Indira Gandhi An Attempt at a Political Appraisal K B UNDERSTANDING of Indian reality by the Left has been seriously burdened by an ideological albatross, that is the notion that the Indian ruling class is morally required to build the nation, as against merely making wealth for itself. Ever since the celebrated Tryst that Nehru spoke of, Left analysts have been maintaining a balance sheet on behalf of the bestiny, and periodically giving praise or bitter blame to the ruling classes according to the shape of the closing accounts. Some have even christened the ruling class the national bourgeoisie and have accepted its interests as the national consensus, its achievements as the nation's achievements, and its failures as the nation's failures. Others have not, but the peculiar prejudice that the ruling class ought to lead the country into its future remains strong with many on the Left. It is within this matrix that .Nehru becomes many things from the proponent of a liberal modernism to the hero of the nation, and Indira Gandhi uniformly its Judas. He is the builder of the nation's cherished institutions and she the treacherous destroyer of that wealth.
