Letters to the Editor — May 28, 2020

Nehruvian ideology

As a tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru on his death anniversary, the article, “Continue India’s tryst with Nehruvian ideology” (Editorial page, May 27) has showered lavish praise on independent India’s first Prime Minister. While agreeing with many of his observations about Nehru’s commitment to secularism, one finds that the writer’s insinuation about Patel’s secularist credentials seems unwarranted.

Hindu nationalism was an essential component of the Independence movement. The nation has paid a heavy price for Nehru’s failure to accommodate the legitimate aspirations and concerns of Hindu nationalist leaders in the party who cooperated in the drafting of a secularist constitution. Blinded by ideological puritanism, and ignoring India’s cultural history, Nehru erred in conflating Hindu nationalism as communalism, a folly that successive Congress regimes perpetuated. Treating secularism as an ideology and as a political slogan to woo certain constituencies, the Congress overstretched its meaning to gain anti-majority undertones. It may appear as counter-intuitive, Nehru’s failure to invest secularism with a broader and fair vision that treated all faiths equally sowed the seeds for the BJP’s spectacular rise to power.

V.N. Mukundarajan,

Thiruvananthapuram

While appreciating and acknowledging his calibre, charisma and administrative capabilities, it is a harsh and bitter reality that Nehru treated the Congress party as his personal fiefdom, stifled inner-party democracy and created a coterie around him. The resulting casualty has been the lack of transparency and inner-party democracy in the Grand Old Party of India, which continues to be its perennial bane to this day. The former Prime Minister cannot absolve himself from the responsibility of finding an amicable solution to the Kashmir imbroglio at a time when India maintained cordial relations with the United States and the USSR. It is rather strange that the Congress which deviated from the Nehruvian ideology in terms of economic policy more than two decades back, swears by his legacy for political gains.

B. Suresh Kumar,

Coimbatore

Court steps in

That the Supreme Court of India has finally turned its focus toward the migrant worker crisis is cause for joy and hope. One hopes that the basic needs of the hapless are met immediately and a plan drawn up to enable their livelihoods (Page 1, May 27).

V. Padmanabhan,

Bengaluru