India could have lost northeast due to Nehru's 'mistakes': Author Priyam Gandhi-Mody

New Delhi [India], January 3 : India could have lost the northeastern part of the country to China due to the "mistakes" of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Beijing showed mercy and declared a ceasefire, said author Priyam Gandhi-Mody.
Talking to ANI about her new book, 'What If There Was NO Congress', Priyam said Mahatma Gandhi had suggested that Congress should be disbanded and made into Lok Seva Sangh (a social service organisation).
In her book, Priyam mentioned the pre-partition political environment, 'bloody partition', instances of corruption in the Congress regime and blunders committed by the Gandhi family.
Priyam believes that India's modern history has been told to suit a particular political narrative.
"When we see the Congress party sort of now saying that Pandit Nehru was a statesman, we see them loading heaps of praise on Indira Gandhi's governance. We've seen such miscalculations and mistakes on their part. For example, let me give you a current example. I was just reading the news today that Rahul Gandhi is going to start his Bharat Nyay Yatra from the northeast to Mumbai in a couple of weeks," she said.
"The northeast was taken, I mean China was about to take it and that is because of the mistakes of Pandit Nehru. China showed mercy on us and declared a ceasefire and then Nehru traded such large chunks of Kashmir," she added.
When asked about the inspiration for her book, Priyam said, "Three days before Mahatma Gandhi died, he wrote a letter as his last will that Congress should be disbanded and should be made into Lok Seva Sangh and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru would head that NGO."
"In the last Winter Session of Parliament 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also gave a similar idea-- What if there was no Congress in India at all? So when two greatest minds sort of converge on one idea, it definitely warranted some deep thought and that is essentially why I wrote this book," she added.
The book has been divided into sections. Right from pre-partition which leads us to events that were closer to Partition and what led to such a bloody Partition who was responsible for that, Priyam said.
There is a section on Kashmir and China and the handling of Kashmir and China and how different it could have been if the Congress leadership hadn't handled it.
There is also a section on the economy-- the scams and the corruption and the entire governance structure that the Congress sort of led and a section on the state of democracy within the party, the state of democracy in the country, how they had a very hard hand on protests which are supposed to be a natural part of a democracy. There is also a section on the Punjab insurgency.
Elaborating on the idea of India if Congress had been disbanded, the author said: "I think that other political party perhaps would have taken shape. You know, at that point also there were factions within the Congress.... maybe we would have seen the birth of other different kind of political leadership that could have had like a much more positive impact on our country."
Priyam contended that India suffers because of a weak opposition.
"Any strong democracy needs a strong opposition. It is very, very unfortunate that they don't participate in parliament discussions that they don't participate in. Policymaking. India suffers because of a weak opposition now. Unless they strengthen their home turf, there's no question of them coming back to power, so they really have to look within first," she mentioned.
Heaping praises on the current government, Priyam said, "Absolutely this is a great boon for our generation that we are seeing a leader like Prime Minister Modi who has such a good grip on governance who has no tolerance for terrorism, who has no tolerance for anti-national activities."
"The other part of it is this spiritual awakening of the nation. It's this passion to reclaim the past glory that India had as the most modern civilization. So it is that passion that is there which has come in the people of the country and I think that pride of our civilization now will take its place," he added.