In a surprising turn of events, sixty BJP parliamentarians put forward an interesting demand before of Prime Minister Modi. In a letter which was put forward by BJP MP from West Delhi, Pravesh Sahib Singh and subsequently signed by 59 other BJP MPs, they demanded that Children’s Day be shifted to December 26, the day when the minor sons of Guru Gobind Singh attained martyrdom. Currently, Children’s Day is celebrated on 14th November, which is Nehru’s birthday. More than children, it is focused on Nehru and his supposed love for them. While this demand will certainly face a lot of backlash from the leftists who will accuse the government of destroying Nehru’s legacy, let’s take a look why this demand must be considered seriously.
Children’s Day in India was earlier celebrated on 20th November, in line with the United Nations. However, after Nehru passed away, the then Indian government decided to commemorate his birthday as Children’s Day due to the latter’s supposed love for children. There is absolutely no evidence that Nehru was fond of children. His love for children is nothing but fiction. In fact, his government completely neglected primary education, which was quite evident from the paltry sum allocated towards primary education in the second five-year plan. At a time when the East was rapidly expanding and developing, mainly due to the spreading of schooling, vocational training and engineering education, India spent little on improving its education system. The Second Five-Year Plan had a clear bias towards river-valley projects and there was minimal public spending on education. Now which child loving Prime Minister would refuse to invest in improving the primary education of his country? A self-proclaimed child loving Prime Minister.
Nehru when he was alive, left no stone unturned to project himself as the messiah of children. On November 14, 1956, The Times of India reported the following event: “Nearly 100,000 children assembled at the National Stadium today to participate in a Children’s Day rally, which coincided with the Prime Minster’s 67th birthday celebrations.” Prime Minster Nehru “went around in an open jeep bedecked with flowers to enable the children sitting tier upon tier in the arena to have a close view of their beloved ‘uncle’.” It all began way back in 1951 when Indian Council for Child Welfare, an NGO on paper which has close links with the Congress Party (Indira Gandhi herself being its President once), designating Nehru’s birthday as a day to raise funds for child welfare. Successive attempts were made to brand Nehru as a soft and loving Prime Minister who cares for children the most. The Nehru administration released official stamps to mark the Prime Minister’s birthday as Children’s Day and various events were organized across the country, which portrayed a rosy picture of Nehru. But considering how little he really did for the children, it all comes across as a marketing gimmick.
Congress leaders and leftists have often romanticised about Nehru and how the present generation should emulate ‘the father of modern India’. On the contrary, Nehru should be the last person India’s youth should look up to if India truly wants to be a global superpower. His foolishness to think China won’t react to his naive Forward Policy which saw the Indian military advancing near the Chinese territory cost India dearly with over 8,000 casualties. Despite the generals suggesting otherwise, Nehru was confident that the grossly unprepared Indian military will be able to fend off the experienced Chinese forces. Back then, India was offered the permanent membership of UNSC twice, once each by the US and USSR, but Nehru rejected the offer and instead insisted that China must be given the permanent seat. Now the same China is blocking India’s membership to the elite Nuclear Supplier’s Group(NSG). Shashi Tharoor, who can take a bullet for the Congress if need be, accepted that Nehru denied the offer twice and alleged that India had no real foreign policy under his tenure.
Drowned in the power of lust, Nehru foolishly compromised the country’s security during the Kashmir accession. Nehru’s alleged affair with Lady Mountbatten, the wife of the last viceroy of India is no secret. So much so, that UPA in 2009, blocked the filming of a Hollywood movie which was based on the pair’s affair. India was all set to have a peaceful Kashmir thanks to the efforts of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Nehru’s decision to refer the Kashmir issue to the UN has resulted in present-day PoK. Lady Mountbatten’s daughter, Pamela, admitted in an interview that her mother might have catalyzed her father’s efforts towards convincing Nehru to refer the Kashmir issue to the UN. The British wanted Kashmir to fall into the hand of Pakistan and they would have succeeded if not for Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
Nehru was anything but a soft human being who worked tirelessly for the nation. This was nothing but a shameful attempt to create a compassionate aura around a short-sighted man who completely failed as the Prime Minister. It’s time that the present government with the brute majority that it enjoys, corrected the wrongs, because there won’t be a better time to do it. Nehru’s true face must be shown to the public. The country is still paying for his sins. Let us just hope the initiative undertaken by BJP MPs bears fruits.