Good question. A party who has been in power so long would be held answerable on issues like this. People and political parties would surely ask these question. Could Congress do better than what they did? Oh! Yes! But its easier said than done.
I would like to explain the situation without being bias. When we analyse situation like this, there is always a chance that we start seeing things in today's context. But we need to remember the realities and priorities of two different period could be different.
I will put some interesting realisation from my personal context to open up our view point. Lets understand the challenges we faced in 1947 and in 2020 are of different dimension. Congress couldn’t do a lot of things, but it could do things which so many other nation couldn’t do. But do we realise ?
I will tell you a story. We often blame our parents for failure in their carrier, not giving us certain facilities, or for our failure, but we never say thank you to them for things they have done for us, the values they have given us, the care and sacrifice they made for us. My father rode a bicycle, but made me capable of buying a Mercedes, my father an ordinary graduate but made me see the steps of IIT & IIM. I remember the struggling days of my father, staying in one room village house, living a impoverished life, me studding under the light of a kerosene lamp in school days, but he made me dream and here I am staying in a big apartment. Do I blame my father for not giving the facility or do I thank him for making me capable to do things he wanted me to achieve. Choice is yours, how do you want to see things. Its the value system. Today I might drive a Mercedes, but the value of the cycle my father rode is much higher. Because I drive Mercedes for my comfort, but he rode cycle to build up my life. Today I have money but I can’t change his life which he lived in poverty, because he is no more.
I cant thank him even. No I could never think of blaming him for the struggle I have seen in my early part of life.
You can blame your father for not building a pucca house, not providing you with a car etc, but the same person made you capable of doing all these, given you the platform. The money he could have spent to improve his livelihood he spent on your education and making you capable. His priority was you not his comfort
Today we can criticise Congress for anything and everything, but under its rule democracy prevailed however feeble. Rather India is rated as a strong democracy. India has not gone the way like so many other countries, take the example of our very own neighbor Pakistan. So many other countries got disintegrated, India had the perfect recipe for disintegration looking in to our diversity. But India survived, Indian democracy survived.
India had 51 Crores population during independence and today 135 crores. But we are self reliant in growing food for us inspite of massive population explosion. Population increase- is it not a sign of life? Does it not speaks of medical facility provided to increase the life expectancy, reduce mortality rate drastically ? Providing education to the teeming millions? Building quality human resources ? Indians make the highest technocrats to get absorbed across the world
An estimated 17 million Indians were living abroad in 2017, making India the largest source country for international migrants globally, up from 7 million in 1990 and a 143% increase, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data from the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs.
While most of us are questioning the education system of India and what it is contributing towards a better nation and world, our country already leading the numbers in certain professions. According to a report by annual Science and Engineering Indicators 2018 report of the National Science Foundation, India accounts for one-fourth of the estimated 7.5 million bachelor in science and engineering degrees awarded across the world in 2014.
India earned 25 per cent of the more than 7.5 million awarded S&E bachelor's level degrees in 2014, followed closely by China (22 per cent), the EU (12 per cent) and the US (10 per cent).
While Nehru took over the reign, India was in depleted condition plagued with thousands of issue from poverty, illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, health, partition, riot, famine the list goes on. Challenges were immense and nowhere to get money, neither external borrowing nor internal borrowing. But he and his team decided to work steadfastly to build the nation. His focus were on everywhere for setting up IIT ( In 1951 ), IIM ( In 1961 ) to AIIMS In 1956 ). He was a visionary leader. You have to salute his vision and far sight who could understand importance & necessity of setting up an IIT way back in 1951, or an AIIMS in 1956 and an IIM in 1961. You don’t often see leaders who could see things ahead of time. Immediately after independence he called up Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha to set up Atomic Energy Commission of India in 1948. If today India is a proud nuclear power, credit goes to Nehru for his visionary leadership. It would be difficult for today’s generation to understand the challenges and constraints faced in those days.
Below is the picture where a missile is transported on bicycle in 1963 and a satellite is being transported in a bullock cart in 1981
Today India is technology giant, a nuclear power, a powerhouse in space program, a power house IT and software, having largest railway network in the world, a formidable military power,
Operation Flood, launched on the 13th of January, 1970, was the world's largest dairy development program and a landmark project of India's National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer. India is the world’s largest milk producer, with 22 percent of global production, followed by the United States of America, China, Pakistan and Brazil.
Yes Congress failed to provide electricity to all villages in India. You can criticise it for not not doing so. But it depends what was priority in front of them at that point. Possibly the priority in front of them was different. You have limited resources, you can not full fill all your needs. So you would take call depending on what comes to first in the priority list. Possibly Congress thought electrification could happen in phase manner, while allocating budget on other head as well. The way we decide our household, many a important things get postponed.
While Modi government came to power, he got much better situation, needing fewer sectors to focus. For Vajpayeeji's government also the liberty was limited, since economy was still struggling.
But as I said in the story mentioned above that studying under kerosene lamp didn’t stop someone to progress in life. Possibly my father could have given me a little more comfort, but that would have possibly forced him to cut his expenditure on my education. He decided to spend more on my education. What do you think? Was it a wrong decision?
So picking up electrification in isolation wouldn’t be a good Idea to measure performance of Congress rule over so many decades.You have to rate then totality.
Now just consider everything Congress’s success, its failure, its constraints, its struggle and give then score out of hundred and then rate BHP out of 100.. Whoever wins - wins.
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