Have we forgotten Indira Gandhi?

Many Indians love Indira Gandhi for what she stood for and what she did. Many Indians shun her memory for what she did between 1975-77.But her imprint on post-independence history of India is indelible. In the government policy area, the shadows of her polices linger though unacknowledged. Her signature was leadership, writes S Narendra, former adviser to PMs and ex-Spokesperson, Govt of India. A PRapport exclusive! (Pictures from Congress party website)

As an Indian I was both sad and upset to see in my morning daily newspaper a half-page bland

display advertisement on Indira Gandhi by the Congress party announcing on 19^th November her birth centenary.The party in its present form,under dynastic leadership,continues to exist solely because of Mrs Gandhi’s daring and successful confrontation against the old guard in 1969. The party’s credentials as a pro-poor, secular outfit with pan -India appeal are based largely on her record. Even posthumously her name earns votes. The half page newspaper tribute is one more evidence of  theabsence of imagination and leadership in  the party. Purely in utilitarian terms, Indira Gandhi’s centenary was a  great opening for reminding the post -1991 Liberalisation generation of the unquestionable contribution of Indira Gandhi in putting India first in several fields. This was also a missed opportunity to come forward with the leadership’s vision  fora youthful India, especially when Rahul Gandhi is likely to replace his mother as party president.

Like all political leaders who wielded enormous power about whom posterity reads in history books, Indira Gandhi’s record was mixed.As an adversary,she was formidable and the present ruling establishment  has lots of causes to despise her. But we as a nation have to thank her for a lot of things that may be politically inconvenient for the present rulers. Again.as a nation, we cannot forgive her for imposing ‘her political emergency’ in 1975,abusing the Constitution. Nothing prevented Indira  of those days from preceding Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and many others who declared themselves to be heads of their governments for life. But She redeemed herself by abruptly ending the emergency and opting for election in early 1977. And,Indira should be remembered for this act alone, If not for other reasons I am about to list.

I was more upset to see the Congress tokenism, because if in power, the party would have splurged government  money on ‘celebrating’  Indira’s centenary and made it a political event. In 1969, the party and Indira politically exploited Mahatma Gandhi’s birth centenary and claimed impliedly that she was out to fulfil Gandhi’s dream of wiping the tears of the last man in the line[ the talisman]. In 1989, an election year, Rajiv Gandhi’s government opened the government purse to observe Nehru centenary for a year to tell the nation that his grandson deserved to be rewarded by the electorate.

In 1969, the Nehru family’s hold on power was about to slip out. Indira resolutely rescued the dynastyand made the Congress a family owned party, against daunting odds.She, thus, set the trend of dynastic politics. Regional leaders-Karunanidhi,Jayalitha,Mulayam Singh Yadav, Patnaik, Devegowda to name a few,later only followed her example of promoting dynasties.

What all did the Congress party miss out to tell? The present government is presenting its successful confrontation against China at Doklamas an example what strong leadership could achieve.No doubt that must be noted and applauded.The successful face-0ff against China was facilitated by Indira’s gutsy master stroke in making Sikkim a part of India in 1975, where the Indian army ,at present ,is deployed in strength. For those unfamiliar with Doklam geography, it is atthetri-junction between Sikkim,Bhutan and China, a highly contested territory, important for  India as it helps in protecting the narrow(24 km wide) Siliguri corridor that connects the north east states to the rest of India.If Sikkim were not part of India, it would have placed India in a precarious situation.

The Sikkim annexation was not the only peaceful expansion of India’s territory. Indira was also responsible for the ground work that entitled India to a piece of territory in the Antartic,  one among  half a dozen countries  to set up research stations there.Not only that India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules from sea-bed in central Indian ocean basin have been extended by five years in August 2017.These rights are over 75000 sqkms of area in international waters allocated by International seabed Authority for development activities for polymetallic nodules. How did that come about?.This was possible because the government set up a separate Ocean Development department in 1981 and encouraged it to  pioneer in developing seabed survey and research, including the technology for seabed mining.The Ocean department and the Indian navy cooperated in carrying out the sea bed survey in 2000, that entitled India to claim seabed territory.

