Opinion Indira and India

Then there are other conflicting memories. For all Indians,barring those who were too young or not yet born then,the news of the assassination of the incumbent Prime Minister on October 31,1984,by her two Sikh bodyguards remains an unforgettable memory,vivid in the shock,anger and grief it generated. However,we also must recall what happened in the immediate aftermath of her assassination,the horrific mass killing of innocent Sikhs in the national Capital. When it all ended,the question that most Indians asked themselves was: What has India come to,hanging its head in shame in its very hour of national mourning? Did this have to happen to underscore Indira Gandhi’s martyrdom?

In answering this question,we are helped by that Supreme Helper—Time. The passage of a quarter century has today removed us far away from those mind-numbing events and enabled us to understand and judge a person who undoubtedly was,irrespective of how much we differ in our judgement of other aspects of her legacy,the strongest Prime Minister India has had so far.

If we shun—as we must—both sycophancy and blind opposition,Indira Gandhi comes across as a person who,in equal measure,protected India’s vital interests,enhanced India’s prestige in a world then cleaved by Cold War rivalries,gave self-esteem to the poor,but also undermined India’s democracy and weakened its institutions of governance. She made India proud by the courageous and farsighted leadership she provided during the Indo-Pak war of 1971,which led to the vivisection of Pakistan and creation of Bangladesh. But she also chose to walk down the path of authoritarianism,clamping down Emergency (1975-77). After the Bangladesh liberation war,she had become Goddess Durga in popular imagination,the incarnation of Shakti who could slay demons. Even her political rivals,Atal Bihari Vajpayee among them,praised her in glowing terms. But just five years later,she put all her political critics,including many in her own Congress party,behind bars.

She was the first pan-India leader after Independence who endeared herself to the poor by taking a series of bold initiatives that struck at the root of the old socio-economic order—bank nationalisation,land reforms,and ending the privy purses of former royal families. She risked her own prime ministership by forcing a split in the Congress in 1969 on ideological lines. Her promise of ‘Garibi Hatao’ gave her breakaway group in the Congress a spectacular victory in the 1971 general elections. Her role in the birth of Bangladesh,and the boldness she displayed in defying the muscle-flexing by Richard Nixon,America’s boorish president who had backed Pakistan in the war,raised her reputation to mythic levels.

Three personal memories force their way in this narrative. As a schoolboy,I was so mesmerised by the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’ that I campaigned for the Congress candidate in the 1971 elections in my hometown in northern Karnataka. I had also participated in the prabhat pheri (morning processions) in the town hailing Indira Gandhi’s leadership after the Bangladesh war. But six years later,when India came under Emergency,I became an angry student-activist opposing her leadership.

It is difficult for today’s young generation to imagine what happened in India during those harrowing years in the mid-1970s. Press freedom and civil liberties vanished. The judiciary became subservient. Parliament became a rubber stamp. The Constitution was mutilated in so brazen a way as to alter its basic structure. A cryptic and innocuous-sounding announcement in the ‘Obituaries’ section of the Bombay edition of The Times of India,a day after Emergency was declared on June 25,1975,said it all: D’Ocracy-D.E.M.,beloved husband of T. Ruth,loving father of L.I. Bertie,brother of Faith,Hope,Justice,expired on 26th June.

Few people have described the horrors of the Emergency better than L.K. Advani,who,along with Jayaprakash Narayan,Morarji Desai,Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chandra Shekhar and hundreds of other opposition stalwarts,spent 19 months in jail. His two books—A Prisoner’s Scrapbook and his autobiography My Country My Life present the most passionate and persuasive reason for Indians to learn the right lessons from Indira Gandhi’s failed experiment in dictatorship. India has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. No leader today can dare to restrict India’s democracy for personal gain. Suppression of private entrepreneurship in a mistaken espousal of socialism,which impaired the economy and hurt the interests of the poor,has been rectified,although we now seem to be moving towards the other extreme. Although Indira Gandhi established the dynastic rule in the Congress,sycophancy of the kind that once gave birth to the slogan “India is Indira and Indira is India” is a thing of the past. Compared to the arrogance of Sanjay Gandhi,Rahul exudes endearing humility. He also seems to be making a welcome attempt to revitalise the Congress on some healthier principles.

One thing is certain: India needs a strong leader like Indira Gandhi,minus her mistakes.

sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com