Neither is it a crying matter. India's annual budget is around Rs 16 lakh crores equivalent to 266 billion dollars. The reference quoted earlier on by the BJP supporter at its last para say as as follows ;

Multilateral sources continue to dominate India’s sovereign external debt and Japan remains the single largest bilateral creditor. A substantial portion of sovereign external debt is denominated in SDRs mainly on account of borrowings from IDA, as well as inclusion of ‘IMF Credits’ in the country’s external debt liabilities since 2004-05. The composition of multilateral sovereign borrowing is undergoing a transformation with increase in the share of IBRD and ADB over the last few years. This implies lesser access to loans on concessional terms in the coming years, especially with terms on IDA borrowings beginning to harden. This carries implications for future debt service payments under Government Account; but remains at manageable levels as per projections for the same up to 2023-24.

The above report is presented by BJP govt.current and they do not have a problem. The connection with external debt and Nehru is not clear. I would like to make it clear that I am not a Congress supporter nor a BJP basher. I go by facts and do not look at them as Congress and BJP. One has a right to dislike an ideology and a party but in constantly condemning them facts should not be twisted. The handling of India's economy since 1947 is praised by global economists as we have never busted nor have our banks defaulted or financial institutions let us down.We may have progressed slowly but have done so commensurate with our resources, abilities, and a sense of justice. Corruption arises because of greed and in developing/emerging economies is high because people are relatively more poor.These are universal phenomenons as they are connected with human nature. Yes political corruption needs to be condemned. What is connection between Nehru and corruption.

One would enjoy factual debates and discussions rather than seeing every thing as Congress and BJP and twisting facts to score brownie points.  

Nehrus flip flop policies which lacked direction was the root cause of economic probloems that India faced and is till facing. We are not self sufficinet even after 67 years of independence...I am not sure who these global economists are who have praised Nehrus policies...

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-why-jawaharlal-nehru-is-the-root-cause-of-indias-economic-troubles-1564479

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=1fq8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=nehrus+wrong+economic+policies&source=bl&ots=h610NA926Q&sig=FipGtXUJbknVOkHhK5FxOItnMYk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RnmAVL3DAsuMuATsoIGYBQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=nehrus%20wrong%20economic%20policies&f=false

Poor Nehru could do nothing right. He was PM for 17 years. All mistakes of next 50 years are ascribed to  him. It is no use informing that no country in the world is self sufficient. It is an impossible economic dream not worthy of attempting. What are the economic problems that India is facing? Even USA is in recession since 2008 so should they blame George Washington?

Any development will bring about both direct and indirect benefits.  Let us understand that some superb Public Sector Undertakings like BHEL were the products of the superb Vision of Nehru.

Let us take BHEL, Tiruchirapalli.  The number of direct employees, even today, is around ten thousand.  Those who are indirectly employed would not be less than thirty thousand.  And then one has to count the number of educational institutions - the schools or the colleges or the specialized colleges -- that have come up, mainly because of BHEL.  There is a huge amount of knowledge sharing between BHEL and the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, which is not so far away. 

Why did the private sector captains not invest in huge enterprises at that time?  Yes, they are not keen.

Now, come back to the BHEL story.  This single enterprise feeds sixty thousand families, if one counts the number of shops and establishments in the city and in the surrounding areas.  So, there has been development, and some of this has actually impacted the rural people in the areas in and around the BHEL plant.  One can go on giving such examples. 

NLC, which supplies electricity is another example.  We need to go back in time and then talk about Nehru.  What about our present day politicians who are so corrupt?  Nehru was a true leader, the kind of whom the country is not likely to see for decades to come.

The PSU's today are being used to earn revenues by offloading 5% and above of govt's holdings in the share market. 5% of SAIL has netted Rs 1800 crores. Poor Nehru what did he do ?

Nehru was nowhere in the picture when SAIl was incorporated by merging 5 steel plants in the seventies and SAIl was a loss making company for most of its,It is showing marginal profits only since a few years now. No doubt that it it among the 30 largest steel companies in the world ranking either 23rd or 26th worldwide.

I remember the shares were priced at Rs 4 in late 1990's and rose to 200 only once after NDA came to power...Then it was back to stagnate between Rs 65 - 85 until now.It is a good idea to sell it off since it brings in better revenues for the government than running all of it...They shd do so with all PSUs. Compare the share price with tata steel and one can see how efficient or rather inefficient our PSUs are.Incidentally ,Infosys shares worth 50 paise in 1995 is today worth over Rs 2000 ..the same is the case with almost all private sector companies..

PSU's were required to carry many social burdens which private sector is not burdened with. In the 1950's till about 1980's the Indian economy was developing from a least developed stage to the present emerging stage.In this stage it is very essential that government acts as a catalyst even for industrial growth.The decision to set up PSU's was taken because the then private sector was financially very weak and could not raise capital for setting up basic industries like steel, needed for a developing country like ours. Those days foreign govt's gave financial aid only to govt's and not private sector nor there were financial availability mechanisms existing as today. Looking to low purchasing power of people those days artificially low prices were kept and these also made PSU's look less profitable or go into loss.However they have withstood test of time and today are successfully competing with private sector in almost all cases. It is not at all fair to judge the events of a bygone era wearing the spectacles of today. The decisions of each era should be evaluated in the environment they were taken. Otherwise there will be a serious judgemental mismatch leading to perennial pessimism and condemnation and development of misplaced biases.

Nehru was more a dreamer than an architect . After inheriting the devastated India after independence, Nehru started thinking about the ways to bring glory to India without thinking the feasibilities of his plans. That's why many of his thoughts could not take shape.

Nehru nourished India immediately after 1947 and today we are a vibrant democracy. In absence of a viable private sector he went for establishing PSU's, majority of which are flourishing today and helped India achieve industrial development. He established IIT's and IIm's and CSIR labs which have brought laurel to the country and in the first two institutions getting admission is one of the toughest in the world. He supported Homi Bhabha to establish a viable program in Atomic energy and India today is a nuclear power. His policy of non alignment during the period of cold war saw more than 100 countries form a neutral but powerful bloc and served its global utility in those times. One can go on. But there are many who only see Nehru as a failure and delight in making abstract statements with no proof to back up.Yes like any other leader some of his initiatives did not achieve desired results, that is normal after all no man is god. Time his detractors softened their hard attitude unless they are also part of an ongoing agenda.

I agree. Though some of his thoughts and plans failed to takeoff. Nobody can deny his sincerity to make India a global power.