabinet functioned with joint responsibility; and the acting Prime Minister conducted meetings as the British Prime Minister would have.” Needless to say, Mathai was shown the exit door soon after his views on Planning Commission entered into public domain. Neville Maxwell ripped apart Nehru to his correct contours in his book ‘India’s China War’ so forthrightly, “There was a Cabinet committee for foreign affairs but that, too, he ignored more often than not, and time and again crucial foreign policy decisions were taken and announced, even acted upon without either the committee or the Cabinet being aware of them. This was true of the handling of the boundary question with China, which was kept not only from the Cabinet and its foreign affairs and defence committees, but also from Parliament until armed clashes made it impossible to suppress.”
All these comments and assessments of Nehrus contemporaries cast a very dim view on Nehrus capabilities and faculties. After centuries of brutalities, his 18 year long tenure as Prime Minister (he was sworn as Prime Minister by the Viceroy Mountbatten in 1946 affirming his loyalty to the Provincial Assembly of 1937 under the British Crown) should have been like a pain-relieving balm on nations deeply bleeding bruises. Instead, all his decisions were not only highly detrimental to the nation but also rubbed salt into long-standing wounds of Hindus. The kind of mess he created during his tenure, then compounded by Indira Gandhi and Rajiva Gandhi, nation languished in penury and miseries for seven decades to come.
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