Nehru's 97 Major Blunders Read online

  Study the past, if you would divine the future.

  —Confucius

  Nehru’s

  97

  Major Blunders

  Blunders is used in this book as a general term to also include failures, neglect, wrong policies, bad decisions,

  despicable and disgraceful acts,

  usurping undeserved posts, etc.

  Rajnikant Puranik

  Nehru’s 97 Major Blunders

  by

  Rajnikant Puranik

  Categories: Non-fiction, History

  This Edition: August 2018

  First Kindle Digital Edition: July, 2016

  Copyright © 2016 Rajnikant Puranik

  Please check

  www.rkpbooks.com

  for other books by the author,

  for their details, and “from where to procure” them

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  Preface

  Study the past, if you would divine the future.

  —Confucius

  Those who do not learn from history

  are doomed to repeat it.

  —George Santayana (1963–1952)

  Disregard for the past will never do us any good.

  Without it we cannot know truly who we are.

  — Syd Moore

  But for a series of major blunders by Nehru across the spectrum—it would not be an exaggeration to say that he blundered comprehensively—India would have been on a rapidly ascending path to becoming a shining, prosperous, first-world country by the end of his term, and would surely have become so by early 1980s—provided, of course, Nehru’s dynasty had not followed him to power. Sadly, Nehru era laid the foundations of India’s poverty and misery, condemning it to be forever a developing, third-rate, third-world country.

  By chronicling those blunders, this book highlights THE FACTS BEHIND THE FACADE.

  This is a compact book summarising 97 major blunders of Nehru. However, while all major blunders are not covered, none of the minor blunders are included.

  The focus being on blunders, this book does not cover Nehru’s positives—there are a sea of books eulogising Nehru, and reader can refer to them.

  Blunders is used in this book as a general term to also include failures, neglect, wrong policies, bad decisions, despicable and disgraceful acts, usurping undeserved posts, etc.

  It is not the intention of this book to be critical of Nehru, but historical facts, that have often been distorted or glossed over or suppressed must be known widely, lest the mistakes be repeated, and so that India has a brighter future.

  This book is different from my earlier voluminous book “Foundations of Misery: The Nehruvian Era 1947–64” (available on Amazon both in the digital and in paperback edition) which does not cover as many blunders as this book does, nor lists them systematically and exhaustively; but which deals in detail with the background, history and particulars of the Integration of the Indian States; Kashmir: BCE to 1950s; Tibet: Erasing a Nation; Himalayan Misadventure (India-China War); The Sinhala & the Tamils (On Sri-Lankan Tamil Problem); India’s Self-Inflicted Poverty; Socialism, Babudom & Corruption; Being Foreign to Foreign Policy (Disastrous Policies on External Affairs); Ill-informed Internal Policies; Mental & Cultural Slavery; Distortion of History & Cultural Heritage; Dynacracy (Dynastic Democracy), and so on.

  This book has a wider coverage compared to the above, but does not deal in the background, history and details like the above does. Many aspects which you would find in this book you would not find in the book above, and vice versa.

  — Rajnikant Puranik

  To the fond memory of my late parents

  Shrimati Shakuntala and

  Shri Laxminarayan Puranik

  Thanks to

  Devbala Puranik, Manasi and Manini

  for encouragement and support

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  What They Said

  What Nehru Said

  Pre-Independence Blunders

  Blunder–1 : Usurping Presidentship in 1929

  Blunder–2 : Setting Jinnah on Path to Pakistan

  Blunder–3 : Scoring Self-Goal—Resignations of Ministries in 1937

  Blunder–4 : Leg-up to Jinnah

  Blunder–5 : Assam’s Security Compromised

  Blunder–6 : Undemocratic Elevation as the First PM

  Blunder–7 : Cabinet Mission Plan & Nehru’s Blunder

  Blunder–8 : Making Jews out of Hindu Sindhis

  Blunder–9 : Pre-Independence Nepotism & Dynasty Promotion

  Integration of Princely States

  Blunder–10 : Independent India dependent upon the British!

