It’s an axiom of governance in India: yojanas, or government schemes, cannot go nameless. If the government is doing something for the people, then the people must to be told whom to thank – or even idolise.
The default in this country, of course, has been the Nehru-Gandhi family. While you will find a few things named after Mahatma Gandhi (no relation, of course, to the Nehru-Gandhis) many more schemes and bridges and roads and parks all over the country have found themselves with a ‘Rajiv Gandhi’, ‘Indira Gandhi’ and even ‘Sanjay Gandhi’ tag.
But the Nehru-Gandhis have been voted out of power, so it’s the other side’s turn now. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party has firmly declared itself to be against mother-son governments, it makes little sense to affix their own names to government schemes. Even the patriarch, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has largely been spared this fate.
So with no family members or current politicians to pick from, who then? True to form, Modi’s government seems to have chosen either cultural icons or those who have taken on the Nehru-Gandhis over the years.
Soul Train: Swami Vivekananda Special Train
It began with the rail budget. Among the various things that the government announced was a special train that would focus on inculcating cultural and moral values and propagating the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, one of modern Hinduism’s great icons. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often cited Swami Vivekananda as a key influence.
Blurred Lines: Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission
Using one of those neologisms that politicians seem to love, the government has announced that they will be scaling up Gujarat’s “rurban development model”, which aims to urbanise rural areas through public-private-partnership financing. This is going to be named after Shyama Prasad Mukherji, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the party that would eventually become the BJP.
Great Power: Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana
Gujarat’s uninterrupted electricity supply was one of the campaign points that Modi played up during his campaign, and the government now wants to take this national. Affixed to the scheme to augment power supply to rural areas is the name of Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s tallest leaders, who continues to be revered by the BJP.
Iron Man: Sardar Patel Statue of Unity
It’s not a scheme per se, but the union government has nevertheless seen fit to provide Rs 200 crore of central funds towards the construction of a gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The money won’t be even one-tenth of the amount needed to build the massive monument, but it does demonstrate the government’s dedication to a Congress politician whom the BJP has adopted as their champion during the freedom struggle, and a counter to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Teach India: Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme
A Congressman who was a staunch Hindu nationalist and fought in the independence movement, Malviya’s name has been affixed to a Rs 500-crore programme to train new teachers – a callback to the fact that he was responsible for the founding of one of Asia’s largest universities, the Benares Hindu University. Malviya was a renowned educationist of his time.
Oh the humanity: Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan National Centre for Excellence
He might not exactly fit in with the BJP’s economic or even cultural ideology, but the government has nevertheless decided to memorialise Jai Prakash Narayan – the man who fought Indira Gandhi and guided the BJP’s forerunner, the Janata Party – by naming a National Centre for Excellence in Humanities that is to be set up in Madhya Pradesh after him.
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The default in this country, of course, has been the Nehru-Gandhi family. While you will find a few things named after Mahatma Gandhi (no relation, of course, to the Nehru-Gandhis) many more schemes and bridges and roads and parks all over the country have found themselves with a ‘Rajiv Gandhi’, ‘Indira Gandhi’ and even ‘Sanjay Gandhi’ tag.
But the Nehru-Gandhis have been voted out of power, so it’s the other side’s turn now. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party has firmly declared itself to be against mother-son governments, it makes little sense to affix their own names to government schemes. Even the patriarch, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has largely been spared this fate.
So with no family members or current politicians to pick from, who then? True to form, Modi’s government seems to have chosen either cultural icons or those who have taken on the Nehru-Gandhis over the years.
Soul Train: Swami Vivekananda Special Train
It began with the rail budget. Among the various things that the government announced was a special train that would focus on inculcating cultural and moral values and propagating the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, one of modern Hinduism’s great icons. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often cited Swami Vivekananda as a key influence.
Blurred Lines: Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission
Using one of those neologisms that politicians seem to love, the government has announced that they will be scaling up Gujarat’s “rurban development model”, which aims to urbanise rural areas through public-private-partnership financing. This is going to be named after Shyama Prasad Mukherji, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the party that would eventually become the BJP.
Great Power: Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana
Gujarat’s uninterrupted electricity supply was one of the campaign points that Modi played up during his campaign, and the government now wants to take this national. Affixed to the scheme to augment power supply to rural areas is the name of Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s tallest leaders, who continues to be revered by the BJP.
Iron Man: Sardar Patel Statue of Unity
It’s not a scheme per se, but the union government has nevertheless seen fit to provide Rs 200 crore of central funds towards the construction of a gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The money won’t be even one-tenth of the amount needed to build the massive monument, but it does demonstrate the government’s dedication to a Congress politician whom the BJP has adopted as their champion during the freedom struggle, and a counter to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Teach India: Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme
A Congressman who was a staunch Hindu nationalist and fought in the independence movement, Malviya’s name has been affixed to a Rs 500-crore programme to train new teachers – a callback to the fact that he was responsible for the founding of one of Asia’s largest universities, the Benares Hindu University. Malviya was a renowned educationist of his time.
Oh the humanity: Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan National Centre for Excellence
He might not exactly fit in with the BJP’s economic or even cultural ideology, but the government has nevertheless decided to memorialise Jai Prakash Narayan – the man who fought Indira Gandhi and guided the BJP’s forerunner, the Janata Party – by naming a National Centre for Excellence in Humanities that is to be set up in Madhya Pradesh after him.