ARUN NEHRU

He was not a politician but when he became one, he was much ahead of the seasoned politicians in his time.  Arun Nehru, who served as the president of Jenson and Nicholson for 17 years, joined politics at the request of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.Nehru was in politics for a brief period of six to seven years, but in that small period, he did enough to be remembered in the political history of the country.A business honcho joining active politics is very common today. Though Nehru was only a politician by an accident, he became the role model for all those businessmen who now prefer to be politics it rather than trying to influence it from the periphery.The fact that he was a distant cousin of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi might have helped him in getting a headstart in politics, but his rise and fall was attributed to his astuteness.

"He cleverly understood the weaknesses and strengths of politics of that era and that helped in controlling politics though for a short period," says Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.Arun Nehru always remained a mystery for those who tried to know him through his judgements and acts."Like any other politician, he was an opportunist, who happily enjoyed power till the time he was there," says Tejbir Singh, the editor of 'Seminar' magazine. Till the time he was in power, nobody dared to explore his persona and when he was out of all this, none thought him worthy of it.Nehru was one of the closet associates of Rajiv Gandhi, being a minister in his cabinet.

At one point, he and Arjun Singh were the key persons Rajiv took advice from. It was Nehru who advised Rajiv to give election tickets to Amitabh Bachchan and Madhav Rao Scindhia.Nehru's name later surfaced in the 1988 pistol deal. In 1989, he and V.P. Singh fell out with Rajiv Gandhi and created the Jan Morcha."He was a leader with political maturity and played a key role in the formation of Janata Dal government in 1989," says JD-U chairman Sharad Yadav.In the later part of his life, Nehru resurfaced in the avatar of a psephologist and columnist but that was a decline from what he was. His columns appeared regularly in national newspapers but he failed to make a mark. There are two parts of the Arun Nehru story. The first will be full of his achievements, enjoying power and position to others' envy. The second part is a story of rapid decline into oblivion. It is hard to trace his footprints in politics or business today after his death.

Prof. John Kurakar