Leaders

Once in my childhood my father brought home a calendar with a picture of smiling Jawahar  Lal Nehru between Dr.Rajinder prasad and Dr.Radha Krishnan. When we asked him about the identity of these persons. He told us that these are the pillars of our Nation. However a thought struck my mind at that time about the fourth pillar of our nation. But I could not venture to ask this to my father at that tender age. Later on we came to know that they were president, vice President and prime Minister of our country. I also remember the death of pt. Jawahir Lal  Nehru when whole nation was  under the state of  grief. No body could guess who will be the next prime minister of India. Those were the days when people used to debate on  topics like "After Nehru who". I also remember when my father accompanied me to pay last respects to the ashes of of Pt. Nehru  which were brought from Delhi to Srinagar. We had to stand in long  queues to have a glimpse of it. People also used to decorate their drawing rooms with the picture of pt.Nehru.
With the passage of time when I grew old enough to read books I got very much impressed with the writing talent and scholar ship of Nehru by reading his books viz.Glimpses of world History, Discovery of India and My Autobiography.
The secular, rationale and scientific outlook of Nehru with his outstanding statesmanship qualities can not be ignored so easily.
However, I was astonished to observe in recent Lok sabha elections that some  political parties were trying to malign the character of Nehru in general and his family in particular. They created some fictitious websites telling our young generation that Pt.Nehru's grandfather was a Mogul who later on converted to Hinduism. Strangely enough our young generation  began to believe them.
This reminds me of a book entitled "The Animal Farm" written by George Orwell which is a political satire. All the characters in the book are animals who liberate their farm from the dominance of Man and start managing their farm independently. But after sometime  image of  those animals ,who contributed for the liberation of farm and developing its  economy, is maligned by other animals.
This is the story how hero's can be transformed Into villains by brainwashing the minds of general masses.
Though I am  not a political person or congress sympathiser but as common man I feel it as a character assassination of a person of such statesmanship qualities for whom president of India said that what India is today it is because of Nehru.
Though Five year plans, Planning commission and Panchsheel may have become dysfunctional today but  they have lived their utility to the optimum levels. Moreover, we can create new  pillars or substitute old pillars with new ones but we can not ignore the utility of old pillars because that will be ungratefulness on our part.