Netaji could have taken us past China: Murthy
24 Jan, 2011 0831hrs IST TNN
KOLKATA: India would have seized its opportunities better and faster than China and climbed to the second spot on the world economic ladder by now had Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose played a role in building the nation, Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said here on Sunday.
He would have been a perfect foil to Jawaharlal Nehru's more conservative approach to industrialization, opposed the licence raj and might even have prevented Partition, Murthy added while delivering the Netaji Memorial Oration in Kolkata on Sunday.
The software guru paid a glowing tribute to Bose while censuring the Centre for not paying due respect to the great leader. "India would have been a different country had Bose been around in the post-Independence period. Along with Nehru, Shyamaprasad Mookerji and C Rajagopa-lachari, he would've formed a cohesive team that could have done wonders for India. The country could have done better in terms of population management, reaped richer demographic dividends, adopted scientific agricultural techniques earlier and embraced industrialization better. With these men at the helm, our bureaucracy would have functioned better and most importantly, the country would probably not have been split. Today, India would've been where China now stands — on the second rung of the world economic ladder," he said at Netaji Bhavan.
Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy elaborated on why Netaji's presence would have made a big difference to India's destiny.
"He was bold, upright and could take on anybody. He could question even Mahatma Gandhi and dared to disagree with him, which he did on the dominion status issue. Netaji knew that areas like population control, industries, agriculture and health were key to the country's growth and had expressed his views on these. His views were strikingly modern and practical which makes me conclude that India would have done better than China with him in the front seat of the government," Murthy said.
Critcizing the Centre for not paying "due respect to this great son of India", Murthy felt it was time to correct the mistake. "I have heard that Delhi doesn't have a single prominent avenue named after him. This is a shame and I hope our wonderful Prime Minister will soon correct this lacunae," he added.
Commenting on India's achievements, Murthy said the country has come a long way from being looked upon as a poor, pitiable nation to a strong, emerging country.
"Our GDP growth rate is the second highest in the world, our stock exchanges and industries have done exceedingly well, we have more billionaires than Japan and our cricketers have emerged as stars across the world. But this is not the whole story. We are 119th among 160 countries in the human development index, we have 400 million illitretates, 750 million without access to proper sanitation and 25 million children out of school, while 64% of our children are malnourished. We needed a strong leader like Bose and his courageous approach to tide over these hurdles. He was a visionary in every sense and had written that even though industrialization had its evils, we can't go back to the pre-industry era and should learn to reconcile ourselves to the progress already made. Bose saw India's potential in industrial development," Murthy explained.
Bold decisions, integrity and courage could still set India on the growth path, Murthy said. "This is clear from the example set by Narasimha Rao. Even though he was criticized, he went ahead and ushered in liberalization, which should be lauded," he said.
He would have been a perfect foil to Jawaharlal Nehru's more conservative approach to industrialization, opposed the licence raj and might even have prevented Partition, Murthy added while delivering the Netaji Memorial Oration in Kolkata on Sunday.
The software guru paid a glowing tribute to Bose while censuring the Centre for not paying due respect to the great leader. "India would have been a different country had Bose been around in the post-Independence period. Along with Nehru, Shyamaprasad Mookerji and C Rajagopa-lachari, he would've formed a cohesive team that could have done wonders for India. The country could have done better in terms of population management, reaped richer demographic dividends, adopted scientific agricultural techniques earlier and embraced industrialization better. With these men at the helm, our bureaucracy would have functioned better and most importantly, the country would probably not have been split. Today, India would've been where China now stands — on the second rung of the world economic ladder," he said at Netaji Bhavan.
Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy elaborated on why Netaji's presence would have made a big difference to India's destiny.
"He was bold, upright and could take on anybody. He could question even Mahatma Gandhi and dared to disagree with him, which he did on the dominion status issue. Netaji knew that areas like population control, industries, agriculture and health were key to the country's growth and had expressed his views on these. His views were strikingly modern and practical which makes me conclude that India would have done better than China with him in the front seat of the government," Murthy said.
Critcizing the Centre for not paying "due respect to this great son of India", Murthy felt it was time to correct the mistake. "I have heard that Delhi doesn't have a single prominent avenue named after him. This is a shame and I hope our wonderful Prime Minister will soon correct this lacunae," he added.
Commenting on India's achievements, Murthy said the country has come a long way from being looked upon as a poor, pitiable nation to a strong, emerging country.
"Our GDP growth rate is the second highest in the world, our stock exchanges and industries have done exceedingly well, we have more billionaires than Japan and our cricketers have emerged as stars across the world. But this is not the whole story. We are 119th among 160 countries in the human development index, we have 400 million illitretates, 750 million without access to proper sanitation and 25 million children out of school, while 64% of our children are malnourished. We needed a strong leader like Bose and his courageous approach to tide over these hurdles. He was a visionary in every sense and had written that even though industrialization had its evils, we can't go back to the pre-industry era and should learn to reconcile ourselves to the progress already made. Bose saw India's potential in industrial development," Murthy explained.
Bold decisions, integrity and courage could still set India on the growth path, Murthy said. "This is clear from the example set by Narasimha Rao. Even though he was criticized, he went ahead and ushered in liberalization, which should be lauded," he said.
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