107. Indira Gandhi was starting public sector industries, not selling them. P S Remesh Chandran

107

Indira Gandhi was starting public sector industries, not selling them

P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 Article Title Image By Hakbar1982. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Indira Gandhi was nationalizing banks and starting public sector industries, not selling them for commissions. When the people of India remember Smt. Indira Gandhi, what come first to mind are her decent dress and the long nose denoting determination. It may be said that she was the world ambassador of Sari, representing to the world how well and dignified the Indians were in their aristocratic dressing. Not only in the liberation of Bangladesh and in the unification of the third world countries that her determination proved fruitful, but in the nationalization of banks also was it instrumental. Before she nationalized those major banks, each of them were an empire unto itself and were serving only the extremely rich. The greatness and boldness of her act can be gauged from the banks’ unwilling releasing of huge amounts as loans in the academic and small scale industry sectors.

Article Title Image By Harry Stilianou. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Now because there is no Indira Gandhi there to watch, the banks are reverting in their policies. Poor students who never get a bank loan to advance their studies withdraw silently to the darkness of their souls. Many commit suicide, tender lovely youngsters. Who control finance in governments tries to please the banks-their chairmen and directors, not to govern them. If she was there, petroleum companies in India would not have dared to raise petrol prices each week as they do now, and the parliamentarians in India would never have dared to abandon their authority to decide at what price petrol should be extracted from Indian soil and sea and sold in India. She would have instantly nationalized all petroleum companies in India for a second time and ordered O.N.G.C. to boldly continue with their commitments. It is when the extremely rich are allowed to systematically rob poor Indians and authorities turn their faces that the nation remembers and longs for Smt. Indira Gandhi. People do know and do remember the atrocities during national emergency and the horrible things that were revealed in the Shaw Commission trials. It was sad this great administrator was got involved in such things, especially after her great services for the poor people of India. The chief characteristic of her times was that she was nationalizing industries and starting them in the public sector, not selling them.

Article Title Image By Nicola Giordano. Graphics: Adobe SP.

[In response to news article ‘A tribute to Indira Gandhi’ on 03 November 2011]