#135 The Nehruvian Ideal 🎧

<em>While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways.</em><br/><br/><em>Audio narration by </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ad-auris.com/"><em>Ad-Auris</em></a><em>.  </em><br/><br/><em>Pranay was on this week’s </em><a target="_blank" href="https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2021/7/11/episode-233-pranay-kotasthane-talks-public-policy/"><em>The Seen and the Unseen</em></a><em> discussing all things public policy with ace podcaster, writer and thinker, Amit Varma. </em><br/><br/><strong>India Policy Watch: Dilip Kumar And India  </strong><br/><br/><em>Insights on burning policy issues in India</em><br/><br/>- <em>RSJ</em><br/><br/>Dilip Kumar passed away this week. You might wonder why should that matter to a public policy newsletter. Well, there are reasons. For one, he has featured more than once in our past editions where we have used his films to clumsily make broader points about the choices we have made as a nation. The other reason is great artists shape our collective identity and contribute to national consciousness. It is no surprise a lot of what has been written about Dilip Kumar this week has touched on this part of his legacy. I guess it will be in fitness of things for me to write one last piece on his legacy and how intertwined it is with our post-independent history. <br/><br/>I’m not going to tread new ground here. If you go past the usual hyperbole about his ‘method acting’ ways and how he had to seek medical support to get over his ‘tragedy king’ persona, you will find the more serious commentators usually hold forth on three aspects of his career. First, how he was the embodiment of the Nehruvian ideal of India. Some went all the way to call him Nehru’s hero. Second, how his film ‘Naya Daur’ marked the high noon of India’s tryst with Nehruvian socialism. And third, how in his death we have lost the la