Re: Ending this confusion about Nehru and socialism

["Indranil DasGupta" <wanabond@hotmail.com>]

Sanjeev Sabhlok wrote:

>Rajaji split from Nehru on the Avadi resolution. It is time that we
>split from Nehru completely. I am SURE that Nehru would have split
>from socialism completely too. His is an intellect that I have always
>highly admire. He would have realized his unwitting but enormous >error

of thinking...

There is evidence that Nehru began shifting shortly before his death.
During the Bhuvaneshwar Congress of 1963, sobered by the Chinese
Humiliation, and buffeted by food shortages and famine-like conditions
in large parts of the country, he wondered aloud whether "our whole
approach to these problems have been wrong".

Furthermore, anyone with any illusions about leftist economic policies
should learn from the experience of my home state of Bengal. Here was
a state that, as late as 1960, ranked first in India in industrial
production per capita and was the most industrialized state. Today, it
ranks somewhere around 18th or 19th (among the ten largest states, it's
ranked 8th, above only Bihar & UP). What happened ? 30 years
of uninterrupted leftist policies of strikes, bandhs, hartals and
gheraos which has driven out all the industry, capital, and most of
all, energetic people who could have made the state a powerhouse in the
WORLD and not just the Indian economy. Instead it's urban economy is now

composed mainly of government employees who don't work, academicians of
mostly pink hues, and union leaders who have gotten fat off the largesse

of the ruling party while 5  million industrial/factory jobs have
vanished since 1967.

It pains me as a proud son of Bengal to say this, but this state of
Rabindranath, Vidyasagar, Vivekananda and Subhas Bose is now an
economic, commercial and political back water. It used to be said that
"what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow". For the sake of
India's future, I sincerely hope that is no longer operative.

IDG


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