ISRO,India’s space agency is globally hailed for its innovation in the satellite technology business.The Space commission and ISRO took shape in 1969 and Aryabhata satellite went up in 1975.Satellite TV broadcasting was introduced  throughSITE experiment; this was followed by satellite telephony experiment. Indira was criticised for spending money on fancy projects. In a congratulatory message to ISRO, Indira had said;’ expensive high technology was low cost in the long term when harnessed for development’. ISRO’s Chandrayaan and other odysseys have made the country proud.

Pokharan-II nuclear explosions in 1998 made India a nuclear power, and in 2009 India shed its status as a nuclear pariah when the Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement was signed .The efforts of the present  government to gain the membership of NSG, pacts for nuclear cooperation with Japan and with others would not have been possible without Pokharan-I in 1974.

Coming to the strides made in agriculture,rural development, poverty reduction  and Make in India, the humongous contribution of the nationalised banks must be acknowledged.When Mrs Gandhi nationalized the 14 commercial banks on July 19,1969,their total number of branches was less than 2000 and their total deposits was less than Rs3000 crores.Of the total bank lending, barely 1.75 percent went to agriculture.When the present government is taking credit for announcing the earmarking of highest bank credit (10 lakh crore) for agriculture, it has to be noted that this would not have been possible if the banks had not been nationalized.India now can boast of being a leading producer of milk,vegetables and fruits and agri- products. Impartial research would show that the farm and rural directional change in economic growth and development was ushered in by the 1970 budget. Prime minister Indira Gandhi had presented this budget as the finance minister. A document accompanying the Budget-titled ‘growth with social justice’ had launched the small farmers development agency, dry land development agency and many others with self-employment avenues (dairy farming,poultry, animal husbandry) assisted by nationalised bank finance. This white revolution is noted but its author is less remembered. Indira’s CSRE {1972} or crash scheme for rural employment has now turned into MNREGA, aboon to landless labour in drought seasons. The government’s direct intervention for reducing poverty, distress in agriculture took off ina big way. Of course, lots of money has been syphoned off by politicians of all hues from such schemes but Mrs Gandhi cannot be blamed for the leakages. Politics teaches its practitioners to tap into any and every government programme with a kitty.

This 1970 budget also tightened the ‘Licenceraj’, under which many industrial houses,new and old flourished. And, crony capitalism spawned big businesses.Owners of some of them today are making it to the list of billionaires in the Forbes magazine.

Her finest hour, and that of India, was December 16, 1971 when the Pakistan army surrendered to the Indian army at Dacca in Bangladesh and the latter became an independent country.

Then PM and statesman Vajpayee paying tributes to at Indira's Samadhi - Shakti Sthal

On that occasion ,the poet in Atal BehariVajpayeeji came out to anoint her as ‘Durga’. This powerful and benign ‘Durga’ , unfortunately showed  to the future prime minister and to her other political rivals her dark  face in 1975.

The opposition and the regional parties also must thank her for breaking the cycle of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and the state assemblies in 1971. The argument advanced then was that the issues in play in a parliamentary poll are national in nature,unlike in Assembly elections in which regional and local issues are agitated. This one Indira move incapacitated the Congress juggernaut from steam-rolling into power across states.Smaller and regional political outfits had very little chance of coming to power if simultaneous polls were held for the Lok Sabha and assemblies. Strangely, now there is talk of undoing this in the hope of establishing a political monolith on the lines of the Congress party before 1967.

