27 December, 2007

Dear Abheek Barman

Dear Abheek Barman

In an editorial article in the Times of India today, justifying Indira Gandhi’s centralization of power in the 1960s, you ask: “How would Indian politics - indeed, the Indian nation - look like today, if say, Morarjibhai or Nijalingappa had become prime ministers in the late-1960s?”

Allow me present to you a list of some of Indira’s achievements. 1969: Nationalization of banks. 1976: Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. 1976: Urban Land Ceiling Act. 1976 and 1982: amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act. 1975: The Emergency. And so on.

Mr Barman, surely you’re aware of the massive cost that these measures inflicted on our poor country. If so, let me ask you just one question: How on earth could anyone have been worse?

Regards

Amit Varma

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PS: The Nehru-Gandhi Legacy of Shame.