What mistakes did Nehru make during his tenure, that is costing India now?

November 19, 2023

Nehru created a fundamentalist and ‘peaceful community’ in India with his appeasement policy.

In 1955, JP Kriplani criticised PM Nehru in an open parliamentary debate. He even labelled Nehru as ‘Afraid Communal’. Kriplani explained that the Muslim community is ready to abide by Uniform Civil Code but Nehru is appeasing the minority by excluding them and reforming only Hindu society with Hindu Code Bill. The effects can now be seen, learning from that mistake Musl!ms are now not accepting of the proposed uniform civil code (UCC), but eventually it will now be established as indicated by ruling BJP. BJP has made a draft UCC bill at Uttarakhand state and may launch it soon.

Hindu society reforms happened with Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956, and Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956. Meanwhile Musl!ms got Haj subsidy, Maulana salaries form state, madarsa grants, minority institutions where RTI rules do not work, no law to ban social evils like triple talaq, polygamy, halala etc. Where are fundamentalist Islam containment laws? Not banning orthodox Musl!m law board in the country as part of appeasement policy was biggest betrayal to modernize the country. Why keep communal discriminatory Article 28 and 30?

This was another blunder of PM Nehru which is the root of current communal sentiments. Western notions of secularism should have been adopted for minorities too, as implemented by Kamal Ataturk of Turkey.

India's first PM Jawahar Lal Nehru organized the first Iftar party at 7 Jantar Mantar Road. It is said that his motive behind this was to relieve the Muslims from the pain of partition as well as to instil confidence in them. But there was no effort to to instil confidence for millions of Hindu refugees pouring into India, especially from East Pakistan, throughout the tenure of PM Nehru. Lal Bahadur Shastri stopped the Iftar party while he was the PM. After this, when Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister, she organized an Iftar party. It is said that she took this decision to maintain her support among Musl!ms.

Talking about BJP, their prominent leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had organized Iftar party twice while he was the PM. He had given the responsibility of organizing the Iftar party to the then cabinet minister Shahnawaz Hussain. Shahnawaz gave this information in an interview given to Indian media Indian Express. Talking about other BJP leaders, Murli Manohar Joshi, while being the party president, had given the first official iftar party of the party.

Iftar parties were also held in Rashtrapati Bhavan, but when APJ Abdul Kalam became President, he banned it. After his departure from the post, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil again started the tradition of hosting Iftar party at Rashtrapati Bhavan because UPA government of Dr. Manmohan Singh was the decision maker. In 2017, when Pranab Mukherjee gave his last Iftar party as President (Modi era), all the members of the Modi cabinet were absent from it. EAM Sushma Swaraj continued Iftar parties with gulf country diplomats during Modi 1,0 era but this was discontinued by his successor EAM S Jaishankar during Modi 2.0 government.