Five mistakes of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that India regrets!

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. He was the one who laid the foundation of modern India after independence. He took over the most important position in the country when it was the most needed. He has sailed the country through many difficult situation by some of his wise decision but there are some decision that India is regretting and will do it for long. Just before some hours left for India to celebrate its Independence Day, we bring you the five biggest mistakes of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that India still is bearing the brunt of.

The Kashmir accession (1947)

When India was ruled by Britain, there were some states directly under British control, while some were princely states which were allowed to be autonomous till they paid taxes to the British. During partition, the British prepared the Instrument of Accession and gave a choice to these princely states to join the dominion of their choice, either India or Pakistan. Kashmir had a majority Muslim population, ruled by Hari Singh. The British wanted Hari Singh to accede to Pakistan but the Raja wanted to remain independent. Meanwhile, there were tribal invasions to Kashmir from Pakistan and the Raja decided to sign the Instrument of Accesion in favour India. But Louis Mountbatten, added an additional sentence in the Instrument of Accesion particularly for Kashmir, which now said that people of Kashmir will in future decide whether to choose India, or Pakistan. By this time, Kashmir was already occupied by Invading tribals. India fought back the tribals and chased the Pathans as far as upto Muzaffarbad. India should have used the legality of Instrument of Accession to fight for Kashmir. Instead, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru prematurely promised the UN that a referendum will be held in which Kashmiris can vote and decide their future. It was one of the major mistake committed in independent India which is still the major bone of contention between India and Pakistan.

Linguistic division of India

Nehru was not responsible for the linguistic division but unfortunately it happened under his regimen. Potti Sreeramulu had taken to hunger strike demanding a separate state for telugu-speaking population. Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel had warned Nehru of the implication of division on the basis of language, but Sreeramulu's death led Nehru to declare the formation of Andhra Pradesh. What followed is confusion and hatred for other linguistic groups. The demand for the formation of a separate state of Telangana, Shiv Sena's agenda to reserve Maharashtra only for the "Marathi Manus", dispute over the distribution of the Yamuna between Punjab, Haryana and Delhi are a few after effects. It probably has positive economic aspects, but the fact that regional identity is bigger than the National identity is a major threat to India.

The Sino-India war (1962)

In March 1959, The Dalai Lama crossed the McMahon Line into India and was granted political asylum. Indian border police began to establish check posts along the McMahon Line, and moved border patrols forward toward the frontier of Tibet as per Nehru's "Forward policy". This resulted in two clashes in August, 1959. Several senior Indian Army officers labeled the "forward policy" as militarily unwise, on the grounds that the Indian Army was neither militarily nor logistically prepared to deal with Chinese military strength in the frontiers. Nehru assumed that the Chinese would not stand up against an India backed by both the United States and Russia, ignored the advice of the officers. By the end of 1961, Nehru had sent enough Indian Army troops into Aksai Chin to establish about 43 posts on the Ladakh frontier claimed by China. Chinese combat power was organized around an Army with a strength of approximately 4,500 officers and 38,400 soldiers and had gained extensive experience in both mountain and cold weather warfare due the Korean war. Nehru continued to ignore the advice of his generals about the army's poor state of readiness; he also continued to assume that China would not or could not assert herself against India. The Cuban missile crisis gave China the perfect time to attack. The serious fighting of the 1962 China-India Border War extended from October 10, 1962, until November 20, 1962. As soon as the Cuban crisis ended at the end of October, Chinese army pulled back as US threatened to use Nuclear weapons on China.

India's casualties for the Border War were finally reported as follows: Killed: 1,383 Captured: 3,968 Missing: 1,696

The phantom of Aksai

Maharaja Hari Singh had added Aksai Chin to the map on the suggestion of William Johnson. In fact, China built a highway through the middle of that region that India didn't know for years. China captured 45,000 square kilometers of landan area that makes up about 20 percent of Kashmir and includes a small area that Pakistan ceded to Chinaand hasn't resigned it yet. A formal cease-fire line was never established. Nehru did not try to gain back the captured land despite several heated debates in the Council of Ministers. Nehru is reported to have said in Parliament Not a single blade of grass grows there.

Nehru's failed economic policies

His economic policies deeply hampered the nation. His reliance on socialism and prejudices against the capital systems led India on the brink of crisis in 1960s. Inflation was rising and exports shrinking. The wars with China and Pakistan (1965) deepened the problem. Nehrus policies that public sector should be at the commanding heights of the economy and that exports are a necessary evil, which should be diminished, were a failure. Public sector did not live upto the expectations and agricultural growth remained constrained. Indias growth rate averaged less than 4 per cent per annum and this was at a time when the developing world, including Sub-Saharan Africa and other least developed countries, showed a growth rate of 5.2 % per annum.
This document compiled by:-

Padam Paul, Advocate, Chamber No 147, M.R.S. Advocates Chambers, District Judicial Complex, Sangrur (Pb)