Indira Gandhi's misrule

[third eye]

Been reading a great deal on IG here & in local papers these days. The lady had both sterling qualities and horrible bad points - like all of us.

We tend to be judgmental in life about our leaders as we were in school with our teachers. Further, it is always to be judgmental with the advantage of hind sight. Those of us who have been in life - death situations will vouch for the fact that the most difficult thing is decision making under pressure.

A perfect example of her qualities is the decision to create BD at the right time ( having read the conditions then) in the form that it now is in. Yet she bungled big time at Simla. If Pk had 93000 indian POWs, not only J&K , it would have bargained even for Kerala ! ( an example , not to be taken literally pls). Siachen, Kargil etc are all fall outs of a poorly executed treaty at Simla.

IG stood out for the following :

1. Quick decision making.
2. Easily swayed by her cronies.
3. Allowed herself to get distanced from the ground & violated rules.Assuming the rules could be bent . The Allahabad High Court ruling of setting aside her victory led to her imposing the emergency.
4. The emergency set the ground rules for NOT playing with the constitution any more - something no one else has dared to do.

Amritsar was a error of judgment. Less coz of what she did but more for allowing a situation to develop to a point that military intervention was needed. Mush made the same error at Lal Masjid.

We all make mistakes. Today, the bane of leadership is lack of decision making.

All in all, she was a leader whom the nation needed then. With the highs & Lows like all of us.She paid dearly for her errors of judgment.

 

[Nemesis]

absolutely. Finest prime minister in India's history(including Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru).

What tosh! What pray might be PM Manmohan Singh's achievements so far that you say he's better than Nehru? Without Nehru, we would not have been a functioning democratic society for the last 60 years. Without him there would have been none of the institutions that we take pride in. No doubt MMS is extremely well educated and has the ability to be one of the greatest PMs, however lets not jump on the band wagon just yet. Not until he actually does something concrete.

 

[paritosh]

This defence site,and no other indian leader expect few like Sardar Patel or PV Narashima Rao,no indian leader had the kind of strategic vision like IG.Be it our nuclear weapons,space program,Ballistic missile program or even nuke sub ... all such projects were initiated and bulit up during her tenure.Her decisive actions during 71war or contribution to make india a strong military power will be remembered for long time .

I would rate Nehru high up...he was more interested in the establishment of Dams and the IITs...but 1962 was his low point...Sardar Patel gave us the political map of India as we know it today...

 

[Halaku Khan]

Nehru was a corrupt politician. He had a crony called Krishna Menon, who involved in a scam involving the import of Jeeps. After Menon successfully pulled off the scam, Nehru rewarded him with the post of Defense Minister. Menon completely ruined the Armed forces, starving them of even the most basic equipment. The Nehru cabal got administered tight slap by the Chinese in 1962. Unfortunately, it was the brave Jawan that paid the price of the lunacy of the Nehru cabal. Shortly thereafter, Nehru died a broken man.

 

[Khajur]

I would rate Nehru high up...he was more interested in the establishment of Dams and the IITs...but 1962 was his low point...Sardar Patel gave us the political map of India as we know it today...

I was talking about IG's strategic vision...never a strengh of Nehru Govt.

Kashmir issue,
China's invasion of Tibet,
putting china's name forwar for Security council memebership when it was offered to india,and lastly
sino_ indian war in 1962 all proved to be some of the biggest strategic blunders of Nerhu .

 

[vnomad]

Without Nehru, we would not have been a functioning democratic society for the last 60 years. Without him there would have been none of the institutions that we take pride in. No doubt MMS is extremely well educated and has the ability to be one of the greatest PMs, however lets not jump on the band wagon just yet. Not until he actually does something concrete.

For all his towering personality what were Nehru's achievement as Prime Minister(not as a freedom fighter)? Setting up the IITs and IIMs... yes. Setting up the huge public sector enterprises? Well the jury's still out on that one. Trying to build an industrial base instead of concentrating the government's efforts on the agriculture which was the basis of the economy at the time was a questionable decision. But, lets grant him the benefit of doubt on that one. What else? Most of the solid institutions of today were a legacy of the British rule.

Now where did he muck up.

Economy for starters. India suffered chronic food shortages and its industrial growth eventually petered out thanks to absolute state controls.

With regard to the home front, most of the credit for India's successes goes to Sardar Patel rather than Pt. Nehru.

With regard to foreign affairs.
He was instrumental in setting up the NAM movement... which if one looks at the bigger picture was a nice thought but eventually didn't amount to much.
He messed up big time both with regard to Kashmir and Tibet.
In 1948, he declared a ceasefire when the Indian Army had the upper hand and were well on their way to retaking the entire state and a lot of today's problems might have been avoided had he made a few firm decisions.

With regard to China, he continually neglected the military, ignored military and political advisors, and professed love for China on one hand while giving Dalai Lama asylum on the other.




I'm not saying that he was a bad Prime Minister. He came to power during a difficult time and he could have done much much worse. But, the thing is he lived in a period where he wasn't under a fraction of the kind of public and media scrutiny that today's leaders are under. That leads most of us to form romantic idealized impressions of our leaders from this past era.

What tosh! What pray might be PM Manmohan Singh's achievements so far that you say he's better than Nehru?

In 1991 we were on the verge of defaulting on our loans. Economically on the precipice, so to speak. His reforms laid the basis for most of India's subsequent growth. As for his tenure as PM, while constrained by the limits of a coalition government supported by the Left, his administration was still able to pull off four years of average 9% growth. The five years were relative to previous governments generally good. His current administration is much better off in terms of individuals and political support and I have much higher expectations of it this time round.






Here is a quote from Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. After collecting the signed Instrument of Accession from Maharaja Hari Singh in Srinagar, he flew back to attend the cabinet meeting at Delhi.

At the morning meeting he handed over the (Accession) thing. Mountbatten turned around and said, ' come on Manekji (He called me Manekji instead of Manekshaw), what is the military situation?' I gave him the military situation, and told him that unless we flew in troops immediately, we would have lost Srinagar, because going by road would take days, and once the tribesmen got to the airport and Srinagar, we couldn't fly troops in. Everything was ready at the airport.

As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said, 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir (emphasis in original). Then he (Patel) said 'Please give your orders'. And before he could say anything Sardar Patel turned to me and said, 'You have got your orders'.

http://www.rediff.com/freedom/0710jha.htm

 

[RobbieS]

The avg Ram on the street looks more upto the Sardar rather than looking down.In fact the Sardars command a lot of respect and the generation born after 1984 has a lot more respect for them.Most Hindus consider the Sikhs a subset of their religion.So the division on religious lines is overated

I would certainly dispute that Sikhism is a subset of Hinduism. This view is spread by right wing organizations like RSS and it seriously undermines Sikhism as unique religion.

However, its true that the communal divisions between Hindus and Sikhs in India are overrated.