G.L. Raina
Those who were at helm of affairs particularly the first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru neither disbanded Congress party nor did he took any initiative to establish Gram Swaraj or Panchayat Raj system as was desired by Mahatma Gandhi.
Remembering Mahatma Gandhi on his 76th Death Anniversary will remain a mere customary ritual unless we recall his vision for Bharat. Worshipping Gandhi ji’s name without following his principles is in fact highest contempt and disrespect for him. What Gandhi stood for and preached was never followed by the people and party who claim his legacy. It is like using Gandhi’s name as proverbial mulching cow for narrow political remunerations.
Before we proceed further it will be beneficial to remind that Gandhi ji had in a note dated January 27, 1948, three days before he was assassinated, wrote that the Congress has “outlived its use” in its present form, should be disbanded and “flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh”. This appeared as an article in Harijan on February 2, 1948, titled ‘His Last Will and Testament’.
This is available on official website https://www.mkgandhi.org/mynonviolence/chap157.htm.
It was drafted as new constitution for the Congress party to show how the Congress party which according to him was till then mainly concerned with achieving political independence needs to convert itself into an Association for the Service of the People (Lok Sevak Sangh), and work for the establishment of a non-violent society.
He wrote, “Though split into two, India having attained political independence through means devised by the Indian National Congress, the Congress in its present shape and form, i.e. as a propaganda vehicle and parliamentary machine, has outlived its use. India has still to attain social, moral and economic independence in terms of its seven hundred thousand villages as distinguished from its cities and towns. ….. For these and other similar reasons, the A.I.C.C. resolves to disband the existing Congress organization and flower into a Lok Sevak Sangh under the following rules with power to alter them as occasion may demand”.
Gandhi ji very clearly pleaded disbanding of Congress party. People claiming to be ardent followers of Gandhi ji never followed his wishes and vision for India that is Bharat. Vested interests within the party did not even talk about it. Gandhi ji was used as a stick to beat political opponents and continue to claim/ manipulate legacy for selfish ends and establishment of dynastic hegemony.
Not just the disbanding of Congress so called devotees of Gandhi ji did not respect the vision of Gandhi ji about “seven hundred thousand villages as distinguished from its (India) cities and towns.”
Mahatma Gandhi advocated a decentralised form of governance where each village was to be responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India’s political system. The term for such a vision was Gram Swaraj (“village self-governance”). The system gives responsibility to the villages to perform their own activities. The significance of panchayats lies in grassroots democracy, local governance, inclusive and economic development, transparency and accountability.
It was after much discussion among the supporters and opponents of the village panchayat that the panchayats finally got a place for themselves in the Constitution as Article 40 of the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 246 however empowered the state legislature to legislate with respect to any subject relating to local self-government, clearly indicating that it was a non-priority issue.
Those who were at helm of affairs particularly the first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru neither disbanded Congress party nor did he took any initiative to establish Gram Swaraj or Panchayat Raj system.
It was only in 1957 that Government of India appointed a committee called
The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee on 16 January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme and the National Extension Service and to suggest measures for their better working. The committee submitted its report on 24 November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of ‘democratic decentralisation’ which finally came to be known as Panchayati Raj.
These recommendations were accepted by the National Development Council in January 1958. However, it was not until the 73rd Constitutional Amendment of 1992 that the Panchayati Raj System received its current framework. Point to be noted here is that Prime Minister at that time was PV Narsimha Rao.
It was taken forward by strategic initiatives like Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA) for rural development in Bharat. This concept was given by former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and was launched in 2004 to provide basic amenities like good road, drinking water, health care services to villagers. PURA model proposed urban infrastructure and services be provided in rural hubs to create economic opportunities outside the city.
Shockingly Jammu and Kashmir was denied benefit of this visionary policy of Mahatma Gandhi until 2019 when artificial and temporary impediments created to stop free flow of the Constitution of India were removed.
Excerpts of a book, ‘Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics’ by Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi was published in media in 2019. This makes an interesting reading to further understand differences on crucial and basic issues between Gandhi ji and Jawahar lal Nehru.
“Gandhi discovered that gluttony for truth telling threatened truth from within. This is a lesson which Gandhi would also impart to Jawaharlal Nehru, only this time not by suppressing but by threatening to publish the letter of 11 January 1928 in which Nehru rejected Hind Swaraj and Gandhi’s espousal of ‘Rama Rajya’ (Kingdom of king-god Rama). Nehru wrote to Gandhi, ‘I entirely disagree with this viewpoint and neither think that the so called Rama Raj was good in the past, nor do I want it back, questioned the political efficacy of the khadi programme and Gandhi’s rejection of contraceptives.22 Nehru was critical of Gandhi’s positions regarding capitalism and the relation between capital and labour, which was rather harmonious for Gandhi – ‘I believe you have stated that in your opinion there is no necessary conflict between Capital and Labour. I think that under the capitalist system this conflict is unavoidable. Gandhi was quick to spot in Nehru an opponent of his theological project: I suggest a dignified way of unfurling your banner. Write to me a letter for publication showing your differences. I will print it in Young India and write a brief reply … if you do not want to take the trouble of writing another letter, I am prepared to publish the letter before me.
In 1928 the ratio of power and truth was weighed against Nehru and any public confrontation between the two would have brought Nehru’s own secular socialist political project to an end. Gandhi’s express wish to publish the letter was effectively a threat. A very anxious Nehru wrote back after learning the important lesson in the gluttony of truth:
Your letter came as a bit of shock and was a painful reading … You talk about my carrying on an ‘open warfare’ against you and of ‘unfurling my banner’. I have no particular banner to unfurl nor had I thought about the possibility of any warfare between you and me … I hope I am not rigid in mind and outlook and nothing could please me more than to be convinced by you … I would therefore suggest that for the present at least you might not publish my letter.”
Jawahar Lal Nehru might have backtracked and prevented Gandhi ji from publishing the letter but it was tactical retreat. Nehru after becoming Prime Minister and Gandhi ji no more there ensured that Gandhian ideology was bid farewell officially. It continued till power slipped out of the first family of The Congress party. In conclusion it is evident that Nathu Ram Godse assassinated Gandhi ji’s physical body Nehru-Gandhi dynasty ensured burial of his vision, belief and philosophy.
(The author is a former Member of Legislative Council of J&K and spokesperson of BJP J&K)
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