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Technology at the Core:
Science & Technology with Indira Gandhi THE faith of Pandit Nehru in science and technology for the economic development of society was unequalled in the politicians of his generation. It was this conviction that made an impoverished country, where everything from paper-pin upwards was imported, embark on giant dams like Bhakra, educational institutions like IITs and IIMs, chains of R&D labs under the aegis of CSIR and atomic energy and space center immediately after Independence. Again, it was only his unquestioned stature in our democracy that empowered him to pick outstanding minds like Bhatnagar, Bhabha, Sarabhai and Nag Chowdhri to lead his new temples and give them total freedom in decision-making and resources. Unfortunate consequences of such personal power, within the famous grip of our bureaucratic framework, were fragile institutional underpinnings. After Nehru’s demise, his ageing play-safe political successors, with no interest in science and technology, found it easy to orchestrate their downhill slide. Bureaucracy keen to extend its over lordship into science became a handy facilitator. Called in to occupy a ringside seat in Indira Gandhi’s inner science and technology circle, Ashok Parthasarathi weaves a gripping story of the imprint of Nehru’s romance with science on her sensitive mind. Aided by her shrewd judgment and decisive character, she began a systematic effort to add punch to the science and technology initiatives and ensure their autonomy for a lifetime. She allotted key portfolios to young science-minded ministers—C. Subramaniam (Agriculture, and later Science and Technology), Kumamangalam (Steel), Venkatraman (Planning), etc. This was quickly followed by induction of top-notch technocrats in key disciplines as Secretaries: Mantosh Sondhi in Steel, Lovraj Kumar in Petroleum, M.S. Swaminathan in Agriculture, MGK Menon in Electronics. To top them all was the setting-up of a national committee comprising of the best of our brains to frame a national policy on science and technology. The results of her reinvigorated thrust were astounding. The Green Revolution enabled the famine-ridden nation to lift its head with pride. India has never looked back on the food front ever since. NDDB and milk revolution were sparkling successes. Swaraj and PTL were no less, as they succeeded against the best of global brand names with 100 per cent Indian technology. Both would have been strangled before birth, but for the vision and nurturing of CS and Mantosh Sondhi against the advice of bureaucrats. Her steam-rolling through
the objections of a rule-bound system for autonomous structures for
science and technology institutions, including finance, recruitment and
procurement, reflects the clarity of her understanding of our
bureaucracy. Imagine the fate of institutions like ISRO, CSIR and ICAR
without the autonomy engineered by her. The litany of muddling in AIIMS
and PGIMER reflected what their fate would have been. Unfortunately, we
lost her when she was halfway through pulling ICMR out of the whims of
the Ministry The impact of Discovery of India shines prominently in her concern for environment. Scrubbing out of the massive smoke-clouds from Indraprastha Power Station in Delhi of the 50s and 60s and cleaning up of the Jamuna and Ganga rivers, etc., were some of the first steps on environment in the world. Her speech at the First UN Conference on Environment at Stockholm in 1972 stirred global awakening. Insight into the acumen of Vikram Sarabhai, the doyen of new initiatives from Ahmedabad, comes as a complete surprise. Indira Gandhi’s faith in his acumen was so deep that after Bhaba’s sudden death in an air crash, his legacy of our atomic energy initiative on power was entrusted to Sarabhai straightaway. What an error of judgment! It today looks that but for his fancy kite-flying commitments in disregard of his technical team, our scenario on the atomic energy front today might have been totally different. Petty jealousies and vanities of some of the yesteryears’ top hats of science and technology and depths to which they could sink are interesting asides. Dr Atma Ram, who was hand-picked by science and technology hostile Moraraji Desai to head the CSIR chain of 30-odd labs, stooped down to launch CBI enquiries against five of his Directors who disagreed with his policies. Such is the shark-like grip of the Indian system that it was only Indira Gandhi who had the guts to quash these inquiries after she came back into power. Today when the country is gung-ho on globalisation and FD, realisation is increasingly dawning that something is missing for the benefits to become universal. In this task, lessons from our experiences on science and technology, both good and bad, narrated in Technology at the Core would be eminently useful to those interested in development. The story is a delightful weave.
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