In their rule, the NDA government worked devilishly hard to teach our school children a new version of history. Bapu, Nehru and that entire generation of freedom fighters must be forgotten; Nehru’s socialism, Indira’s Emergency and Rajiv’s naivete as prime ministers had to be blamed for India’s ills and misery. During the last election, the spirited ferocity of democracy disposed of these evil designs. As Talleyrand said, if people had always understood the lessons of history, there would be no history.
The Congress, in its UPA avatar, is back at the helm of governance. On his birthday, we need to think of Rajiv’s many-faceted efforts to build a truly modern India. He set himself specific tasks: devolving power to the villager and his village; getting India’s youth to adopt infotech as its own and to use it to further the cause of education; to ensure instant communications across our land, especially in the countryside; to get scientists and technologists to strengthen India through the horizon technologies of space, nuclear, genetic engineering and biotech; to induct scientific sophistication in weather forecasting to assist the farmer’s schedule of cultivation and production; to utilise science along with our traditional methods for water harvesting, conservation and storage; to ensure prompt, better, less expensive health services for all Indians; and to use all this for poverty alleviation. He charted out his plan of work by himself using his imagination, style, innovation, dynamism and idealism.
Left In The Lurch? 
Crisis = Opportunity 