  Blunder–11 : Refusing J&K Accession when Offered

  Blunder–12 : Allowing Kashmir to be almost Lost

  Blunder–13 : Unconditional J&K Accession Made Conditional

  Blunder–14 : Internationalisation of the Kashmir Issue

  Blunder–15 : Inept Handling of the J&K Issue in the UN

  Blunder–16 : PoK thanks to Nehru

  Blunder–17 : Nehru’s Shocking Callousness in J&K

  Blunder–18 : Article-370 thanks to Nehru

  Blunder–19 : Blood Brother who Deceived

  Blunder–20 : Wanting Maharaja to Lick his Boots

  Blunder–21 : Kashmiri Pandits vs. Kashmiri Pandits

  Blunder–22 : Sidelining the One Who Could have Tackled J&K

  Blunder–23 : Hyderabad—another Kashmir or Pakistan?

  External Security

  Blunder–24 : Inexplicably Irresponsible Ideas

  Blunder–25 : No Settlement with Pakistan

  Blunder–26 : Erasure of Tibet as a Nation

  Blunder–27 : Panchsheel—Selling Tibet; Harming Self

  Blunder–28 : Not Settling Boundary Dispute with China

  Blunder–29 : The Himalayan Blunder: India-China War

  Blunder–30 : Criminal Neglect of External Security

  Blunder–31 : Politicisation of the Army

  Blunder–32 : Lethargic Intelligence Machinery

  Blunder–33 : Suppressing Truth

  Blunder–34 : No Accountability

  Blunder–35 : Delayed Liberation of Goa

  Blunder–36 : Nehru’s NO to Nuclear Arms

  Blunder–37 : Responsible for 1965-War too, in a way

  Blunder–38 : International Record in Insecure Borders

  Foreign Policy

  Blunder–39 : Nehru–Liaquat Pact 1950

  Blunder–40 : Indus Water Treaty—A Generous Give Away

  Blunder–41 : No Initiative on Sri Lankan Tamil Problem

  Blunder–42 : No to India's UNSC Membership

  Blunder–43 : Advocating UN/UNSC seat for China

  Blunder–44 : Letting Go of Gwadar

  Blunder–45 : Erroneous Nehru-Era Map

  Blunder–46 : Nehru & Israel

  Blunder–47 : ‘Non-Aligned’ with National Interests

  Blunder–48 : Foreign to Foreign Policy

  Internal Security

  Blunder–49 : Compounding Difficulties in Assam

  Blunder–50 : Neglecting the Northeast

  Blunder–51 : Ignoring Illegal Proselytization

  Blunder–52 : Insecurity of the Vulnerable Se
ctions

  Blunder–53 : Ungoverned Areas

  Economy

  Blunder–54 : Throttled Industrialisation

  Blunder–55 : Neglect of Agriculture

  Blunder–56 : ‘Builder of Modern India’

