The world community is amazed at the phenomenal leap that our country has taken in the economic field in recent years. The nation is on the threshold of becoming the leader of the entire region and a major world power. All the world powers have come to recognize as an emerging force. What has given a fillip to the process of growth is its vibrant and robust democracy that has stood the test of time. The cliché, ‘unity in diversity’ continues to hold good.
Not that every thing has been hunky dory, the nation has had its hiccups and aberrations but each time it has emerged victorious. And when the world‘s developed economies are facing the near great depression conditions, India has been able to withstand the onslaught of withdrawal of big investors from abroad. Such is our resilience.
The nation has seen a metamorphosis from a weak and a backward population to a new entity of modern and lert younger generation ready to take the world head-on.
The launching of our indigenous satellite, the Chandrayaan, signing of nuclear deal without surrendering to a one-sided Non-nuclear Proliferation Treaty have forced the world community to acknowledge India’s potential. This is also manifest in our great survival in the economic meltdown which has engulfed the major powers.
Future generations and students of history in a strife-torn nuclear world will find it intriguing how this nation achieved freedom through non-violence, sacrifice and truth without firing a bullet. One single man and his philosophy was enough to drive out the foreign power ruling over us for centuries. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was aptly described as Mahatma Gandhi and father of the nation though people differ with him on many issues. Yet, he flummoxed the entire Western world by his simple living fighting for nation’s freedom through non-cooperation and peaceful resistance.
However, the aftermath of partition and during the transfer of population, a million people were killed in the communal frenzy. It was a gigantic task of resettling millions of people who migrated from Pakistan. Here, a question may be asked: Was partition the best solution? Considering the intensity of hatred amongst religious communities, what else was possible? There are several opinions on the issue and are too well-known. The experience so far, in India, has only proved that intolerance has dominated the psyche of the people on both sides of the border. India can still take pride as a secular nation where all communities have equal rights. Compare it with our neighbour!
At the time of Independence, the nation was a non-cohesive scattered entity with a number of autonomous princely states, varied population with different languages. The unification of the country was a Herculean task – bringing people of different hues together as one nation. But we had a group of leaders who were not only dedicated to the nation but remained committed to its unity and solidarity. Unification was done with great aplomb, dexterity and dedication. The result is, we are the largest and most successful democracy in the world.
Unfortunately, recent events where regionalism and intolerance have come to occupy a dominant role in today’s body politic. The emergence of a new class of politicians who have very little sense of history and hardly any commitment towards the nation has adversely affected the social and economic environment. Their main aim is to amass as much wealth as possible. They seek aggrandizement even resorting to criminal means. They have no respect for law and order and many have criminal background. A serious attempt has to be made to keep these elements away from governance if we have to get respect globally. We have to adopt stricter laws to prevent these elements from calling the shots.
The major challenges that we face today are terrorism, illiteracy leading to ignorance, poverty, inadequate health care and of course corruption. These problems have to be resolved on a war footing as they are potential inhibitors to the growth process.
Political events since Independence may induce a debate over actions of our leaders and even challenge their rationale and logic. Analysts have time and again pointed out the mistakes and even blunders that were, according to them, have been responsible for the present morass in our body politic.
Since Independence we have had 14 Prime Ministers from different political parties and social backgrounds. Some of them were involved deeply in our freedom struggle. It was obvious that the circumstances prevailing at that time were quite different. With little or no experience of self-governance, probably the leaders did what they thought was right which turned out to be misplaced priorities. Yet one could not question their integrity and intentions.
The first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has been acknowledged the world over as a great visionary with a modern scientific approach for a nation engulfed in poverty, ignorance and illiteracy, Nehru’s dream of making the country an industrialized nation with active participation of the public sector was considered over-ambitious. Yet the experiment with mixed economy was not bad.
A great scholar and a poet with deep political background and national commitment Nehru strived to provide India a place of pride on the world map. In the bipolar world with cold war on, he chose to remain neutral in the best national interest. What emerged through his efforts was the Non-Aligned Movement which turned out to be a force to reckon with. It is another thing that with the end of the cold war, the relevance of NAM is somewhat subdued.
His philosophy of peaceful co-existence had its roots in the Gandhian philosophy of peace and tolerance and he proved to be a true disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. His successors Lal Bahadur Shastri and Morarji Desai were also true Gandhians and grew up politically through freedom struggle. We had such committed leaders as Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jaiprakash Narayan and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. With such galaxy of leaders, the country slowly moved forward and strengthened its democratic base.
