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Article: The quintessential Nehru. (Jawaharlal Nehru)
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE Indians remember Nehru only twice a year, on May 27, the anniversary of his death, and November 14--his birthday. For the rest of the year they don't spare a thought for him. But on these two occasions the entire nation pays him homage extravagantly. The scenario and the script are the same year after year: a gush of radical rhetoric, a flamboyant but empty ritual, effusive rededication to broken promises and unkept pledges, and hypocritical reassertion of faith in his already repudiated concepts of socialism, secularism and social accountability. In other words, the 'Theatre of the Absurd' enacted on the debris of his legacy, desecrated by the very party -- the Congress ...