  Blunder–57 : Grinding Poverty & Pathetic Living Conditions

  Blunder–58 : Socialistic-Bureaucratic Nightmare

  Blunder–59 : Pathetic India vs. Other Countries

  Blunder–60 : Nehruvian (and NOT ‘Hindu’) Rate of Growth

  Misgovernance

  Blunder–61 : Debilitating Babudom & Criminal-Justice System

  Blunder–62 : Corruption in the “Good” Old Days

  Blunder–63 : Messy Reorganisation of States

  Educational & Cultural Mismanagement

  Blunder–64 : Neglect of Education

  Blunder–65 : Messing Up the Language Issue

  Blunder–66 : Promoting Urdu & Persian-Arabic Script

  Blunder–67 : Neglect of Sanskrit

  Blunder–68 : Being Creative with History

  Blunder–69 : Distortion of History by Nehru

  Blunder–70 : Rise of the Parasitic Leftist-‘Liberal’ Class

  Blunder–71 : Mental & Cultural Slavery

  Blunder–72 : Distorted, Self-Serving Secularism

  Blunder–73 : Not Seeking Reparations from the British

  Hubris, Ill-Treatment of Others

  Blunder–74 : Nehru & Netaji Subhas Mystery

  Blunder–75 : Nehru & Netaji’s Stolen War Chest

  Blunder–76 : Bharat Ratnas—Ignoring the Deserving

  Blunder–77 : Ill-Treatment of INA

  Blunder–78 : Ill-Treatment of Netaji Bose

  Blunder–79 : Ill-Treatment of Sardar Patel

  Blunder–80 : Ill-Treatment of Sardar’s Daughter Maniben

  Blunder–81 : Ill-Treatment of Dr Rajendra Prasad

  Blunder–82 : Ill-Treatment of Dr Ambedkar

  Blunder–83 : Ill-Treatment of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

  Blunder–84 : Ill-Treatment of Bordoloi

  Blunder–85 : Ill-Treatment of Bhagat Singh & Azad

  Blunder–86 : Ill-Treatment of Veer Savarkar

  Blunder–87 : Ill-Treatment of Public

  Blunder–88 : Special Treatment for Edwina

  Blunder–89 : To Hell with Gandhism & Simplicity

  Blunder–90 : Full of Hubris

  Dynacracy (Dynastic Democracy)

  Blunder–91 : Dynastic Politics

  Blunder–92 : Nehruvian Gift: Democracy or Dynacracy?

  Blunder–93 : Election Funding, Exposure & Publicity

  Blunder–94 : Communal, Vote-Bank Politics

  Blunder–95 : Promoting Incompetents & Sycophants

  Blunder–96 : Not Limiting the Term of the PM

  Blunder–97 : Not Appointing a Successor, Deliberately

  Even More Blunders

  Blunder-A.1 : Nehru, Gandhi & Others in British Jails

  Blunder-A.2 : Nehru’s NWFP Blunder 1946

  Blunder-A.3 : Giving Away 55 Crores to Pakistan

  Blunder-A.4 : Did Nehru Covertly Intend Letting J&K Go?

  Blunder-A.5 : Squandering Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity

  Blunder-A.6 : Not Utilising Talent for Nation Building

  Blunder-A.7 : Not Leveraging the Strong Base & Assets

  Blunder-A.8 : Nehru & Casteism

  Blunder-A.9 : Nehru & Uniform Civil Code (UCC)

  Blunder-A.10 : Nehru, the Dictator

  Blunder-A.11 : Nehru: Power Trumps Principles

  Blunder-A.12 : Ill-treatment of Tandon & Sanjiva Reddy

  Blunder-A.13 : Anti Armed-Forces

  Blunder-A.14 : Opposition to Restoration of Somnath Temple

  Blunder-A.15 : Restricting FoE

  Blunder-A.16 : Article 35A for J&K

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Shashi Tharoor titled his book 'Nehru: the Invention of India'. Yes, Nehru was honest, upright, knowledgeable, secular, cultured, hard-working, and a man of integrity. He was a capable leader, who gave his all to the nation. One also has to appreciate Nehru’s physical fitness, despite his busy and stressful life—it was thanks to yoga and his healthy life style. His was reportedly a singularly unmedicated body till about two years before his death.

  He wrote books, and they were good, though not great. They were rather average.

  He was courageous—unlike the current nobodies moving under loads of security. Once during the 1947 riots, when he saw a person being attacked in Chandni Chowk, he stopped his car and personally charged-in to save him.

  He was a popular leader. He valued the virtues of parliamentary democracy, secularism and liberalism. He was one of the founders of Non-Aligned Movement.

  As an unfailing nationalist, he implemented policies which stressed commonality among Indians while still appreciating regional diversities. He was instrumental in setting up of the Planning Commission, National Laboratories, IITs, IIMs, and a vast public sector.

  Nehru was personally an honest person. If you read MO Mathai's book ‘Reminiscences of the Nehru Age’, you would come across many examples of his uprightness. MO Mathai was his PA. Like when Mathai suggested to him that he could deduct expenses for typing and other such incidentals from his income from sale of his books when filing income-tax returns to get deduction that was legally permissible, Nehru answered in the negative saying that when he had not incurred the expenses how could he seek deduction, even if legally allowed.

