All in the family

The dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi family in Indian politics may have been underlined with Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the vice-presidentship of the Congress recently. But his family’s dominance of public life in general can be gauged from the numbers of schemes, projects, awards and universities named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. According to one estimate doing the rounds, there are 12 Central government schemes named after one or the other of these three former prime ministers, 52 schemes from the states, 28 sports tournaments and trophies, 19 stadiums, five ports and airports, a humungous 98 universities and educational institutes, 52 awards, 15 fellowships, 15 national parks, sanctuaries and museums, 39 hospitals and medical institutions, and 74 roads, buildings and places (though this last could be an underestimate).