CHACHA NEHRU : Still Children's Favourite ?

Pandit Nehru is fondly called 'Chacha Nehru'. The most popular reason behind the coinage of this term for him was his love for children.

It was for his special love towards children that he came to be known as Chacha or the favourite uncle for the children of the country. November 14 is marked as Children's Day to commemorate the man, the freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of a free India.

Before his death, India used to celebrate Children's Day along with the world on November 20. However, after Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's death in 1964, it was decided unanimously to commemorate his birth anniversary as Children's Day in the country.

Along with being a stalwart of the freedom struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru oversaw the establishment of some of the most prominent educational institutions in India post-Independence. His vision led to the establishment of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and left behind a legacy of higher and technical education for the young.

From offering dinner to urchins at the Teen Murti to buying balloons for children, there are many anecdotes about Pandit Nehru which show how much he adored children. Nehru may have gone long ago, but his charisma and appeal has not faded with time. Many who knew him have written that he was a friendly spirit who loved befriending children. He would laugh with them, wave at them enthusiastically during his interactions with public and even toss flowers at them.

Once during a trip to Tamil Nadu, large crowds had lined the roads to have a glimpse of Nehru and many children had climbed up the trees to see the then prime minister, who was a very popular leader in his times.

Set behind the crowd was a balloon seller. The strings of the balloons were gathered in his hand, but the balloons, of all shapes and sizes provided a colorful panorama, a sport of drifting halo behind the crowd. On an impulse, Pandit Nehru instructed the motorcade to stop. He jumped out of the open jeep, signaled to the balloon seller to his side, wrote RK Murthi

He bowed, held his head bent. "Buy up all his balloons. Give them to the children," Nehru told his aide who knew Tamil, wrote Mr Murti.

In another incident recalled by Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi, Pandit Nehru had invited all the newly elected MPs of his party for a dinner at his house, the Teen Murti in Delhi.

"During dinner Nehru saw that some street urchins had climbed the boundary wall and were sitting on it looking at the guests who were having dinner. So he took his plate and went to the wall and gave it to a young boy. Immediately all the MPs also gave their dinner plates to the urchins!" Mr Rajvanshi recalled in a blog.

There has been a considerable shift in opinion about Nehru in India. He was idolised by the public while he lived but nowadays there is a tendency to try and actively forget him or diminish his role. Now Prime Minister Modi has told parliament that “India did not get democracy due to Pandit Nehru, as Congress wants us to believe.” Nehru has been dropped from school textbooks of Class VIII in the state of Rajasthan. He did not find a mention in a National Archives exhibition on the Quit India movement. The Ministry of Culture has decided to convert the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library at Nehru’s official residence “into a complex showcasing the lives of all Indian prime ministers.” This is a mystifying form of equal opportunity eminence that perhaps has few parallels.

This shift in opinion about Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in India questioned about the Honor of first prime minister and also is he still the favourite of children ?