One of the memorable experiences from my years as a journalist is associated with the centenary celebrations of the Congress party in Mumbai in 1985. Covering the event as a reporter in the late Russy Karanjia’s daily newspaper had given me an opportunity to get better acquainted with the party’s — and India’s — glorious pre-Independence history. Still vividly sketched in my mind is the frail figure of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ who was a special guest at the celebrations. Known for his non-violent struggle against the British and also for his strong opposition to the partition of India, this Pushtun leader’s deeds and words (“O Pathans! Your house has fallen into ruin. Arise and rebuild it, and remember to what race you belong”) carry a message even today.

This follower of Mahatma Gandhi from the land of the Pathans, then 95 years old, was in a wheelchair. But welcoming him graciously was another Gandhi, who, at 41, was already India’s Prime Minister. If Badshah Khan embodied the best ideals of the Congress movement from the pre-1947 era, Rajiv Gandhi personified the hope and idealism of a new generation, which had come to admire him as Mr Clean. Rajiv’s presidential address at the Congress centenary session must rank as one of the most important political speeches in the annals of independent India.

Political pundits were astonished at the candour with which Rajiv spoke about the ills that had corroded the Congress party after Independence. In a passage that hit out at power brokers within his own party, he said, “Millions of ordinary Congress workers throughout the country are full of enthusiasm for the Congress policies and programmes. But they are handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy. They are enmeshing the living body of the Congress in their net of avarice. They are reducing the Congress organisation to a shell from which the spirit of service and sacrifice has been empted. How have we come to this pass?”

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