The narratives that politicians fashion to project their vision of the past, present and future have a profound influence on the trajectory of development. Such narratives become politically successful when they resonate with people, particularly the young who have the future ahead of them. Jawaharlal Nehru’s narrative of parliamentary democracy, secularism, non-alignment, planned development, modern industry and science & technology resonated with my generation, which wanted to be as good or better than their former colonial overlords. Indira Gandhi’s narrative of garibi hatao in 1971 echoed the aspirations of the 300 million Indians who, then, had the vote but, despite
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