History has mysterious ways of revisiting itself. Unlike her father, Jawaharlalal Nehru, after India’s victory over Pakistan in 1971,Indira`veered towards the cult of personality. Wikipeadia explains it thus:’cult of personality arises when a regime uses mass media,propaganda or other methods such as government -organized demonstrations to create an idealized, heroic and at times worshipful image of a leader,often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Her party president Devkant Barooah became famous with his quote ; ‘Indira is India’. Indira was irritated by media criticism and began to ignore media.She had said that the media represent 0.001 percent of the population and public opinion. Editors like B.G.Verghese who  were critical of her policies  and centralisation of power ,came under their newspaper owners’ pressure and were sacked. Her contempt for free media not unexpectedly showed up as media censorship during the emergency. However, her contribution to media development was significant.Under her instructions, the TV training was added to the Film and Television Institute in Pune in 1974 and the institution became a full -fledged visual media training facility  with full government support. The film documentary wing as well as the film development corporation for financing creative films flourished.The newspaper industry starved of news print due to global scarcity let out a sigh of relief when the government responded to its appeal for producing newsprint by government mills.

Indira Gandhi when she became PM after the sudden death of prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri initially did not have power; it was wielded by her appointees in the party. But she acquired it by sheer dint of her determination and wielded it demonstratively. The academic literature on Power states that power is rarely given;It has to be acquired and exercised and make other feel it in action.She brought that into  full play in the months leading upto the Indo-Pak confrontation over Bangladesh. The crisis was an opportunity for Indira Gandhi to established herself as a leader to be reckoned internationally.Her face off with US President Nixon and secretary of state Henry Kissinger are well documented. The Indo-USSR 20 -year agreement for peace and friendship singed a little before the Indo-Pak war of 1971 was a diplomatic coup that unsettled both the US and China that were siding with Pakistan. This pact, according to some commentators, stopped the US from sending a contingent of its 7^th Fleet into Indian ocean to brow beat India.

Many Indians love Indira Gandhi for what she stood for and what she did. Many Indians shun her memory for what she did between 1975-77.But her imprint on post-independence history of India is indelible. In the government policy area, the shadows of her polices linger though unacknowledged. Her signature was leadership.

Corruption folklore and a hapless PM - Blast from Nehru's past

      

     

Political communication (PC) is the oxygen of an open democracy like India. In the first decade after independence, PC was mostly  one way from the government, that meant mostly from the first prime minister Nehru to the political system and to the people. It was almost direct communication, not mediated by media. The latter was prone to report Nehru and what the government said and did at length. Its reach was limited. While Nehru was keen to provide adequate space for the opposition, it was puny, in the face of the Congress juggernaut. However, there was a sudden political churn at fag-end of the decade. Robust signs of challenge to Nehru’s authority, government and  Congress party government and the policies appeared...Also, sings of emergence of dynastic politics. Read the fifth in a series by S Narendra, former adviser to PMs and Govt Spokesman.

While the Karnataka government raised a controversy in trying to mark  Tipu Sultan’s birthday on November 20^th, not many in India would remember or like to remember November 21st. On this day in 1962 China declared unilateral ceasefire after occupying territories in North East Frontier (in present North East states, especially Aurnachal Pradesh and Assam) and inflicting a humiliating military blow to India. The one month long Indo-China war ended on this day. In a broadcast to the nation, Prime Minister Nehru had said ‘my heart goes out to the people of Assam......’ as the ill-equipped and under-clothed army had limped away to  Tejpur, Guwahati was expected to be under threat. President Radhakrishnan in a radio broadcast had mildly upbraided the government for its lack of anticipation of Chinese threat and absence of preparation.

An Express report on Chinese aggression

The then Times of India editor N.J.Nanporia in a scoop of the century,  through series of articles written from about November 14^th onwards had predicted such a unilateral ceasefire by China.

K. Hanumanthiah, Congress MP and a former chief minister, in a quotable quote had said “We seem to be fascinated by the word ‘non’. It was non-violence to begin, later non-alignment’. It has come to mean that half the cabinet is aligned with Washington and the other half with USSR and a prime minister in between.

A rare picture of a pensive Nehru, with a heavily slumped shoulders, clasping  hands at his back, walking alone and away from the camera  (T.S.Satyan a great photographer from Karnataka, had taken one of them)  in Parliament corridor had appeared in newspapers. It pictured the state of the nation’s morale and the shattered ideals and optimism which had characterised the political communication until then. A new questioning phase in PC was palpable.

