PARI’WAR’

Gandhi-Nehru Pari ‘war’

I have grown up reading history which taught me how a person wielding a stick kicked out the British.It was a collective struggle of all national forces which united under Gandhiji.His style much talked about is not that fascinating to me as dhoti,khadi and simple living was part of Indian tradition even before we were branded Indians.The charkha which was popularized by him was indeed start of a revolution as almost 48% of British clothing exports came to India.He knew that this would hit the British hard.His fight for the workers union,peasants and the traders did give the much needed zing to the independence movement.With his rise Gandhiji gave rise to a bunch of followers who loyally moved with him and participated in all the protests and satyagrahas which Gandhiji undertook.Independent India was gave birth to a new problem Pakistan and the history associated with this is well known.Nehru was given the baton to govern India while like of Patel were entrusted with responsibility of uniting India.Nehru’s leadership skills were seen by Gandhiji and others during his Congress days.Within 6 months of Independence Gandhiji left this world.

The nation saw Nehru taking the lead.His rule saw Independent India’s first scam too.Nehru, a nationalist soon turned into a socialist with rigid views.His ability to solve problems remain questionable.Patel was assigned with the duty of uniting all the princely states.Kashmir , a princely state was assigned to Nehru and Kashmir ever since has been in dispute while all the other kingdoms are now very much peaceful and united.

His second failure is creating a new state of Andhra Pradesh with Telangana and Andhra.A separate state agitation is taking place in the Telangana region ever since.His third failure is the China war where he could not assess the situation properly.Though we need to support him in this front as many of the Communist thinkers in India had supported China and gave away key information.

Gandhiji was called Bapu which meant father so he was referred as Father of the Nation.Congress leaders soon got out of Gandhi’s shadow and started appeasing Nehru.Nehru was called “chacha” which meant fathers younger brother and started celebrating his birthday with pomp and fanfare.This marked the biginning of  imperialist-hereditary politics in India.

The most interesting development took place with emergence of Indira, who used Gandhi as her surname.Media by this time became a flourishing business and these businessmen started using a new term called Nehru-Gandhi family.This attempt went unchallenged and votes started showering on Indira with the use of this new term.People in India largely uneducated ‘politically’ did not see any harm in such usage.

Though to use such terms either of the children of Nehru or Gandhi should have got married which did not happen.Strange it is that Indira’s sons carried on this legacy and were called Gandhi’s too.Hindu marriage acts,rituals,traditions and culture were all shattered for mere political mileage and this new term turned out to be the vote churner.Now even Indira’s grandchildren are using this old ‘new term’.

Sad that a great man like Gandhi today just remains a political vote churner and all his teachings,ways and thoughts buried.Lets move out talk about it rather staying silent and resilient.Gandhi should be patented for peace,non-violence and satyagrahas and usage of his name for political motives should be stopped.

On a day Gandhi left us, let us move in his path with a movement which would separate Gandhi from Nehru and end this pari’war’ politics.