Nehru–Gandhi family



The Nehru–Gandhi Family is an Indian political family that has occupied a prominent place in the politics of India. The involvement of the family has traditionally revolved around the Indian National Congress, as various members have traditionally led the party. Three members of the family: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi, have served as the Prime Minister of India, while several others have been members of the parliament.

The Gandhi surname came from Feroze Gandhi, a politician of Gujarati Parsi ancestry, who changed the spelling of his surname, from Ghandy to Gandhi, after joining the independence movement to bring it in line with that of Mahatma Gandhi. Indira Priyadarshini Nehru (the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) married Feroze Gandhi in 1942 and adopted his surname.

Quotes

 * Emergency was declared. Sanjay Gandhi took over. He created an army of morally corrupt, foreign-educated intellectuals with no track record. Their biggest strength was their unconditional loyalty to the Gandhi family. This tradition has continued. Loyalty over merit. Scheming over competence. Loot over contribution. Corruption grew. Guilt grew. Fear grew. With every scam, the family started making the intellectual wall bigger and bigger. Today this wall is full of scammers, crooks, agents, brokers, pimps, lobbyists, character assassins, land sharks etc. disguised as lawyers, journalists, NGOs, feminists, advisors, professors, socialists etc. Simply put, beneficiaries of Congress’s largesse.
 * Vivek Agnihotri, Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam (2018, Garuda Prakashan)


 * Their strategy was simple. Moral domination. Nehru was a thinker. But Rajiv, Sonia, and Rahul are no intellectuals. They took a different route. They redefined morality. Secularism included. Anti-Congress was new immoral. Pro-Hindu became anti-Muslim. India was morally polarized. Morality is subjective. No one can say with guarantee what is pure morality. Masses were forced to choose between moral standards (Secularism, unity in diversity, inclusive etc.) and quality of life (development). People who wanted quality of life were made to feel guilty. Hindus who wanted to celebrate their religious freedom were made to feel guilty. Muslims who wanted to be part of mainstream India were made to feel guilty. They filled India’s psyche with fear, hate and guilt. They hated all indigenous, grassroots thinkers. They hated Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, P.V. Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now Modi. They are the land grabbers of Sainik Farms and Adarsh Societies of India. They run NGOs. They run media. They coin useless and irrelevant jargon to confuse the masses. They have designations but no real jobs. They are irrelevant NRIs who want us to see a reality which doesn’t exist. They want a plebiscite in Kashmir. They defend stone-pelters. They want Maoists to participate in mainstream politics. They want Tejpal to be freed. Yaqub to be pardoned. But they want Modi to be hanged. They are the hijackers of national morality. Secularism included. They are the robbers of Indian treasury. They are the brokers of power. They are the pimps of secularism. They are the Intellectual Mafia.
 * Vivek Agnihotri, Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam (2018, Garuda Prakashan)


 * The Nehru brand has no peer in the world — a member of the family has been in charge of India for 40 of the 60 years since independence. The allure of India's first family blends the right to rule of British monarchy with the tragic glamour of America's Kennedy clan.
 * The Guardian, 2007, "The making of the Ghandy dynasty | News | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. 9 May 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2012.


 * People of India have seen obstacles of past 55 years and they have seen optimism of our 55 months. They have seen 55 years of Family First and 55 months of India First. ... We stand for democracy, they stand for dynasty, we stand for India First, they stand for Family First.'''
 * Narendra Modi. "2014 was a mandate for hope and aspiration, 2019 is about confidence and acceleration", 2019 Interview, April 18, 2019 with Times of India 2014 was a mandate for hope and aspiration, 2019 is about confidence and acceleration


 * This is why it has been so astonishingly easy for the Gandhi dynasty to turn India’s oldest political party into a family firm. And once dynastic succession became acceptable at the highest levels of political power, it became impossible to prevent dynastic democracy spreading like a slow poison into the very soul of India. ... India’s ‘tryst with destiny’ could more appropriately have been called India’s tryst with dynasty.
 * Singh, T. (2016). India's broken tryst. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins Publishers India, 2016.


 * Dynasty, a political tool in the hands of the ruling class, has become the catalyst for a new colonization of a country whose soul has already been deeply scarred by centuries of it.
 * Singh, Tavleen (2017). Durbar.