November marks an important month when it comes to Indian politics. For a country which easily falls for hero-worship and paying obesiance is synonymous to public outpouring of respect for the national leaders on their birth and death anniversaries rather than delving on their legacy, November assumes significance as two of India's prime ministers were born in this month.
India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was born on the 14th day of November and this year marks his 125th birth anniversary. His daughter Indira Gandhi was born on November 19 and this year completes three decades since she was brutally assassinated by her bodyguards. Both father and daughter have made significant contributions as prime minister in shaping India's polity and left a rich legacy.
Nehru was known for his rich vision of nation-building and although one might disagree with him but no one could question his intellectual and political acumen. He has influenced many in shaping their intellectual thoughts.
Recently, I came across an article by Dipesh Chakrabarty, a well known historiographer on South Asia whose works range from the modern to Subaltern Studies. In the article titled "In the Name of Politics: Sovereignty, Democracy, and the Multitude in India" (Economic and Political Weekly; Jul 23 2005), the author makes a comparison between 'colonial sovereignty' and its post-colonial version. Although set in a different context, Chakrabarty makes extensive use of Nehru's speeches in the initial years of independent India.
Talking to a group of agitating students in Patna in August 1955, Nehru said, "demonstrations and hooliganism" were not appropriate forms of protest in an independent country. A few days earlier in Guwahati he observed, "No strong nation indulges in throwing stones and behaving like hooligans. Any fool can do that." (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru; Vol 29, p:57).
Nehru's observation can be debated, but it came to my mind when an Indian television channel beamed an agitated Robert Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Vadra (nee Gandhi) - Panditji's great grand daughter, pushing the mic of a video journalist after being asked about his allegedly questionable land deals in Haryana.
One may find it a bit out of place to establish a link between a visually brazen Vadra with Nehru's observation on the nature of protests in independent India, but the comparison becomes easier when one is mindful of the fact that the much talked about great grandson-in-law of India's first prime minister behaved like a tearaway.
Politics in a democracy, according to Nehru, must be based on 'discussions, debates an discipline' and he believed in it with similar conviction even in the civil sphere. Vadra has clearly violated the norm as defined by his great grandfather-in-law by pushing the mic of the newsperson and virtually intimidating him by asking several times if he was "serious". Vadra had every right in not responding to the query of the journalist but to act in a seemingly violent way goes beyond the realm of civility.
Nehru believed in the power of education as he thought it was the way to enlightenment. Vadra is probably unaware of the civilities necessary to be in public life and needs a dose of enlightenment in the form of education. The cavaliar in him would do well to read Nehru before he exposes himself to another incident of recklessness.
Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
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