Gandhiji was the greatest Indian leader in terms of organization skills. He was able to lead the diverse and vast Indian subcontinent. No one either before or after him has been able to do so. Other leaders have lead parts and segments of Indian but not the entire subcontinent. But Gandhi had a major flaw. He was idealist to the point to being immensely impractical. In his incorrect belief that all religions are inherently good he forgot that all rules have exceptions. Being naive and also in order to feed his belief to be noble and peaceful he started supporting a purely evil idealogy that preached harted and intolerance under the tag of religion. The naive Gandhi didn't see the trick. Crooks, murderers and rapists can just form an association, tag it as a religion and then go in front of good people saying other people need to be tolerant of their evil activities just because they have tagged those activities as relgious duties. The navieve Gandhi and Nehru were replaced by the smart but crooked modern day politicians with vested intrests. Nobody in India is currently doing anything to fight Islamic extemism. Indians need to eliminate the caste system asap so that we can bond based on values rather than caste and take the challange thrown by fanatic Islam.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by Simply Human on Jul 12, 2007 01:49 AM Permalink
Then you must think that Jinnah was a genious. His brilliant acts have finally created a Nation ruled by utter chaos and civil wars.
Nehru and Gandhi were the only 2 great leaders we have had in a very long time. They had the foresight to spend all of nation's resources in advancements and developments rather than engaging in religious affairs or play divisive politics. No wonder Pakis are envious that India had such leaders and not them.
People of this generation conveniently forget what puzzle it must have appeared to these leaders in 1947 to keep India united with its diversity that exceeds Europe. Had it been any other leaders, we would have been existing as a bunch of nations rather than one nation. Nehru went to extreme length to establish a high quality sustatinable democracy in India. He successfully empowered the Judiciary and competely suppressed the role of armed forces in the state functioning.
The human weaknesses of these leaders must not stand in the way of our judging their overall impact. Nehru's only relevant mistake was being blindsighted by China. Gandhi's only blunder was the support of Khilafat, thereby encouraging Muslims to entertain a global instead of a local perspective with respect to religion.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by Kumar on Jul 12, 2007 04:34 AM Permalink
Jinnah might have analytical skills but he was a religios fanatic, brainwashed by an evil idelogy. He was no genious. Gandhi made the blunder of siding with a terrorist ideology beacause he was naive and because he wanted to feed his need to 'feel tolerant and peaceful'. Sadly he fulfilled his need to 'feel tolerant and peaceful' by recklessly abandonding the intrests of the greater good (may truth win) and also the meek Indian citizens who placed so much trust in him and his judgement. He was a guy protecting criminals and their intrests and totally ignoring the insteads of innocent and Gandhi's duty towards protecting the truth, justice and the greater good,.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by Arrow on Jul 12, 2007 05:22 AM Permalink
Nehru divided india into more states and created more chaos. Four regions are good enough in my opinion than 30 states and 30 chief ministers. Utter waste of government resources in terms of salary, security, travel, food & lodging for the families of that many MLAs, CMs.
Tibet was occupied by china, nehru had no balls to make that as an issue, rather we accepted that as chinese territory - while china still makes a fuss with arunachal.
A fake non-aligned policy and aligned with russia didnt show a clean image for india for years.
A closer military alliance either with russia or US could have averted the 1962 fiasco. China wouldnt have dared to attack us had the relations between india and russia were of the same nature like US-Pak during cold war.
Aksai chin is another lost territory & 1/3 of kashmir was already lost to pakistan. All that is coz of nehru's inability to guard the territory.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by Mukesh on Jul 12, 2007 02:13 AM Permalink
Nehru's mistake was not only w.r.t china, but his blunders were w.r.t Kashmir. Today there would not have been any kashmir issue if Nehru had taken the right steps of forcing out Pakistanis and not allowing Sheikh Abdullah to control Kashmir. Also, all the Kashmir region would have been with us only, without any article 370. Other than Kashmir and China mistakes, Nehru did good.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by Simply Human on Jul 12, 2007 03:01 AM Permalink
Mukesh
Kashmir had 60% Muslims. On what basis could he have driven the Muslims out and claimed Kashmir as a part of India?
Kashmir is a blunder committed by successive Indian govts that is no different from North-East and Punjab. Dont forget that Kashmiris supported Indian troops in all the wars till 1971. Most of the alienation in Kashmir, Punjab and North-East began after that and it was primarily based on economics in each case. Centralized rule ended up in exploitation of these regions and is still continuing. Punjab rebellion has been quashed, thanks to overindugence in the meddlings by Pakis and foreign Surdars. The same cannot be said for North-East and Kashmiris who now openly despise Indian rule.
RE:The curse of Gandhi and Nehru
by hiral joshi on Jul 12, 2007 12:19 PM Permalink
Kashmir did not have 60% muslims at the time of partition or 1948 war. If you consider Jammu and Laddakh region even now total population of Muslims is only 60%. Only muslim major area is Kashmir valley.