  There is another good example from Kuldip Nayar’s ‘Beyond the Lines’: “This incident might prick the conscience of today’s leaders. Bhim Sen Sachar, then chief minister of Punjab, approached Nehru with an embarrassing request. Vijayalakshmi Pandit had stayed at the Shimla Circuit House, then part of Punjab, and had not paid the bill of Rs 2500. Sachar was told by his governor, C. Trivedi, to put the expense under some miscellaneous state government account. However, Sachar was a stickler for propriety. Nehru said that he could not clear the bill at one go but would pay the Punjab government in instalments. Nehru sent the amount in five instalments, each time drawing a cheque on his personal account.”

  Unfortunately, Nehru allowed others to be corrupt—reminds one of Manmohan Singh!

  There are a host of books that eulogise Nehru. What can be mentioned here would be a drop in the ocean. However, this book seeks to highlight the vital and critical aspects about Nehru that are often swept under the carpet. Nehruvian blunders are summarised in this book, but they are not covered in detail. For details, please read the book “Foundations of Misery : The Nehruvian Era 1947-64” (www.rkpbooks.com), available on Amazon both in the digital and in paperback edition.

  ‘Blunders’ in this book is used as a general term to also include failures, neglect, wrong policies, bad decisions, despicable and disgraceful acts, usurping undeserved posts, etc.

  What They Said

  “...[then] it seemed to me that Jawaharlal should be the new President [of Congress in 1946—and hence the first Prime Minister] ...I acted according to my best judgement but the way things have shaped since then has made me to realise that this was perhaps the greatest blunder of my political life... My second mistake was that when I decided not to stand myself, I did not support Sardar Patel.”

  —Abul Kalam Azad, ‘India Wins Freedom’

  “I am afraid Nehru is responsible for the prolongation of the [J&K] problem through his willingness to compromise at every stage. Had Vallabhbhai [Patel] been the man to handle the Kashmir question, he would have settled it long ago. At least, he would never have settled with a partial control of Jammu & Kashmir. He would have occupied the whole of the State and would never have allowed it to be elevated to international importance.”

  —NV Gadgil, a Minister in the Nehru Cabinet

  “...Sardar [Patel] was aware of the influence which Lord Mountbatten exercised over both Pandit Nehru and Gandhiji; often that influence was decisive... Sardar had made up his mind that Hyderabad m
ust fit into his policy regarding the Indian states... I know how deeply anguished he used to feel at his helplessness in settling the problem with his accustomed swiftness... the decision about the Police Action in Hyderabad in which case Sardar [Patel] described the dissent of Rajaji and Pandit Nehru as ‘the wailing of two widows as to how their departed husband [meaning Gandhiji] would have reacted to the decision involving such a departure from non-violence.’”

  —V Shankar in ‘My Reminiscences of Sardar Patel’

  “I hope I am not seeing ghosts and phantoms, but I see the murder of Tibet recoiling on India.”

  —Dr Rajendra Prasad

  “I [Sardar Patel] have been eating my heart out because I have not been able to make him [Nehru] see the dangers ahead. China wants to establish its hegemony over South-East Asia. We cannot shut our eyes to this because imperialism is appearing in a new garb...He is being misled by his courtiers. I have grave apprehensions about the future.”

  —Sardar Patel on Tibet and China

  (Durga Das, ‘India from Curzon to Nehru & After’)

  “This great doctrine [Panchsheel signed by Nehru] was born in sin, because it was enunciated to put the seal of our approval upon the destruction of an ancient nation [Tibet] which was associated with us spiritually and culturally... It was a nation which wanted to live its own life and it sought to have been allowed to live its own life...”

  —Acharya Kriplani

  “It is completely impracticable for the Chinese Government to think of anything in the nature of invasion of India. Therefore I rule it out...”

  —Nehru

  “The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

  —Field Marshall Roberts

  “I can tell this House that at no time since our independence, and of course before it, were our defence forces in better condition, in finer fettle...than they are today. I am not boasting about them or comparing them with any other country’s, but I am quite confident that our defence forces are well capable of looking after our country.”