He is painted differently over the last 64 years by people. For most people he was the ultimate leader and they take his name with more respect than they would of Lord Ram or Lord Krishna or Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu or any other god. Structure after structure and scheme after scheme has been dedicated to him or his clan members, but a structure to be dedicated to Lord Ram is facing a difficult struggle for the last 18yrs.
So I wanted to know little bit about him. Whatever little I got to know about him killed my curiosity to know more about him. Reading about him or watching his speeches on the youtube.com was the only way to know more because I was born more than 30yrs after his demise. I never saw him, met him or stood in his company so what I am presenting is a distant view of Jawahar Lal's personality.
Person:
Intelligent, well-spoken, well-travelled, social, ambitious. In addition, selfish, conniving, foolish, lofty, careless, bad foreign policy strategist, egotist.
Sexual:
I hear all sorts of things about it. With men as well as women. High and mighty as well as unknown figures ranging from sweet sixteen upwards. I don't know what to believe. May be none, but its spicy enough for me to still keep reading.
Politics:
1. I haven't seen any of the other well-known Congress Freedom Fighters come up in life. All got finished during his own rule. How? Why? Intriguing.
To me it looks like his doing all the way. Systematically disallowing other competitors from growing up to be a challenge to his fiefdom.
2. Strange that Independent India couldn't take INA into IA. They fought for the Nation and were only dedicated to nation and no other political ideology, but Nehru brilliantly described Nationalism as a political ideology and firmly denied them any right to join Indian Army. Till he was alive even the voice to get the INA veterans their due couldn't be raised. Eerie...
3. Like an idiot he created an international leadership vision in his mind and sacrificed India's national interest at its alter. The worst defeat in a war was to his Hindi-Cheeni Bhai Bhai partners. He ignored the advice of some of the most brilliant minds on this country including that of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. When Army Generals told him that a war was expected with China he ridiculed them and called his own soldiers War-Mongers. He allowed defense preparations much too late causing one of the most embarrassing defeats in Indian Military history. The scar remains.
4. Nehru was friend of Chinese Nationalist Chiang-Kai-Shek and the moment Chiang lost to the communist, Nehru became a friend of Mao Tse Dung. Not just that, when UN refused to let Communist China be the part of Permanent Five, and asked Nehru for his view as the geo-politics affected India most, he foolishly supported Communist China. Took personal guarantees and did what even Communist China itself was unable to do. Then he got our soldiers butchered and our territory in Aksai Chin lost forever.
5. He refused to let Sardar Patel deal on Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India. When Hari Singh - The Clown, asked for help, as he couldn't defend his territory against Pakistani Army, he was asked to sign Instrument of Accession. He signed. Indian Army fought a bloody battle and stopped the advancing hordes. Then the great mastermind that Nehru was went ahead and called for Ceasefire under UN which called for Plebiscite. It created Pakistan Occupied Kashmir forever. That created unrest in Kashmir forever, that 64yrs of unrest has caused the current Kashmiri generation to feel let down and participate in the cause of Separatists.
Oh! he didn't stop at just that. After this, as if he hadn't caused enough damage, to show how magnanimous he personally was, he gave up his professional responsibility and created Article 370. Now the Kashmiri constituent assembly that gets elected through elections held by Election Commission of India doesn't pass the necessary act and we have a perfect case of Half Pregnancy. It has started paining so sorely now that people are screaming and pelting stones.
6. Economic policy of Nehru was totally confused and sometimes directed at embarrassing certain industrialists. His god-father Gandhi was surrounded by India's top industrialists like G D Birla, Jamnalal Bajaj, Ardeshir Godrej and many others. Gandhi always stayed at Birla House, which were in many cities including Delhi and Calcutta. Obviously, they didn't treat Nehru and Gandhi equally. Nehru wasn't even a PM candidate then. There were many other senior leaders in existence. Nehru, the egotist was jealous. He wanted to bend them on his feet. When he got power, he made a License Raj policy. All industrialists including Birlas and Bajajs had to bend in front of him to get their business running and propagating. To satisfy his ego, this confused socialist got the India's economic growth engine slowed down and between 1947-1991, India grew by only 3.2-3.3%.
7. What happened when Nehru got power?
Uh Oh....he went mad. Nehru had just pipped every single princely family. If they were ruling few hundred miles of territory, he was the undisputed King of 32lakh square kms of Indian Territory. Never achieved like this in the last 5000yrs of history. Not even Asoka, not even Akbar had ruled over the entire territory together, some piece of the puzzle was always missing.
He thought he was the greatest king of all. It screwed with his mind. Now he wanted the world to recognize his talent. Promoted Non-Aligned Movement and when Chinese attacked India in 1962, he wrote a desperate letter for help from US President John F Kennedy, who refused as India weren't his allies. I mean we were completely Non-Aligned and tasted a bitter defeat.
I can go on and on about this man. But, I guess, at least I have no reason to worship this forced relative of the nation. I don't think he was the greatest that ever was. He was just an average man who suffered his imaginations like many others do. He only made it bad because he was sitting in that most important chair of Independent India's First Prime Minister.
