Dear Narendra Bhai,

Sincere congratulations on achieving your life ambition; reaching the cherished goal. (I always wondered what it was!). Finally, you have scored a point off Nehru: You have outdone him in the number of days in office as an elected Prime Minister, but looking at your politics. I feel that You may also overtake Nehru in total tenure —August 1947 to May 1964; almost 17 years!

And you are not unlike Nehru: you both got it on a platter-Nehru as Gandhi’s heir and you as (Sonia) Gandhi’s villain “Maut ka Saudagar” - a ruthless operator who would not fight shy of witnessing the shedding of Muslim blood!! If she had not called you that, you might still have been in Gujarat. If Nehru was propelled by Gandhi as the icon of a secular India, Sonia dubbed you as the champion of Hindus!

Nehru had no rival inside his party like you. Moreover, he commanded the respect of all opposition who vied with one another in singing his praises! You too have been the talk of the opposition from day one: it is but a minor detail that their Modi-talk is full of distrust and disrespect. Nehru was loved by the people but feared by his partymen: you have done better here too; both your partymen and the people fear you.

Sarcasm apart, I think both Nehru and you rose to power at the time of ‘historical necessity’. Nehru when India was about to keep her tryst with destiny and needed a PM to undertake the gigantic job of laying the foundations of a modern secular nation replete with diversity and internal contradiction. You came to the scene to offer some semblance of stability at the centre when the people were sick of coalitions. Nehru rode the wave that colonial rule was the cause of all the problems of the country; you rode on the anti-corruption drive triggered by Anna Hazare and the subsequent fiasco of the first government of the Aam Aadmi Party. 

Nehru reassured his countrymen that they only had to lose the colonial mindset and participate wholeheartedly in nation-building; you guaranteed that a corruption-free India would essentially be a Congress-free India. The technique was the same, but while Nehru turned his guns outside, you turned them inside. That is where you start moving away from Nehru in spite of the situational similarity. Both of you inherited shambles: yet Nehru operated on hopes and dreams: you on hate and nightmares!

Nehru was both diplomatic and suave in his handling of the opposition; you have been blunt and brash from the start. Nehru knew that there was no opposition party to destabilise his command; still he treated them gracefully, attended parliament, listened to their speeches, showed his appreciation. Can you imagine yourself doing something like this, Narendra Bhai?

Nehru was loved and respected all over the world - that is why the Non-Aligned Movement stands out as his achievement with Nasser and Tito. True, the NAM spirit waned after the three; but its need is felt even now when nations are forced to take sides in conflicts they have little to do with. You travelled tirelessly outside India (maybe as a compensation for being stuck in the country as an RSS ‘Pracharak’?) and received, we were told, a rousing welcome. But are you sure that it was not a demonstration of the ‘Aapano Narendra Bhai’ feeling, as Gujjus are the main Indian diaspora the world over? Recently you appealed to our countrymen to consume less and practice austerity when you had donned a ‘golden suit’ during your first term. Do you think public memory is that short?

While you are busy spewing venom at Nehru round the clock, let me remind you, India has managed to escape acute petroleum shortage because her main supply of crude (over 40%) comes from Russia. I wonder how much history you have read, but Narendra Bhai, ask yourself or your think bank (if there is one!) who the architect of Indo-Soviet friendship was? USSR had also stood by India during the Bangla Desh crisis.

I don’t want to take Nehru’s brief. I have always been critical of his introduction of the Soviet model of state-led development in India and for his total neglect of the agriculture sector, in the name of rapid industrialization. Yet you cannot rewrite history at your will!

Take, for example, your recent outburst that Congress had given Hindu - the word, the concept, the community - a bad reputation. Are you sure Hindu will pass thorough scrutiny with flying colours? That may be beyond you, but surely you will agree that if Congress was so anti-Hindu, would Jinnah and Ambedkar have founded their parties? They felt the need to do so because Congress was, in essence, a Hindu party!

Such is your anti-Nehru obsession that I suspect a part of you is almost ‘nehruvised’. Nehru was authoritarian and scary to his party members- so are you to BJP. While he was around, the gossip about who would succeed him was hush-hush, and when he passed, everything went into a spin, and the cracks inside Congress suddenly surfaced even before his cremation. Do you think the BJP is ready to face that situation? Let me be clear here: I am not anticipating the ultimate and wish you a long and better life if you are going to continue! Yet it is high time that you started thinking of the succession which is bound to happen sooner rather than later. Maybe the BJP will take the notional retirement age to 80 to help you become the all-time longest-serving PM; still, my point will hold.  

There is another funny side to this: by your committed ‘Virodha-bhakti’ for the Nehru dynasty, you have assimilated the negative aspects of three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, with increasing intensity. Like her dad, Indira was scary, authoritarian all right, but she went up the scale as she was cruel and vengeful. Sanjay was scary, authoritarian, cruel, vengeful, and went a step further with his brash, uncouth politics. But you are a touch above all of them! 

You are all this and a master of double talk. I know that diplomacy is a part of politics and some deceptive double talk is called for. But there is no double intent there. You are master of double intent. You appeal to the opposition to join the government in national reconstruction, but you call them traitors and enemies of the people and whatnot in your election speeches. 

You talk of ‘one nation, one election’, but you are in top form with assembly elections in some parts of the country because that gives you the god-send to split the regional parties. You profess deep trust in the Constitution but are burning midnight oil to raise the number of NDA MPs because you are planning drastic amendments to the foundations of the world’s largest democracy.

All this is not Cricket, Narendra Bhai!

You are running the nation like fighting a Civil War! This is just not done! You may be popular and tell people your ‘Man ki Baat’ directly. But you are answerable to the parliament which you hardly attend. The opposition are not your enemies. You need not stoop, but you have to be courteous. Listen to them, talk with them, if that is not too much to ask! After 12 years in power, the nation looked upon Nehru as a saviour and not a destroyer! Let that be a lesson to you.

Leave Nehru aside; is it so out of the way to emulate Atal ji? Who, incidentally, let me remind you, was called Jan Sangh’s Nehru!

Yours critically,
Vinay Hardikar
vinay.freedom@gmail.com 

(The writer has been working in the public sphere of Maharashtra for the last five decades. His versatile personality has several dimensions, but the primary ones remain to be that of an established writer, journalist, editor, critic, activist, and teacher.)

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