When we got Independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was Intolerance Incorporated. He created a highly intolerant and powerful ruling ecosystem consisting of politicians, bureaucrats, intellectuals, writers, historians, academicians, artists and the rest of Civil Society.

This was an exclusive “You scratch my back and I scratch yours” club that hogged all the privileges of this land. So bad did it get that 6/10 of Nehru’s own Union Cabinet Ministers rebelled against him along with a former Governor General and quit the Congress.

Some rebels against this intolerance like Law Minister Babasaheb Ambedkar were not that lucky politically but the most successful was Industry Minister Syama Prasad Mookerjee who would launch a system that would finally topple this Intolerance (Jana Sangh-Janata Party-BJP).

However this Intolerance raged on unabated for 67 years even when Nehru’s worshippers were in the Central Opposition and peaked from 2004-14.
It finally ended on May 16, 2014.

Now nobody keeps quiet in India. Everybody speaks. Loudly! Modi Haters have a voice. Modi supporters have a voice. Congress trolls thrive. AAP trolls thrive. BJP trolls thrive. In the Capital of the country one day you have a Congress protest. The second day it’s AAP and the third day it’s BJP.

Before the Prime Minister’s post was highly intolerant of those not from the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty. But today every powerful post in India is slowly becoming tolerant to accepting just about anyone.

But more importantly, opinions from both ends of the spectrum are finally being tolerated.

© Sunil Rajguru

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