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About the Book
India, the world's largest democracy, woke up to free- dom in 1947. The price which the country paid for gaining independence was heavy. It was, in fact, a badly bruised, bleeding and limping nation, beset with a mul- titude of gigantic problems but determined to succeed and brave all odds that took the unpredictable eternal road of history.
The objectives before the leaders were to establish and reinforce the democratic norms and institutions, to ensure progress, social justice, equity and to set rolling a process of advancement in the fields of science and technology, education and agriculture-in brief, to estab- lish a secular, democratic, welfare state. Though the nation chose to have a parliamentary system of democ racy, it had some native features which set it apart from the other democracies of the world.
Though in theory the Union Cabinet shares power and owes collective responsibility to the people, in prac- tice with each succeeding Government at the centre, actual power has progressively got concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister. In particular, a Prime Minister from the Congress Party, a party which has been in power for most of the time at the centre, now also holds the charge of the Presidentship of the party. He is, thus, the master of two main power sources.
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Free India and perhaps the most powerful and re- spected of the ten Prime Ministers that the country has seen so far. In a span of 50 years the country has witnessed some very testing times. Each Prime Minis- ter has acted in his/her own individual manner, some- times displaying great vision and foresight and on some other occasions acting in haste or on faulty judgement leading the country to disaster. Indeed the 50-year his- tory of free India has been a checkered one, having its moments of glory and disgrace almost in equal measure.
The author of these volumes, Dr. Janak Raj Jai, has been associated long with those who held positions of power and as such had ample opportunities to see our leaders in action. In these volumes he looks back with an objective, analytical eye on the life and work of each of our Prime Ministers. He writes with insight on the ideological conflicts, the various commissions and omissions of our Prime Ministers, the raging controver sies and the scandals, both political and economic, which had plagued the country at various stages in the post-independence history of the country. The author makes a candid evaluation of the performance of each Prime Minister and places everything in a historical perspective.
The book can prove a valuable asset and reference work for research scholars and students of history. besides making good reading material for the lay man.
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