NDTV Correspondent: October 09, 2010
New Delhi: Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar, has had some strong opinion set out for ministries. They've been told not to indiscriminately name government projects after Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
In a letter to all Union ministers, the Cabinet Secretary said:
"A number of programmes under execution in the country are named after leaders particularly Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Ministers. The practice has become widespread and indiscriminate. The impact of many of these programmes is not always as it ought to be, and as such many of them do not merit such association." (Read: Cabinet Secretary's letter to the ministers)
From a crèche for working mothers, to rural electrification, to subsidised housing, there are about a dozen Central government run schemes named after Indira and Rajiv.
But if one takes into account welfare schemes run by the state governments, the figure is many times over.
In August 2009, an RTI application revealed more 450 government projects and schemes are named after the Gandhi-Nehru family.
The Congress, however, defended naming projects after the Gandhi-Nehru family.
"If you at look at history, from 1946 to 1964, Pandit Nehru was the Prime Minister. Again from 1966 to 1984, Mrs Indira Gandhi was the PM. She was succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi, and all of them have contributed to nation building. Yes, their names should be associated with projects that have gravitas," said Manish Tiwari, Congress Spokesperson.
Apart from an element of sycophancy, there's perhaps also some politics in naming the developmental projects after Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. Many of the centrally sponsored schemes are actually implemented by the state governments. If these schemes do well, state governments want to take the credit. So by naming after a Congress leader, the Centre wants it known, it was a Congress government which first thought of such a scheme.
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