Nehru for the post-truth era

His legacy has been all but drowned out by social media lies and mainstream media forgeries that have replaced his ideas of a pluralistic, diverse and free India

Some weeks ago, I moderated the closing debate at the Jaipur Literary Festival. The motion was: “Nehru remains the greatest Prime Minister of India”.

Before the start of the debate, Sanjoy Roy, one of the organisers of the JLF, polled the audience. Sixty per cent supported the motion, while 40 per cent opposed it. (We were relying on people who put their hands up so these are only approximate figures).

Frankly, I was a little surprised. There is so much rubbishing of Nehru these days that I thought the motion would be defeated before the debate even began. And certainly,