How a family betrayed a great nation!

India had been one of the richest nations since the Indus valley civilization when we had a well-developed economy.  The scenario continued for millennia until the subjugation by foreigners. Nehru, ‘the architect of modern India’, was our PM (a wrong choice of Gandhiji?). Later his daughter and grandson became PMs. The ‘great.’ great grandson is now waiting on the wings. With the family’s rule, many think Indians have become poorer and the family immensely richer with billions abroad in secret foreign accounts,  if some foreign magazine accounts  are true.
After independence, Nehru developed his policies in the fashion of the communist Russia (he used to be accorded red-carpet welcome in the then communist states as he was fighting ‘capitalists and  imperialists’). The royal treatment by the ‘dictatorships of the proletariat’ unavailable in the developed nations, touched his heart. He failed to make an independent assessment of the regressive, retrograde nature or their economic and political philosophy. He followed his heart (and not head) which later proved to be suicidal for this great nation and its people. He closed our borders and made India isolated from the world like the iron curtain that existed in USSR.. He invested the nation’s entire resources in the public sector industries most of which became ‘white elephants’ or total failures. He tried to prop them up with heavy subsidies from the tax payer’s money. Private enterprise was dissuaded nationally in the name of socialism. Nehru, like his friends in Russia, took away the initiative and the competitive nature of the great people. He introduced state controls which led to red tapism and bureaucracy. He created a large number of government employees who devoured the GDP.  Organized Unions disrupted work and production in every sector but their pay and perks were increased without ensuring productivity. Large scale corruption became the order of the day. The ever increasing government officials with the ever increasing laws and restrictions further stifled industrial growth. Nehru made the Indian media echo what the Russians wanted us to know and sing their praises keeping the country in the dark about the developments taking place in the west. He tried his best to take money from the rich by way of high taxation and dole the same out to the poor. In the process, he made both the sections poorer and India one of the poorest nations of the world. Everything was subsidized for the advantage of the weaker sections and they naturally did not want to take responsibility for their future and became lazy. The poor proliferated triggering a population explosion.

Nehru’s policies, followed later by Indira, sealed India’s fate. She had some miraculous solutions to get rid of poverty and bringing in prosperity. She coined catchy slogans like ‘the nation is on the move,’ ‘garibi hatao’ (throw off poverty) and wrote them all over the country but India remained poor and undeveloped; the money spent for the bills was a waste.  Rajiv, a good pilot, was dragged into politics and the throne of PM offered to him. He never enjoyed his work, made blunders and is alleged to have made a few billions in the Bofors deal (a defense contract for the purchase of the Swedish guns).  He knew nothing about steering the state nor the intricacies of the political game. He was assassinated and the Congress came to power again. Rajiv’s wife was offered the throne by the loyal sycophants (thrice?) and the ‘humble lady’ rejected it thrice as the good old great Caesar. Now the sons of the sycophants are offering the same throne to the Amul baby, Rahul.  Long live the dynasty!
It was Narasimha Rao who opened up the Indian Economy by following the Free Market principles (nowadays the credit of this is given to the simple Rajiv who could not even comprehend the idea).  India reluctantly adopted free market principles and liberalized its economy to international trade under the guidance of Rao and his finance minister.  Following these strong economic reforms, the country's growth progressed at a rapid pace. Again the reins of power went to the Nehru family (money can do wonders in a poor country) and the nation started retrograding with rampant corruption and poverty. The ruling family and their courtiers are fattening their purses so that they can control the Indian elections at any point of time.  But the downtrodden masses who vote for them are becoming the poorest in the world unable to earn even 12 rupees (a quarter of a dollar) a day. We have more than 300 million people below the poverty line and about 40% of our children are malnourished, stunted and wasted!