Parveen Darvar
15th August 1947 to 27th May 1964. For 17 long years Pt Jawahar lal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India. He was not only the longest serving Prime Minister but the greatest nation builder of post independent India, while his contribution in the freedom struggle was second only to Mahatma Gandhi. Over nine years of Jawaharlal’s youth and middle age were spent in incarceration.
Eleven years before he became Prime Minister, Tagore wrote of him “Jawaharlal Nehru has undoubted claim to the throne of Young India. His is a majestic role. Unflinching is his determination and indomitable his courage. What raises him to lofty heights is the unwavering adherence to moral truth and his intellectual character. He has upheld the standard of purity in the midst of political turmoil where deception, including self-decision so often destroys integrity.”
In an article commemorating Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary veteran journalist Inder Malhotra wrote that Nehru was the second greatest Indian of our times after the Mahatma. He was perhaps echoing the words of Dr. S Radhakrishnan uttered half a century ago in a broadcast to the nation, one year after Nehru’s death : He (Nehru) was incomparably the greatest figure after Gandhi in our history – a man of dynamic force, intellectual power and profound vision. In 1956 Nehru was considered the most arresting figure in the world political stage since the end of the Churchill – Stalin – Roosevelt era. A writer in New York Post described him ‘the most incandescent figure of contemporary history.’ The New York Times called him ‘the unchallenged ruler who ruled by love not fear.’
Nehru drew his strength from the masses. Taking the advantage of the political mobilization, achieved during the freedom movement, Nehru, alongwith other founding fathers, introduced adult suffrage. Indian women got the right to vote much before women in European countries did so. One primary purpose of his ceaseless touring of the country as Prime Minister was to teach the people to cherish this privilege and exercise it with responsibility. He saw himself as a schoolmaster trying to explain matters to his audiences in as simple a language as possible and getting them to think and to understand. Asked once what his legacy to India would be, he replied: “Hopefully, it is four hundred million people capable of governing themselves.”
To Nehru democracy was the most acceptable form of government: it promoted the growth of human beings and society. He hated all forms of parochialism and attached prime importance to the human personality: “I want the narrow conflicts of today in the name of religion or caste, language or province, to cease, and a classless and casteless society to be built up where every individual has full opportunity to grow according to his worth and ability.”
Nehru gave as much importance to the institutional aspects of the democratic system . He insisted all important matters should be brought up to the Cabinet. There were numerous cabinet committees, sub-committees and consultation was frequent. He had tremendous faith and trust in his colleagues:”Public affairs involve principles and policies. They also involve an understanding of each other and faith in the bonafides of colleagues.” However, as in the case of TTK and Krishna Menon, he was sometimes let down by the colleagues he trusted the most.
Nehru took seriously his duties as leader of the Lok Sabha and of the CPP in Parliament, sat regularly though the question hour and all important debates, treated the presiding officers of the two houses with extreme deference. He believed in supremacy of Parliament. He said: “ No court, no system of judiciary should be allowed to function in the nature of a third House, as a kind of third house of correction. —— The legislature must be supreme and must not be interfered with by the courts of law in measures of social reform.”
Nehru always took care to see that the dignity of an elected legislature was never dimmed. Even during his last months, despite his illness, he missed no session and in order, as he said , to preserve the decorum of the House. He also overensured that the dignity and decorum of the highest office of President and Vice President is maintained. He called on the President every week despite their differences on Somnath, Hindu Code Bill or other matters. He had the magnanimity to raise the office of Vice President above that of Prime Minister in order of precedence. Earlier the Vice President was placed below the PM in all matters of protocol.
Despite being the unchallenged leader of the most dominant political party, as a true democrat Jawaharlal Nehru encouraged the growth of opposition. He believed in a multi-party democracy and was never averse to criticism of his policies. When, in 1959, the Swatantra party was formed by C. Rajagopalachari who was drifting apart from Nehru on various issues, Nehru welcomed the formation of the new party as helping to lift the fog over the mind of the Congress and likely to enliven Indian politics. But Nehru did not consider it a serious opposition but a diversion, and rightly predicted the party had no future in India. Swatantra party did not last but the economic policies it enunciated have found a place in today’s market economy.
Nehru could be extremely outrageous against dictatorships and all forms of authoritarianism. When the King of Nepal dismissed and arrested his ministers and proclaimed a dictatorship, Nehru made no secret of the fact that all his political instincts had been outraged and decided that his govt, while respecting the sovereignty of Nepal, would only carry on with the existing projects of assistance in that country and undertake no new ones. All the feudal privileges and the amassing of huge wealth by individuals seemed to him unsocial and rather vulgar, but this, he emphasized time and again, would have to be achieved by peaceful and democratic procedures.
Nehru believed that political democracy will have no meaning unless it led to economic democracy. If the economic problems are not solved then the political structure tends to weaken and crack up. The Congress resolution in Avadi on ‘Socialist pattern of Society’ in 1954 and on ‘Democratic Socialism’ in Bhubaneshwar, ten years later in 1964, were important landmark in the nation’s march towards the ultimate goal of economic democracy and social justice which in Nehru’s view meant both equality and equity.
Today we see a steep fall in values which Nehru espoused. Many a times behavior of elected representatives in both parliament and state legislatures becomes unruly, uncivilized. Many MPs and MLAs with criminal backgrounds are elected. You have cabinets with tainted ministers because they are selected from MPs/MLAs with tainted backgrounds who have been elected by the people. But you cannot blame the political parties alone, though they deserve the highest responsibility. The electorates must reject candidates with dubious records. Parliament must also devise new rules to ensure that walk outs/disruptions are minimized, if not altogether eliminated. Let us bear in mind what Nehru underlined:”Parliamentary democracy demands many virtues. It demands, of course, ability. It demands a certain devotion to work. But it demands also a large normal measure of co-operation, of self discipline, of restraint”
Indeed Jawaharlal Nehru was a great democrat – perhaps the greatest democrat of the 20th century. When he died on May 27, 1964, President Radhakrishnan in a broadcast to the nation, said “Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the greatest figures of our generation, an outstanding statesman whose services to the cause of human freedom are unforgettable. As a fighter for freedom he was illustrious, as a maker of modern India his services were unparalleled. His life and work have had profound influence on our mental make-up, social structure and intellectual development.”
In the circumstances of today it may be appropriate to end this article by recalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s own words : “Democracy means tolerance, tolerance not merely of those who agree with us, but of those also who do not agree with us.”
(The writer is Member of National Commission for Minorities (NCM). The views expressed are his personal)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel