अच्छे चाचा कच्चे चाचा

नेहेरुंऐवजी इतर कोणि देशाचा कारभार हाती घेतला असता तर आज त्याच्याबद्द्ल देखील काहि ना काहि उलट सुलट चर्चा झालीच असती. मग ते पटेल, सुभाषबाबु, आंबेडकर, अगदी गांधीजीदेखील. एकदम १००% पर्फेक्ट कारभार करणं कोणालाच शक्य नसतं. परस्पर अंतर्विरोधाने आणि आक्राळविक्राळ समस्यांनी ग्रस्त, प्रसुतीवेदनेने तळामळलेला पण भविष्याची गोड स्वप्नं बघणारा असा अवाढव्य देश सांभाळणं कठीणच काम होतं. नेहेरुंनी उत्तम फऊंडेशन टाकलं हे निर्वीवाद.

एक गांधीजी सोडले तत्कालीन मोठ्या नेत्यांमधे सर्वच लोक सर्जरी करण्याच्याच विचाराचे होते. संपूर्ण जगच दोन महायुद्धांमुळे अत्यंत वेगाने बदलत होतं. त्यामुळे सभोवतालचं भान असणारा कोणिही नेता अशाच रॅडीकल परिवर्तनाचा मार्ग साधण्याचा प्रयत्न करेल. भारताची घडी बसवताना रशीयन मॉडेलचा रेफरन्स घेणं देखील सहाजीक होतं.

अवांतरः
बदलत्या सौदीवर एखादा लेख लिहावा अशी विनंती.

मी नेहरुंना पुर्णपणे नकारात्मकपणे मोजत नाही अथवा द्वेषही करत नाही तरी पण नेहरु नसते तर इतर कुणि भारताचा गाडा चालवू शकले नसते हे कुटूंबपुजेतून आलेले अतिरंजन नाही ना अशी साशंकता वाटते. सबंध देशाच्या जनतेची साथ नसेल तर एकाच व्यक्तिकडे श्रेय कसे जाऊ शकेल ?

आर्थिक बाजू बद्दल धागा लेखकापेक्षा जरासे वेगळे मत आहे . अवजड उद्द्योग देशाच्या इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर चा भाग आहे आणि इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर सक्षमीकरणा बाबत नेहरुंनी योग्यचच पाऊले उचलली. इंडस्ट्रीअल इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर कडे लक्ष दिले म्हणजे काँग्रेस सरकारांनी शेती आणि ग्रामीण भागासाठी आर्थिक तरतुदी कमी केल्या असे नाही विधीमम्डळे आणि संसदीय राजकारणावर ग्रामिण आणि शेती आधारीत राजकारणाचा प्रभाव काँग्रेस सरकारांवर सातत्याने होता. लोकसंख्या वाढीमुळे - अंशतः समाजवादामुळेही -या आर्थिक तरतुदींचे परिणाम दिसत नव्हते लोकसंख्या प्रश्न संजय गांधीच्या वेळी लक्षात आला आणि संजय गांधीच्या चमच्यांनी दुर्दैवाने चुकीच्या पद्धतीने हाताळला. समाजवादी व्यवस्थेचा आणि ततसंबंधी मर्यादांचा दोष पूर्णपणे नेहरुंना देता येत नाही, नेहरु असे पर्यंत स्थावरजंगम हा राज्यघटनेत मुलभूत आधिकार होता जो कम्युनिस्टांसोबतच्या राजकीय स्पर्धेत इंदिरा गांधींना बदलावा लागला. योजना आयोगासारखी व्यवस्था योजना आयोगाचे यशापयश वेगळे मोजले तरी व्यक्ती केंद्रीत नव्हती त्यामुळे आर्थिक बाजूवरुन नेहरुंकडे काही दोष पोहोचत असेल तर तो मर्यादीत असावा.

नेपोटीझम मुळे प्रतिस्पर्ध्यांशी राजकीय स्पर्धा अधिक करावी लागते त्यात नेहरुंनी स्वतःच्या कुटूंबास हकनाक गुंतवण्यात सहभागामुळे नेहरुंचे काही राजकीय निर्णय अप्रत्यक्ष प्रभावित होणे सहाजिक असणार आणि त्याचा अप्रत्यक्ष परिणाम धोरणांवर होऊन कारखानदारी व्यवस्था लायसन्सराजच्या दिशेने तर कुळकायदा आणि सिलींग धरण बांधले पण कालवे नाही सारखे जमिनी घेतल्या पण वाटल्या नाही आणि कुळकायद्याने ग्रामिण अर्थव्यवस्थेतील फ्लाईट ऑफ कॅपिटल, त्यातच वाढत्या लोकसंख्येने जमिनीच्या वाटण्या अधिकच झाल्या अशा समस्यांकडे दुर्लक्ष होत गेले असावे. विस्ताराने लिहिण्याचा विषय आहे तुर्तास एवढेच.

डिस्कव्हरी ऑफ इंडियाच्या पुर्नवाचना सोबत काही धागा तीन लेख मिपावर लिहून झालेत (माझे नेहरवायण १ , २, ३ ) डिस्कव्हरी ऑफ इंडियाचे पुर्नवाचन मध्येच थांबले तसे त्या अनुषंगाने लेखनही थांबले पुन्हा योग येईल तसे पुढे नेईन.

नेहरुंचा द्वेश करण्यात एका ठारावीक वर्गाचा फार मोठा सहभाग आहे. त्या संघटनेने नेहरु हे कसे इस्लाम धार्जीणे होते किंवा इस्लामधर्मीय होते हे खोटे शोध लावण्यातच धम्यता मानली.

Excerpts from 'With no ill feeling to anybody' by MKK nair, IAS-47 batch

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, whose 137th birth anniversary was on October 31, was insulted, humiliated and disgraced by the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, during a Cabinet meeting.

"You are completely communal and I'll never be a party to your suggestions and proposals," Nehru is supposed to have shouted at Patel during a crucial Cabinet meeting to discuss the liberation of Hyderabad by the Army from the tyranny of the Razakkars, the then Nizam's private army.

"A shocked Sardar Patel collected his papers from the table and slowly walked out of the Cabinet room. That was the last time Patel attended a Cabinet meeting. He also stopped speaking to Nehru since then," writes MKK Nair, a 1947 batch IAS officer, in his memoirs "With No Ill Feeling to Anybody."

Nair had close ties with both Sardar and VP Menon, his man friday. Though Nair has not written the exact date of the above mentioned Cabinet meeting, it could have happened during the weeks prior to the liberation of Hyderabad by the Indian Army.

Operation Polo, the mission to liberate Hyderabad from the Nizam, began on September 13, 1948 and culminated on September 18. While Sardar Patel wanted direct military action to liberate Hyderabad from the rape and mayhem perpetrated by the 200,000 Razakars , Nehru preferred the United Nations route.

Nair writes that Nehru's personal hatred for Sardar Patel came out in the open on December 15, 1950, the day the Sardar breathed his last in Bombay, now Mumbai.

"Immediately after he got the news about Sardar Patel's death, Nehru sent two notes to the Ministry of States. The notes reached VP Menon, the then Secretary to the Ministry.

In one of the notes, Nehru had asked Menon to send the official Cadillac car used by Sardar Patel to the former's office.

The second note was shocking. Nehru wanted government secretaries desirous of attending Sardar Patel's last rites to do so at their own personal expenses.

But Menon convened a meeting of all secretaries and asked them to furnish the names of those, who wanted to attend the last rites of Patel. He did not mention anything about the note sent by Nehru. Menon paid the entire cost of the air tickets for those secretaries, who expressed their wish to attend Sardar's last journey. This further infuriated Nehru."

Nair has written about his memoirs in the corridors of power in New Delhi. Nair's friendship with Patel began during the former's posting in Hyderabad as a civilian officer of the Army.

"I was a bachelor and my guest house was a rendezvous of all those in the inner circle of the then Nizam of Hyderabad. Every night they arrived with bundles of currency notes. We gambled and played flash and the stakes were high. During the game, I served them the finest Scotch. After a couple of drinks, the princes and the junior Nawabs would open their minds and reveal the secret action plans being drawn out in the Nizam's palace.

Once intoxicated, they would tell me about the plans to merge Hyderabad with Pakistan after independence. This was information that no one outside the Nawab's close family members and the British secret service were privy to. But I ensured that this information reached directly to Sardar Patel and thus grew our relation," writes Nair.

The relation between Nair and Sardar Patel was such that the former's director general in the ministry told him once: "Sardar Patel keeps an open house for you." Nair, who worked in various ministries during his three-decade long civil service career, writes that the formation of North East Frontier Service under the Ministry of External Affairs by Nehru and the removal of the affairs of the Jammu & Kashmir from the Ministry of Home Affairs, were the major reasons behind the turmoil in both the regions.

"This was done by Nehru to curtail the wings of Sardar Patel," Nair has written.

Though Sardar Patel was known as a no-nonsense man, devoid of any sense of humour, Nair has written about lighter moments featuring him.

One centres around VP Menon with whom Patel had a special relation. Menon had to face ire of Nesamani Nadar, a Congress MP from Kanyakumari, during his visit to Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the reorganisation of States. Nadar barged into Menon's suite in the State Guest House and shouted at him for not obeying his diktats. Menon, who was enjoying his quota of sun-downer, asked Nadar to get out of his room.

A furious Nadar sent a six-page letter to Sardar Patel trading all kinds of charges against Menon. "He was fully drunk when I went to meet him in the evening and he abused me using the filthiest of languages," complained Nadar in his letter.

Sardar Patel who read the letter in full asked his secretary, V Shankar , an ICS officer: "Shankar, does VP take drinks?"

Shankar, who was embarrassed by the question, had to spill the beans. "Sir, Menon takes a couple of drinks in the evening," he said.

Sardar was curious to know what was Menon's favourite drink. Shankar replied that Menon preferred only Scotch.

"Shankar, you instruct all government secretaries to take Scotch in the evening," Sardar told.

Shankar Nair writes that this anecdote was a rave in the Delhi evenings for a number of years!

Balraj Krishna (92), who authored Sardar's biography, told The Pioneer that Nehru was opposed to Babu Rajendra Prasad, the then President, travelling to Bombay to pay his last respects to Patel. "But Prasad insisted and made it to Bombay," said Krishna.

MV Kamath, senior journalist, said though Nehru too attended the funeral of Patel, it was C Rajagopalachari, who delivered the funeral oration. Prof MGS Narayanan, former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, said there was no reason to disbelieve what Nair has written. "But his memoirs did not get the due recognition it deserved. It is a historical chronicle of pre-and post independent India," he said.

No wonder we hear this common refrain, that, if only the Sardar had become our PM, as per the votes of CWC, and Gandhi had not dissuaded him, in favour of a sulking Nehru, many of the country's problems would not have risen.

नमस्कार सुधीर मुतालिक.

नेहरूंनी १७ वर्षं राज्यकारभार केला तो एडविनाच्या बळावर. अर्नेस्ट कासाल हा तिचा आजा (आईचा बाप). कासाल हा व्हिक्टोरिया राणीच्या काळचा ब्रिटीश साम्राज्याच्या पैशांचा प्रमुख स्रोत सांभाळीत असे. आजच्या भाषेत तो एक 'ग्लोबल आंतरप्रेन्युअर' होता. जगभर त्याच्या अफाट ओळखी होत्या. एडविनाची आई तिच्या लहानपणीच वारली. बापाचा पत्ता नव्हता. तिचं पालनपोषण अर्नेस्टनेच केलं. एडविना त्याच्याच तालमीत तयार झाली.

पुढे नेहरू आणि एडविनाची लफडी व्यवस्थित सुरू झाली. नेहरू पंतप्रधान झाल्यावर तिच्या सल्ल्याने कारभार हाकीत असे. १९६० सली एडविना मेल्यावर नेहरूची एक बाजू कमकुवत झाली. पण त्याचा फाजील आत्मविश्वास अभंग होता. त्यातनं पुढे १९६२ ची चिनी दुर्घटना घडली.

आझाद हिंद सेनेच्या सैनिकांना सैन्यात परत प्रवेश न देण्याची अक्कल नेहरूंची असेलसं वाटंत नाही.

आ.न.,
-गा.पै.