Rent-free luxury

 

Knowingly or unknowingly, every single citizen in today’s India is paying a price for merely existing. Some (20 crores at last count) barter their votes for a pittance called a “ration.” Some remain mute; some praise Our Supreme Leader (OSL) in every third sentence they utter; many languish behind bars. But there is one guy who doesn’t pay. Because, he lives permanently rent-free in luxury, in OSL’s head. He has been long dead but unlike Jesus C. who did it in three days, he rose from the dead after decades, in 2018, to be precise. The name is Jawaharlal Nehru. 

During his first term in office between 2014 and 2018, OSL mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru 9 times in parliamentary speeches. In 2014, during his first address – Motion of Thanks on the President’s address – he acknowledged the contribution of all previous Prime Ministers, including Nehru. In 2015, he quoted Nehru's praises of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's unparalleled role in drafting the nation's foundational laws. Things shifted in 2018.

In 2018, during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, he mentioned Nehru five times, in derogatory terms. And went on to say that had Sardar Patel been made the Prime Minister instead of Nehru, the Kashmir problem wouldn’t have been there and that the whole of Kashmir would have been ours. The fact that Sardar Patel was actually not too keen about having Kashmir as part of India seems to be a mere error in taste, in OSL’s mind.

Post 2018, he has mentioned Nehru at least 84 times in the Parliament. The highest was 24 times in a single speech in 2020. It has come to such a pass that OSL and his minions cannot go through a single Parliament session without reaching reflexively for or at the man who has been dead for 62 years. Nehru is not only living rent-free in OSL’s head since 2018, every single Parliamentary session, he’s adding new storeys to his apartment and probably a swimming pool, jacuzzi, et al..

Outside Parliament, no major speech of OSL seems to be complete without deriding Nehru in some way or the other. This is especially true for the election rallies. These criticisms include references to a laid-back approach to governance, how Nehru routinely disrespected and insulted the armed forces, how the regions integrated into India by Nehru (Kashmir, e.g.) were perpetual problems, compared to those done by Sardar Patel which were smooth. While OSL takes full and complete credit for any achievement like moon landing of Indian satellite, his supporters claim that it was OSL who did it all and Nehru’s contribution was merely creating some buildings called ISRO, IITs, IIMs and so on. OSL has said that Nehru considered Indian population as a burden and its citizens lazy and lacking in intelligence. He blames Nehru for suppressing free speech and limiting fundamental rights through the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The Bhakts, not a little encouraged by OSL himself, go on and on about naming of public schemes, buildings and institutions after Nehru calling it self-branding. They develop selective amnesia about the fact that Nehru himself was dead against anything named after him, let alone the world’s biggest Cricket stadium, as we have had recently. One or two namings got through during his lifetime but almost all the namings cited were after Nehru’s death. In 1957, there were requests to name a Sindhi housing colony and an International Relations institute after him but he declined energetically, stating, “I’m rather allergic to such matters” and that such efforts (regarding the latter) restricted the desirable impersonal nature of such institutions.

Despite his continuous criticisms of Nehru and all things Nehru, somehow, OSL needs to do everything that Nehru did or was noted for. Rather than actually creating new institutions of excellence, he renames existing institutes as IIMs and IITs. Nehru excelled at Yoga so OSL also has to.

Nehru wrote some letters to his daughter from prison (3,259 days) which were later compiled into a famous historical book titled, “Letters from a father to his daughter.” Our man obviously can’t boast of a prison term of any consequence but we do have “Letters to mother.” Nehru wrote “Discovery of India.” We now have “Exam warriors” written (?) by OSL. Not to mention the six books thrust upon the patients quarantined in government hospitals in the early days of COVID-19 – “100 Days of Bold Initiatives and Decisive Actions,” “A Splendid Start,” “Fifty days of … Government – Decisive and Directional” among them.

In all this, two things are being sought to be suppressed. In those early days of India’s Independence, keeping democracy alive in a fledgling nation was actually well-nigh impossible. Look at all the countries that have cast off the colonial yoke. Either they got embroiled in civil wars or coups, succeeded by dictatorship, military or civilian. Or, they aligned themselves with one of the superpowers, mostly with disastrous consequences. Nehru kept us away from the clutches of the superpowers and created a robust democracy. Second was creating an industrial base and not the monomegapolies and crony capitalism which are actively and personally encouraged by the OSL himself today.

OSL shouldn’t really have time for all this. He has been Prime Minister for 12 years now. He should be focused on his work on hand rather than worrying about what any of his predecessors did, especially one who has been dead for more than six decades. It’s time to get a move on. Else, all these rantings will show up as difference between class and crass.