Jawaharlal Nehru was completely unaware of even basic fundamentals of Economics, he did not understand significance of agriculture. He did not realise that without agriculture surplus, no country can feed growing population, sustain industrialisation or indulge in food-diplomacy in international relations hence, neglect of agriculture was the inevitable outcome of his ignorance. Instead of first focusing on agriculture and education (which Japan had been doing right before his eyes), Nehru neglected both and focused on international relations and replicating Soviet model of heavy industries at the expense of agriculture. Agriculture production went on declining and fell below the level of 1953 by 1957. Between 1947 to 1989, three generations of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty ruled over the nation for full 36 years directly and 17 years indirectly. Severe food shortages followed in response to which Nehru ordered import of poor quality grains under PL-480 from America mixed with seeds of poisonous parthenium weed. While the nation subsisted hand to mouth, considerable agriculture was damaged by the weed and the nation became an international beggar with a begging bowl for food.
Five decades of Congress rule condemned the nation to the abominable ranks of III-World country, subject of ridicule and sarcastic remarks by world dignitaries. Here are salient features of five decades long Congress rule whose foundations were laid down by the last Mughal Jawaharlal Nehru –
A third of worlds poor existed here out of which 69% subsisted on less than $ 2 per day, 33% languished below International Poverty Line of $ 1.25 per day and country ranked 129 out of 183 in Per Capita GDP. Multidimensional Poverty Index revealed, eight States had more poor people than 26 poorest African countries combined.
No Bharatiya city made to the Mercer Quality Living Survey as well as to Mercer City Infrastructure Ranking. Among dirtiest 25 cities in the world, New Delhi and Mumbai were included so embarrassingly while Sukinda and Vapi ranked 3rd and 4th as most polluted cities.
Holy rivers were reduced to sewers. If waters of Ganga are sparkling pure at Gangotri, it was completely unfit even for bathing by the time it flowed down to Sangam in Prayagaraj.
Out of 122 countries, Bharata ranked 120 on quality of potable water as a water-stressed nation while 50% villages did not have any source of protected drinking water at all. 1.95 lakh villages were affected by chemical contamination, 3.8 crores affected by water borne diseases every year, 60 lakh children suffered from dental and skeletal fluorosis, Arsenic poisoning affected one crore every year and widespread bacteriological contamination severely compromised health.
In 2016, we ranked 130 out of 187 countries on Human Development Index published by the United Nations Development Programme.
In Mother Care Index, Bharata stood at 76th position out of 80 less developed countries.
Nandi Foundation reported that 42% children Under-5 were underweight while 59% suffered from stunting.
Infant Mortality Rate stood at 46 and corresponding rank 50 (Rank 1 is the worst) out of 221 countries i.e. 171 countries were ahead of us and 4,00,000 newborns died within 24 hrs. of birth, highest in the world.
Maternal Mortality Rate stood 200 per 1,00,000 live births and country ranked 52 (Rank 1 is the worst) out of 183 countries.
53% homes were without toilets, 68% without drinkable tap water, 39% without indoor kitchens, 70% with one room homes wreaked horrible sufferings particularly upon women who were forced to defecate in open, fetch water from long distances and cook in the open.
Almost 10 crore urban poors lived in 50,000 slums out of which 24% located along railway tracks and sewers with numbers growing steadily.
Education system stood destroyed with teeming number of unemployable graduates clogging employment market across the nation. In literacy, country stood at the rank of 183 out of 214. When the nation desperately required Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 1947, the last Mughal was busy raising IITs whose graduates escaped to USA chasing Dollars and Green Card while nation bled heavily.
Industrial development then demanded capitalism while agriculture, socialism of land reforms. With his myopic vision, utter lack of experience and complete lack of leadership quality, Nehru followed diametrically opposite line of action and brought down entire house of prosperity into rubbles while poverty-struck people suffered heavily. Journalist Kuldip Nayar wrote in his ‘Beyond the Lines’, “I got hold of the report (on land reforms) by Wolf Ladejinsky… His report vehemently criticized the government for having reforms on paper but doing very little on the ground. Surprisingly, it was Nehru who had stopped the report from being made public. Nehru abandoned the proposal to initiate drastic land reforms when he found that the states were opposed to the measure. This sent a wrong message to the country and proved yet again that he hated to join issue when vested interests were involved.” Look at what Nijalingappa had to say about it in his book ‘My Life And Politics: An Autobiography’, “I had quarrelled with him regarding his neglect of the village economy, especially agriculture, and protested to him about his almost total neglect of irrigation which was the key to Indian agriculture. Nehru told me disparagingly, ‘You are a villager, you know nothing.’ I retorted, ‘If you had one-tenth of my regard for the village, the Indian economy would have been different.’ I am not sure if he had any convictions, except for aping the Russian model.”
By the way six year long rule led by AB Vajpayee does exist albeit all his sterling achievements and attainments were nullified by 10 year long rule of Antonio Maino-ManMohan Singh duo. By 2014, the year when Congress rule ceased, nation was in tatters and situation so terribly bad that another five-year term would have certainly witnessed the nation being fragmented into pieces. By the time Nehru-Gandhi-Vadra Dynasty-Raj ended in 2014, nation was like an orphan searching around whom to look upto entirely on the verge of losing Kashmir, Arunachala Pradesh, Siachin and Sir Creek. Even today, when all those pathetic numbers have been proved absolutely accurate, Congress clan do not have even an iota of remorse and they shamelessly brag around about Nehrus vision of ‘modern India’, ‘Indira as Iron-woman’, ‘Rajiv as computer revolutionary’ and all that trash. Fourth generation Rahul Gandhi talks about eradication of poverty by their Party even now after their five decades of ignominious occupation and loot of the country.
In any other country, the dynasty would never have been allowed to rise and the last Mughal Nehru would have been rubbished into trashbin of history immediately after China Debacle-1962. However they perdured because we are a nation of excessive tolerance and forgiveness.
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