Why blame Shashi Tharoor: Experts

The controversy triggered by Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on Nehru’s foreign policy would have not created a flutter in most mature democracies where debate and questioning of decisions are regarded as part and parcel of the nations.

But even after six decades of independence, India does not have the confidence to take self-criticism and reassessment of the past in its stride.

“I don’t understand why the government has to be so sensitive to issues of the past. One can understand problems can arise while commenting on present-day events, but reassessing policies made by former leaders should be welcome, in fact encouraged,” says former foreign secretary Lalit Mansing.

Nehru, as indeed any other great leader, did make some mistakes that should be accepted. Mansing believes that India’s first PM’s complete faith and trust in China was a mistake and the nation paid a heavy price with the 1962 border war where India faced a humiliating defeat.

The former foreign secretary also felt that taking Kashmir to the UN was another mistake made by Nehru.

This, however, does not detract from the fact that Nehru was a statesman and responsible for building institutions which served the country well. But he was also a man of his times and should be judged in that perspective.

“As a democratic nation assessing history is a legitimate exercise, we cannot be hyper-sensitive to that,” says Mansing.

“Tharoor’s comment about the high moral ground adopted by earlier Indian leaders is nothing new. Many people in India have criticised successive governments for the moralistic preachy statements that former Indian prime ministers and foreign ministers have made, so what’s there for the Congress party to have got so upset, even if Tharoor had been critical,” says a senior Indian official who did not wish to be identified.

“People are overreacting to Tharoor’s remarks,” says Naresh Chandra, a seasoned bureaucrat and former ambassador to the US. “It is a fact that India’s foreign policy has often been moralistic and judgmental,” he says.

Former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao was one of the first Congress leaders to break out of the mould. Triggered by the end of the Cold War, he took more pragmatic decisions. These included building bridges with the military junta in Myanmar, upgrading ties with Israel to full diplomatic status and adopting a look-east policy for closer co-operation with India’s east Asian neighbours. India today is much more pragmatic and New Delhi’s vote against Iran is a manifestation of this.

Naresh Chandra hit out at the media, saying he agreed with Tharoor’s tirade about unprofessional reporting.