If agriculture sector did not get the emphasis during Nehru’s time, his successors Shastri and Indira Gandhi worked for the uplift of the farmer and increase in food production moving towards self-sufficiency in food grains. We saw the green revolution and subsequently the white revolution when milk production not only increased manifold but also gave a better price to the milk producers. Indira Gandhi was committed to poverty alleviation and made great attempts to achieve this.
It was Narasimha Rao, who showing courage, opened up the economy to join he global market. The subsequent economic upsurge brought the private sector in the forefront. The creativity of this sector has been in full bloom and the country has witnessed increased production, better infrastructure and better communication.
Atal Behari Vajpayee fully appreciated the need for improving and updating the infrastructure and remained committed to this theme. The modernization of this sector brought about a great revolution in the country and remote villages were included in the national network. This contributed a great deal to removal of ignorance if not illiteracy. The illiterate were enlightened.
It was Rajiv Gandhi who brought about a revolution in the communication sector. The unprecedented growth in the number of mobile telephones and the international communication network are a testimony to his efforts.
The Congress party thrived on the charisma of its leaders. However, with the vacuum at the top periodically, the party’s strength dwindled. This, along with the inability of other major parties to garner enough strength in Parliament, the coalition culture was born. This had its own limitations and each coalition tried to survive on common minimum programmes keeping the allies in good humour. This has seen a phenomenal growth of regional parties, each trying to participate in the governance at the Centre. However, they have yet to mature and become responsible partners, instead of just trying to enjoy he fruits of power. They have yet to prove their bonafides as national builders committed to a modern developed nation.
The country today occupies a very important position in the world fora providing an extremely lucrative opportunity for foreign investment, a major market for defence equipment, a hub for economic activity and provides the best technical hands in the fields of IT, communication, education, medicine and engineering. It has an important role to play in the United Nations and in global diplomacy. The country is acknowledged as a powerful nation militarily with most sophisticated weapons and a highly trained armed force.
Shivnath Jha, a senior investigative journalist and his educationist wife, Neena Jha, took up the onerous task of putting together the achievements of our great nation and the performance of the past Prime Ministers, their trials and tribulations, their achievements and failures, in the right perspective through contributions from the people of eminence, who were either directly attached to the former Prime Ministers or those who were in the thick of action. These writers – Prof. Bipan Chandra, Salman Khurshid, Sunil Shashtri (son of late Lal Bahadur Shahshtri), Indrajit Badhwar, a senior journalist; former external affairs minister Natwar Singh, Syam Goenka, who also authored India Matters; former diplomat and minister for panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar; Hashmukh Shah & Mira Desai, Sudesh K Verma, Ajay Jha, Deepak Parvatiyar, K G Suresh, Shanker Kumar and others - have written, objectively, without a bias for or against the former leaders.
This coffee-table book peeps into the performance and achievements of these Prime Ministers, talks of the prevailing circumstances so that one can judge for himself the logic and need for certain decisions taken at that time.
It has some rare photographs of our leaders, some of them not needing any picture caption or an explanation. The precious and rare collection has been contributed not only by government sources but by the veteran photographer Vijender Tyagi who was there to record oath-taking ceremonies of virtually all the Prime Ministers till date. Tyagi has authored a book on former Prime Minister, late Chandra Shekhar. He has a fabulous collection and an equally sharp memory of events. He willingly and enthusiastically agreed to contribute for this book.
For Neena and Shivnath (Bismillah:The Beginning Foundation), this is their fourth attempt at producing books of vintage value. Their monograph on the Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan created a stir in literary circles as it, not only talked about the maestro’s immortal work but also managed to draw the attention of the country on the plight of the legend. Shivnath, who dedicated the book to Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Iron lady (late) Mrs. Indira Gandhi and late Rajiv Gandhi, has travelled a long distance, himself starting as a newspaper hawker to becoming a journalist and writer. Without letting anyone romanticize his hard struggle, he has matured into an objective optimist. The couple has decided to utilize the proceeds from this book to solemnize the wedding of at least 50 girls from poor, orphan and dalit families and rehabilitate Sultana Begum, the great grand daughter-in-law of Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, who alongwith her son and a marriageable daughter, is living in anonymity in a slum in Howrah. This was the dream of late Shehnai marestro Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan, which they have decided to fulfill.
