The following news appeared on
Rediff on Feb 24, 2002'Nehruvian economics
prevented India's growth'
- Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley
Excerpts : Telecommunications is a big
success story. India's tele-density was a lowly
0.8 per cent in the first 50 years of
independence. In the following five years, we
managed to increase it by 400 per cent.
... Why could not this have been done 30
years ago? The reason is the Congress party. But
the Nehruvian thinking of state monopolies
prevented growth.
Well, the essence of the
article is that the current Government has
brought about a lot of 'progress' which the 50
years of Congress Govt could not achieve --- Some
are given above.. Jaitley could have added Mobile
telephone, internet etc too and blame Nehru for
not having them in India (in 1964?)
The arguments by Jaitly
is stupid. What we see today is the changed
brought about by Time, in which
the role of our leaders and current Governments
are secondary! Cable TV, Television, Mobile
Telephone and Internet are changes brought about
by Time all over the world. Don't take credit for
them. Even to accept these changes the country
had to be prepared - and that was done by Nehru,
and not the reactionary leaders inside and
outside the Congress Party.
Nehru did have a vision
for self sufficiency in the industrial sector. 5
year plans had this objective and heavy
industries and educational institutes like IITs
were started by Nehru. In some areas it worked.
(IIT for example). Some areas (especially in the
industrial sector) it was only partial success.
Even earlier successes like hmt, BHEL, BEL etc
later became sluggish and inefficient, because of
our nepotism and corruption. One cannnot blame
Nehru for all the evils which happened many years
after his death!!!
Jaitley's example of
Telcommunication is also wrong. His figures are
inflated and qustionable. In fact, Rajeev Gandhi
laid the foundation for Telecommunication
infrastructure (calling boothes was an idea by a
US returned technocrat employed by Rajeev Gandhi.
There were tremendous opposition to him when he
proposed the idea. It is said that this gentleman
had some ideas about water supplies too, but he
went back when he became redundant under later
Governments!)
The countries which
opened up without any controll do not have any
industry of their own. Mexican and South American
markets are examples. They are just markets for
theWestern Imperialism.
BJP Govt talks about
'Swaraj' and Swadeshi. In practice it is not
there. One by one the country's interests are
sold to the West.
Currency?
At the time of
independence, 1 dollar was about 5 rupees. In the
60s it was 5.50. The next 10 years it became
about 7.50 and even in 1984 it was about 8.50 -
9.00. What is the value now? After forced
devaluation by World Bank during the Narasimha
Rao regime and afterwards, the rupee crumbled to
about 16 and then to 30+. (Rao and his son took
huge bribes from international companies!) Then
it stayed around 35 for some time. Then jumped to
43 and stayed there for a couple of years. Today
it is 48 rupees. Devaluation means less value for
our products. It 's only World Bank and their
croonies applaud devaluation of the national
currency.
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