Remembering Nehru

by BIBHUTI MISHRA

About a year ago, Panditji left us for ever. We, who had followed him and worked under his guidance for more than three decades, were all of a sudden left to work without him. Though for a moment it seemed that we were helpless and leaderless, but we were mistaken. We had a flame lit by Panditji to guide us on to the path of national reconstruction and socialism

The experience of the last one year has confirmed that without Nehru’s ideals and ideas we cannot go ahead, for whenever we have wavered,we have met with failure. With Panditfji no more in our midst, our task has become more onerous. We have to be on our guard to see that no compromise is, in any way, made with the ‘Nehru ideals’. Lately vested interests and reactionary elements have begun raising their heads and flaunting the claim that India’s independence was the result of their generous donations of a few crores of rupees! They foolishly think that they can now blackmail the people and spread their tentacles over the national life. But they must remember that so long as the ‘Nehru ideals’ are there, their black intentions would not fructify.

These elements were always on the prowl for the fruits of India’s independence and wanted to fulfil their own selfish desires. Panditji was fully aware of all such things. Once I accompanied Panditji on a visit to the Suratgarh farm. On the way we talked of many things. By the way, I asked about the role of the Public Sector in the national economy and in building socialism. I told him that I could not understand why its size was so small and the government was not very bold in expanding it. Panditji agreed with me, but pointed out that even for this small Public Sector we had to struggle very hard; the big business did not want it to go beyond a few public utilities. They were oiut to wreck it. He named a few business houses which to a large extent controlled the national economy and press. They had tried to penetrate in the political parties and influence the leaders in one way or the other. He narrated how a big businessman tried to win him over by sending cheques of big amounts and other presents on his birthdays and how he politely sent them back. Since then the businessman had been very angry with him. Panditji was not very happy about the Congress taking money from the business houses for electioneering and other purposes. He had always avoided staying as a private guest with any businessman. He warned me that the path towards socialism and economic independence was not an easy one. He was pained to see the progressive elements taking sectarian stand and criticising him and his policies unjustly. Some of them agreed that the plans were good, only the implementation was wrong; but he pointed out, if they were sincere, they must be somewhere in the implementation effort. His words are still ringing in my ears.

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THE Bihar peasantry can never forget him. It was he who rescued it from the clutches of the landlords. A few years ago, the Bihar Government brought forward a measure to effect land ceiling in the State. To obstruct its passage and frustrate its aims, the vested interests got a very obnoxious clause put into it. Every peasant—big or small—was to part with a certain proportion of his total land holdings as ‘levy’. It seemed absurd, why a man holding a very tiny patch of land should part with a portion of it and make it more uneconomical. Not only was the measure absurd, but its implementation would have been impossible. As a result of that legislation, the peasantry would have been a victim of exploitation and ultimately alienated from the Congress. We tried hard to convince the State leaders of the absurdity of the clause, but we failed. At last I approached Panditji and he saw the force in my argument. His timely intervention compelled the State leaders to delete it.

My district is on the Indo-Nepalese border. Smuggling and theft in the border areas are a common feature. Sometimes bullocks are stolen away by the people from the Indian territory across the Nepalese area. The peasants often come to me with such complaints. The bureaucratic machinery takes months and even then the bullocks are not to be traced and restored. Fed up with delays and redtapism, I used to write to or approach Panditji to seek his help in such matters. His personal interest often resulted in the restoration of the stolen bullocks or other goods to their rightful owners. On the surface it appears a very small matter; but he took serious view of these happenings and got worried that the poor peasants might not be crippled in their operations. It seemed he had not forgotten the typical Indian peasant he had first come across in Pratapgarh. I sometimes wonder how the great man took care of and remembered everything from big international and national problems to the theft of the bullocks!

Panditji is no more in our midst; but his spirit is there. His respect for democracy, socialism, secularism and non-alignment will always be remembered and followed.

I think it necessary at this moment when the country is facing dangers from internal enemies like obscurantist elements and external foes, that all the progressive elements believing in the ‘Nehru ideals’ should get together and march ahead hand in hand to fight out these dangers. The battle of independence is not over, only a phase of it is completed.

(Mainstream, May 29, 1965)

The author, a veteran Congress MP who is no more with us, was a firm believer in the ‘Nehru ideals’ and fought for those in cooperation with all progressive forces of every political hue.