Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Legacies of Indian Prime Ministers

Most Indian prime ministers who held that office for at least 5 years have left a long lasting legacy... It is Jawarhalal Nehru's vision for an educated India that gave us the IIMs, IITs and AIIMS. It was Indira Gandhi's vision for alleviating rural poverty that gave a strong rural banking network. It was Rajiv Gandhi's vision for a technologically advanced India that paved the way for technological behemoths like Infosys and TCS. It was Narashima Rao's shrewd political acumen at the time of an imminent national crisis that showed that coalition governments can last for the whole term and more importantly, pulled India out of an abyss of poverty and self-destruction and charted a bold new course towards a vibrant India. I fear to imagine what India would have looked like today had he not been at the helm in 1991. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee's vision for a connected India that saw the sprawling national highways of India transform into an efficient highway network that seamlessly connected India's big cities. Also to his credit was the revival of India-US political relationship. It was Manmohan Singh's silence that exposed the many weaknesses of the ailing congress party and brought an end (hopefully) to the Dynasty's control over Indian politics. Our current prime minister, Narendra Modi, I am sure will leave a legacy that far exceeds that which most of his predecessors have left... His vision for a powerful India will see India becoming a permanent member of the UN and eventually transforming into a superpower to reckon with. His foreign policy is of the kind that we have longed for all these years.

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