Swarajya, August 27, 1966
The Prime Minister, good lady, told people the other day that the crisis was brought about by Pakistan’s invasion and China’s invasion before that, and a drought this year. Is she so simple as to believe this story if any Secretary had so briefed her? And is she so naive as to think it would serve as an explanation before the public?
She must be briefed better for the sake of the good name of the Nehru family. Here is a chance for honest confession and good common sense for the future. Let the permanent service be courageous enough for this line of action and advise and brief the Prime Minister accordingly, if they wish to be loyal to the beloved family. Flattery never helped princes in the past and will not help the neo-princes of modern democracy either.
The Defence Ministry’s “WOLF, WOLF!” is getting stale.
The people are not going to forget the economic and taxation policies of two decades that have brought bankruptcy so close to us, the price spirals that crush the poor and the tax spirals that crush industry as a whole, because you shout Pakistan is coming! ““China is joining up!”
The people know that the defence forces will do their duty despite the Congress corruptions when the necessity arises. The people will not be so simple as to vote for the Congress Government which did not do so brilliantly when the Chinese last came. The soldiers and their leaders learnt lessons from that experience but not the politicians. The elections are centred on the politicians, not on the soldiers. The soldiers are good and they will remain good if you do not distress and corrupt them.
Politicians of the Congress Party, ministers and others, wandering all over the civilized world with publicity assistants accompanying them are not going to bring us either prestige or aid or wisdom. They cannot answer the questions that will be asked of them about the mismanagement that climaxed in the devaluation of our Rupee. And these are the questions that statesmen in foreign lands must ask—barring of course those whose aim is to flatter and make you go wrong.
The Prime Minister, good lady, told people the other day that the crisis was brought about by Pakistan’s invasion and China’s invasion before that, and a drought this year. Is she so simple as to believe this story if any Secretary had so briefed her? And is she so naive as to think it would serve as an explanation before the public?
She must be briefed better for the sake of the good name of the Nehru family. Here is a chance for honest confession and good common sense for the future. Let the permanent service be courageous enough for this line of action and advise and brief the Prime Minister accordingly, if they wish to be loyal to the beloved family. Flattery never helped princes in the past and will not help the neo-princes of modern democracy either.
The Finance Minister spoke truthfully though somewhat wishfully also. “Mr. Chaudhuri replying to the debate on the economic situation referred to the controversy on devaluation and said that from that step the country would have to march on a hard stony unkind path to reach the goal”.
But on this road you cannot carry the Fourth Plan for Rs. 24000 crores or carry the old inflationary policies of digging for resources through fresh taxation or yet higher prices to buy what the people require for reasonable existence. A change of policy is necessary over and above devaluation. On the hard road referred to by the Finance Minister the old inflated pneumatic tyres will not do. The double bullocks on your election symbol must be unyoked and tied to government policy. Your party will not and cannot do it. It should sit in the Opposition and tell old stories and paint lost glories, letting a wise prudent honest new set of people govern the country. The people will hold together and respect a new Ministry of this kind. There are more than fifty eminent and good men available at once to be selected from if you make up your mind and resign. The crucible of events has proved your worthlessness. It is open to you to gain great moral lustre by this surrender to truth.
The spirit of self-reliance is demonstrated by, and can issue out of, not words chosen for the purpose, but out of new policies framed to remedy the evils which have brought us to a low estate. Reshaping the language will not do. To change over requires a kind of courage which the Congress Party, cannot now command. And the party holds the Prime Minister prisoner. ‘I dare not’ waits on ‘I would’. The people must help her to free herself by frank rejection, of wrong policies.
Nothing but a big plan, the Prime Minister thinks would please the masses. A big plan is big taxation, big borrowing, big inflation and big disappointment. The road to self-reliance and honour and rehabilitation lies in another direction. The Prime Minister’s heart is in the right place, but is sealed with the seal of the party and the motto “No deviation”.
