C. Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, contributed significantly to the progress of post-independent India in multiple ways. Rajaji, who was born on 10th December 1878, passed away on 25th December, 1972. N.S. Venkataraman makes a case for remembering India’s first governor-general by celebrating his birth anniversary as Start-up India Day
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, popularly known as Rajaji, a far-sighted thinker who was hailed by Mahatma Gandhi as his conscience keeper, served first as a freedom fighter and later as the first governor-general of independent India. He contributed significantly to the progress of post-independent India in multiple ways.
When Jawaharlal Nehru advocated socialism as the ideal way to empower India economically and socially, and promoted public sector enterprises sometimes at the cost of private sector ones, introducing permit and licensing procedures to check the growth of the latter, Rajaji raised his voice against such an approach. He termed Nehru’s concept of socialism, partly derived from the Communist philosophy, as “counter-productive” and said that it would destroy the initiatives of independent entrepreneurs.
Rajaji felt the encouragement of free enterprise, acknowledging that profit motive is appropriate and not unethical, was the only way to spur industrial, economic and social growth in India with the necessary speed. He disagreed with the view of those espousing the socialist concept that encouragement of private enterprise would cost the nation. He certainly never spoke against investment by government in public sector enterprises when necessary; he only said that the government’s duty was to govern and not to do business. He also often expressed the importance of ethical management and fair play in free enterprise, both public and private.
Rajaji, who was born on 10th December 1878, passed away on 25th December, 1972, and it took India more than 50 years after the deaths of both Rajaji and Nehru to realise the merits of the former’s stand on promotion of free enterprise. After experimenting with the socialistic concept for several decades and realising its inadequacies, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao recognised the importance of encouraging free enterprise in India and took steps to open the economy in 1991. This marked the beginning of the big leap forward taken by India’s economy.
Coming to the present, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Start Up India Scheme takes a leaf from Rajaji’s advocacy of free enterprise. It aims to encourage individual initiative and promote enterprise. The concept has caught the imagination of the people, and there are now reportedly over 125,000 registered start-ups in the country. Considering the similarities in Rajaji’s long-term vision of free enterprise and the aim of the Start Up India mission, it would be appropriate to celebrate Rajaji’s birth anniversary on 10th December every year as Start Up India Day, rather than the date allocated to it at present – 16th January.
(The writer is trustee, Nandini Voice for the Deprived, Chennai. He lives in Chennai.)
from Webdoux