Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, or Prime Ministers’ Museum. For the first time, India has undertaken an institutional effort to understand the legacy of its prime ministers. That it took so many decades to happen is in itself an indictment of the mindset of the establishment-elite that perhaps didn’t want to put any other prime ministers on the same pedestal as those from the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Despite a three-decade-plus Nehru-Gandhi rule and a decade of proxy rule, the Congress’s first family is still insecure about the legacy of Nehru-Gandhi prime ministers. This makes them skip the clearly bipartisan project despite invitations being sent out to them. It could be an admission that they feel ‘aggrieved’ their family’s prime ministers aren’t being given any special treatment but are being placed along with all other prime ministers.
This feeling of feeling special or above everyone else is not new to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s leaders. It can be seen in the Independence Day speeches of different prime ministers. The yearly speech from the Red Fort is the most important and most widely listened to speech for any prime minister. Such a speech can be considered among the most accurate barometers of how prime ministers see themselves and how they see the country’s people.
In his Independence Day speech of 1959, Prime Minister Nehru went on to call Indians lazy people. Unbelievable as it may sound, here is what he said:
“In India, there has not been a habit of working hard. It’s not our fault, sometimes such habits get formed. But the fact is we don’t work as hard as Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians or Americans. Don’t think that those countries developed due to some magic, they became so because of hard work and intelligence.”
Imagine, say, Prime Minister Modi saying something like this during his Independence Day speech. Opposition parties and the media would have gone after him for weeks, and rightly so. Yet, Nehru not only said such things but even got away with it.
However, this betrays a particular condescension towards India and Indians. It would be wrong to call this attitude feudal or monarchic. Because even monarchs tend to have some respect for their own people. But this attitude reeks of colonialism as colonialists ardently believed the natives were inferior people.
In his Independence Day speech of 1955, Nehru told Satyagrahis who were fighting for Goa’s freedom that if they are true Satyagrahis, they shouldn’t expect the Indian Army to help or protect them. This was said at a time when the Portuguese were firing at unarmed Indian Satyagrahis and killing them.
But this wasn’t an aberration. In his Independence Day speech in 1950, Nehru had already shown the same patronising tone. He had said that it is not only the government that should feel responsible but also the people and if the people do not understand their responsibilities, then they haven’t understood the true meaning of freedom.
There are leaders who have called upon everyone to give due importance to responsibilities. However, the tone and language of Nehru are clearly that of talking down to people. It is almost like he is telling the people, “I got you your freedom but you don’t know the meaning of it. So let me teach you.”
Indira Gandhi inherited the same sanctimonious streak from her father. In 1981, from the Red Fort, she told the people that while the government has responsibilities, the people have them too, and therefore, people must stop buying unnecessary things, perhaps so that price rise can be controlled!
In 1974, she chides the Indian people for being satisfied with themselves too easily or being defeatists. She said:
“Unfortunately, it has become our habit that when some work finishes, we become complacent. When some difficulty presents itself, we lose hope. Sometimes it feels as if the whole nation has adopted a defeatist attitude, but letting go of hope cannot solve any problems.”
Was this a democratically elected prime minister speaking to her people or was this an autocrat about to impose the Emergency? The Emergency, of course, is just the logical conclusion for those who think inferior people don’t deserve anything.
But this didn’t stop at Nehru or Indira Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi went on to actually say in the 1988 Independence Day speech that if not for his mother or grandfather, the country would’ve had to go to the world with a begging bowl during crisis situations.
Here’s what he said:
“Industrialisation has been happening rapidly. We haven’t allowed it to stop. For the first time, the country has emerged out of a crisis and progressed. For the first time, we haven’t had to go to the doors of others with a bowl and it is a proud moment for us. This is the result of the 40 years of work of Nehru Ji and Indira Ji.”
Such a disdainful attitude towards the country and its people, as seen from the speeches of Nehru-Gandhi prime ministers, did not impact us as mere words. It went beyond that.
When the top leader of the country views his or her own people as defeatist, lazy, complacent or self-centred, that is the attitude they are broadcasting to the whole governance apparatus.
Is it any wonder that for decades, public servants at every level treated citizens disdainfully, denying them even the rights or services that are due to them?
When the top leaders of the country call people names, the policies will reflect that too. No wonder the establishment did not see the people of this country even as human beings and denied them basic amenities such as toilets and water connections.
In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the youth of the country the ‘can do’ generation. He has such faith in the people that the government is actually reducing onerous regulations burdening them, beginning from something as simple as self-attestation to the decriminalisation of many sections of the Companies Act.
It is, yet again, no wonder that basic necessities that should’ve reached the people in the 20th century are reaching them now – because, now, the government doesn’t think of the people as undeserving.
Further, this faith in the people by the government is getting a significant response too. The number for tax returns is rising, start-ups are booming, exports are breaking records and India, despite the pandemic, has been surging from one economic record to another.
Given that India finds itself as a much sought-after nation in the new world order, one must ask, did India suddenly change from the lazy, complacent and defeatist country that Nehru-Gandhi prime ministers thought it was, or is it that they were wearing colonial blinkers?
Suhas Amble is an independent columnist. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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