
Here was a great Congress Man , the Legacy of whom is not much in public discussion.
from the desk of executive editor/Nishant karpatne
An elegant Parsi Feroze Gandhi in the Lok Sabha used to roar and thunder almost sixty years back.
Great Feroze was ruthless in exposing the first scam even though he was member of the ruling dispension.
Nehruji heard his son in law’s thundering words. Nehruji used to hear Atal Bihari also. Internationally acclaimed Democratic Nehru allowed and respected dissenting and criticizing speeches too.
Great Feroze Gandhi exposed corruptions with precision of a forensic expert and he marshalled out his arguments with facts and figures.
He exposed the scam on the Life Insurance Corporation by Haridas Mundhra.
Feroze exposed how Mundhra manipulated the LIC to purchase shares in his little known companies.
The Government appointed a commission of inquiry headed by Chief Justice MC Chagla who upheld Feroze’s contentions
and said that the Finance Minister should take responsibility.
TTK resigned, Finance Secretary was sacked and Mundhra jailed..
Feroze exposed corruption by Dalmia- Jain in the take over of Bennett and Colman by siphoning the funds of public money in Gwalior Bank and Bharat Insurance.
They were the directors of these banking and insurance companies and transferred
the money for their own company, which led to the immediate collapse of these public institutions.
Feroze exposed Birlas, Goenka (“not the one running a newspaper).
Such was his impact that within two months the insurance industry was nationalised. It was a socialistic move by Congress to protect public interests.
When some alleged that Feroze was doing these all for Tata’s, as fellow Parsi , next he came against Tata.
Feroze exposed Telco for charging more than double for an engine to railways, which caused exit of Tata and
formation of locomotive workshops in public sector. This again was a Congress move to protect public coffers. It is said that Mahatma Gandhi told Feroze’s mother Rattimai in Allahabad in 1931:
“If I get seven persons like him, India would be free in seven days”.
Feroze the greatest campaigner against corruption passed away in 1960 at the age of 48.
Seeing the huge crowd, assembled for cremation, Nehru said : “I did not know that Feroze was so popular.
The above real story helps us peep into strength of democratic voices in times just after independence.
The grand National Party Congress since beginning nurtured and encouraged democratic practices and institutions from grass root level to apex in the country.The above instances show us how old leadership of Congress took criticism.
Sadly in present time all political parties are systematically weakening democratic norms and practices.
In my opinion, hearing voice of criticism and disagreement in today’s India is the need of hour. Wake up intellectual Great Indians to the call of reason and rational. Wake up Patnaites to voices of wisdom.