The Hindu : Nehru and Rajaji

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 29, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Nehru and Rajaji

Sir, — Ramachandra Guha's article `Comrades, friends, rivals' ( May 25 ) vividly brought out the lasting inner relationship between Nehru and Rajaji. Nehru was an aristocrat unaware of the woes of the layman. Rajaji, hailing from the middle class, was fully aware of the problems of the common man. They still became close due to their integrity and nationalistic fervour. However, this did not last very long and led to the "rise and fall of companionship" of the two.

That later Nehru's language became intemperate was unfortunate and exposed his intolerance at dissent. Still, Nehru used to respect the opposition leaders and coax them to give their views. Nehru was only a statesman and Rajaji was a politician and statesman.

G.M. Rama Rao,
Visakhapatnam, A.P.

Sir, — It is a pity that Nehru and Rajaji, two great thinkers and clean politicians, did not come together to multiply the strength of post-Independence nation-building. Rajaji, with his belief in private enterprise, would have been a nice check on the Nehruvian architecture of mammoth `Temples of India'.

It is a great vision on Nehru's part that some of these institutions such as the IITs became the seed for the subsequent growth of industry, indigenous atomic energy, space and defence programmes. Barring these strategic institutions of national and security importance, most other industrial endeavour became a national wastage.

The country missed an opportunity to have benefited from a selfless Rajaji, keeping a check on areas of socialist development to allow early entry by capable private entrepreneurs.

Chandrasekar K,
Chennai

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