Watch: Here’s the first ever televised interview of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru
Hyderabad: As India celebrated 75 years of Independence Monday, the BBC Archive posted an old interview of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on Twitter. In the press conference, Nehru shared his perspectives on India’s stance in a post-independent world, democracy and his thoughts about the development of the country.
The show’s anchor William Clark introduced Jawaharlal Nehru as one of Asia’s prominent statesmen in the show. The interview from June 1953 marked the first television appearance of Nehru. “Yes, this is the first time I’m facing this ordeal. In fact, I know very little about television, except what I’ve heard about it,” Nehru says when asked if it was his first time on TV.
When Kingsley Martin, the editor of the New Statesman and Nation, questions Nehru why there was so little resentment in India towards the British “in view of our past history”. He responds, “Well, partly we don’t, I suppose, hate for long or intensively, but chiefly I think because of the background that Mr Gandhi gave us during all these past decades.”
Sharing his experience in the last seven years as Prime Minister, Nehru then said: “I think we have certainly achieved much and there has also been, well, a lack of achievement. We haven’t done what we wanted to do so it’s both satisfactory and unsatisfactory.
On the progress of political democracy in India, Nehru said, “We have advanced the unity of the country. We have put an end to all princely states. We have had these general elections which were remarkable on a tremendous scale and we have built up a good democratic structure.”
However, Nehru pointed at the troubles on the economic side saying, “I believe we have made progress. I should like the progress to be much faster.”
Watch the interview here:
Twitterati were delighted to watch the interview of India’s first Prime Minister and praised his honesty and courage in answering all the questions despite the fact that it was his first time, as well as taking a dig at current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Check out what social media has to say about the press conference:
