Why is Tharoor invoking Mrs Gandhi's dictatorial 42nd Amendment which introduced the fatuous and non justiciable notion of 'fundamental duties'? Is it because he thinks his blind devotion to the Dynasty is the mark of a 'scientific temper'? By linking the evil 42nd Amendment to Nehru- who, whatever his faults, hadn't jailed his opponents and hamstrung the judiciary- Tharoor is being a tad 'over zealous'. The fact is Indira herself repented that folly and Rajiv and Sonia and Rahul haven't mentioned it since. Tharoor, for some reason, feels now is the time to say that the dictatorial Indira of 1976 was on the right track. If Congress ever gets back into power it must ensure it stays in office by strong arm methods. Tharoor may genuinely believe that a 'Presidential' system- of the sort mooted at that time- will better serve the dynasty and its votaries. However, he should be careful. The dynasty has a history of passing all blame to 'overzealous' underlings- like him.



What war against Science is there or has there been in India? None at all. There always have been and there always will be some politicians belonging to the ruling party who will seek to curry favour with religious voting blocks. But this doesn't change anything at all.

By contrast, there was a War against democracy and the rule of law in 1976 which is commemorated in the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution which Tharoor quotes in this article. Indira said she wasn't responsible for that war- it was some 'overzealous' people. But such zealots, it seems, the Dynasty will always have with it.



Nehru was wrong about the Soviet Union. He did not understand that the 'scientific temper' of the Soviet citizen was not 'the temper of a free man'- rather it was accompanied by an active terror of a mid-night arrest and long years in the Gulag. Why is Tharoor quoting Nehru in this context? Is it not to show that Nehru was a fool who said foolish things while Indira was smart because she changed the Constitution so that she could just jail anyone who spoke against her?



Tharoor has referred to a Televised answer that Modi gave to a young student from Assam. The Youtube video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-LtP3oqAg8. Modi says that human beings have changed- they have stopped respecting the Environment and are exploiting it in a greedy fashion. Humanity has to change its habits. If we treat the Environment with love, it will not continue to change in an adverse manner to human life. Modi is an entertaining and impressive speaker. He did not say 'climate change is not an environmental problem'. He said we have to change the way we relate to Nature as individuals, as families, as communities.



Modi's view is sensible. A top-down 'Nehruvian' solution will cost a lot and achieve less than nothing. The way forward must be subsidiarity based and involve a holistic type of thinking. Tharoor, it seems, wants a return to the terror of 1976 when votaries of the dynasty could do what they liked in the name of 'Secular, Scientific, Socialism'. More particularly, since Indira Gandhi had, quite notoriously, identified poor people as the major cause of environmental degradation in India, it licensed the use of Nazi tactics against the great mass of the Indian people. It was in that context that Modi's own R.S.S gained renown as offering resistance to the triple threat that Tharoor's 'scientific temper' poses to the people of India- viz. that the Dynasty will once again assault the fundamental rights of the citizen while destroying the environment and plundering the economy.