`Nehru polluted politics’

Rao recalls that in the first two general elections after independence the Congress as well as other parties took care to field people who had character and integrity. The degeneration began in the early ’60s. He blames Nehru who had observed that “public life isdifferent from individual character” for the polluting of the political arena.

Narayana Rao, who led the fight against the Nizam in Nalgonda and the neighbouring districts in the erstwhile Hyderabad State, believes the Congress would have retained its “sanctity” had it been dissolved after independence, as suggested by Mahatma Gandhi.

Disapproving the campaign styles of the present-day leaders, the Gandhian recalled how he and popular Communist leader Late Ravi Narayana Reddy used to exchange views after their daily electioneering though they campaigned for their respective party candidates. “But today the contestants and their supporters strike at each other,” he says in disgust.

Earlier, any attack on the opponent was based on the other candidate’s ideology and there was an intellectual discussion on the viability of the respective schools of thought. But the process of making the party chief a demi-god has eroded value-based politics. The mud-slinging aimed at character assassination of leadershas replaced ideology-based criticism.

Rao, who declined to contest for the second time on the Congress ticket to clear the way for a Dalit candidate, says senior leaders should make way for the youth.