I Was Nehru's Shadow by P. V. Rajgopal

Author:P. V. Rajgopal [RAJGOPAL, PV]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: I Was Nehru's Shadow
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2006-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

3 Now spelt as Bokaro (in Jharkhand).

A copy of the note was found in Rustamji’s files.

SIX

Nehru’s Security

If I have to face all this security restriction when I travel, the

choice appears to be either that I should give up all touring or

give up the prime ministership.

—Nehru

No statesman in the world perhaps has given as much trouble about security as Prime Minister Nehru has done. Nobody has felt more confident with less reason to be so. Nobody has so consistently refused to take the absolute minimum of precautions, refusing to travel in a closed car—which he called a cage, flaunting himself in an open car, running out with crowds, deliberately defying security and abusing the police. And why? Lest someone should call him unpopular, lest someone should say he was undemocratic, lest someone should write a letter in the newspaper or send a telegram to him that he had been cut off from the people by the minions of law!

He was welcomed by millions of people; he wanted to meet them. He wanted to show himself and be seen by others. He wanted to speak to the people directly and allow them to listen to him. He wanted to go wherever he liked, do what he liked, in the manner he liked. He would not abide by restrictions, disliked policemen, and wanted to set up a democratic precedent that others after him may follow. What if one or two PMs get bumped off?

It would be difficult for a person who has not known JN from close to imagine what a petty, cantankerous man he could be at times. How rude and arrogant and full of prima donna tantrums—how irascible and selfish in small things! How childish and unbearably inconsiderate he was, not only to me but to those who were supposed to be his trusted advisers! And more than anything else, how impossibly sure he could be of himself and his dictums, in a world of uncertainty and insecurity!

Such, I suppose, is the composition of a great man: an alloy of bigness and littleness.

It was most interesting to go through the file regarding the threat perception to the Prime Minister’s life. The Hindu Mahasabha had been critical of him—their vituperate speeches, slanderous writings and whisper campaigns were meant to spread hatred against him, and in the process, they might have raised a Godse from the RSS or the Mahasabhaites or from the displaced persons.1 They seemed to be following a rather indirect approach. They did not want to enter head-on into trouble as they did in the assassination of Gandhiji.

The second threat to JN’s life came from Pakistan. The assassination of Liaqat Ali2 had produced an envious frame of mind among certain Pakistanis who felt “the assassination of Liaqat Ali instigated by India has deprived the country of its guiding genius. Now second rates are in power. We can only equalise with India if Nehru is removed.” There can be no reason in jealousy and revenge.

The Communist Party’s attitude towards JN was a contradiction.

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