The political rumblings had arrived in 1959, when C.Rajagopalachari launched the Swatanatra party, as a counter to the Congress party’s  embrace of socialistic pattern of society. The Bharatiya Jan Sangh founded by Shyam Prasad Mukherjee in 1951 was also a critic of the government’s  tilt against the private sector. Thus, there was some convergence of views  and the two began to coordinate their attack on the government. In the meanwhile, the Communist party of India that had opposed the Congress party and Nehru in the initial years had softened its stance, as its external mentors in USSR had now become India’s economic partners and the prime minister’s close friends. This party also had allies like Krishna Menon in the Congress party.

The Communist party had newspapers in different languages including  its English magazine New Age and through the People’s Publishing House the Communists were able to penetrate the public opinion space. On the other side of the spectrum   was the Current weekly by D.F.Karaka (in early fifties Karaka had written a book- ‘The Lotus Eater from Kashmir- and presented it to Nehru).The latter had also exposed the in -flow of money from USSR to PPB house and foreign exchange remittance to some leaders of the Communist party.

In order to fill the big gap in India’s foreign reserves, the government had introduced a scheme under which Indians could receive foreign remittances without facing any questions. Russi Karanjia of the Blitz weekly was reportedly another beneficiary of Soviet generosity. While the Blitz was blazing away against critics of the Prime Minister, Karaka was soliciting one Rupee contribution from the readers of Current for fighting communism.

Corruption Folklore: PM Nehru, who had declared very early in his stint that he would hang from the nearest tree any one found to be corrupt, was facing serious corruption charges against his partymen in government. His son in law Firoze Gandhi had mounted the attack on corruption by exposing the LIC-Munhdra scandal in 1957. A judicial enquiry headed by Justice M.C.Chagla indicted the  finance minister T.T.Krishnamachari (TTK) and the finance secretary H.M.Patel ,forcing them to quit the government. The ‘folk-lore on corruption was spreading’ was the warning given by  A.D.Gorwala committee, set up ban  the government for suggesting anti-graft steps. It had found that ministers, legislators and bureaucrats were involved in corruption. While the prime minister’s integrity was not under question, he was seen as  somewhat ambivalent in dealing with the corrupt (there was a precedent before  Dr,Manmohan Singh).

For example, Krishna Menon came into the cabinet even though he was under the shadow of corruption during his tenure as the High  Commissioner in U.K.  TTK came back into the cabinet in 1963.The Punjab chief minister Pratap Singh Kairon was alleged to be corrupt  but was seen to  be in PM’s good books. There were several other names of ministers  in states and the centre who were considered to be of doubtful integrity.

Poor Image  of Private Sector: The highly government controlled and regulated private sector was not above board either. The political communication on behalf of PSUs had put the latter on a pedestal, extolling the fact that PSUs represented the best  in private and public ownership (It is now the turn of PSUs to face  this criticism  as inefficient and prone to political misuse and calls for their dismantling mounted in the wake of the economic reforms of 1991) .

Next:Part VI- Pre-Emergency Sledging Phase. Garibi Hatao, and 1971 elections,AIR misuse attacked by Opposition, Media represents 00.001 percent-Mrs Gandhi, Newsprint Crisis. Media Urges government to set up newsprint mills, Price-Page Schedule Struck Down by SC, BBC Thrown Out, Myth &Reality Campaign by Frank Moraes, B.G.Verghese Removed from HT for his campaign on Mrs.G, foundation Laying spree, STD arrival worries government, spying on foreign media, JP's Gujarat and Bihar agitations queer political pitch, Student Strikes and Media Strikes etc

This implied that the private sector not only did not serve the public purpose but was dominated by purely profit (greed?) motive. What was more damaging to the private sector image were  reports of mismanagement of firms, manipulations of their accounts and stock market rigging. This prompted the government to set up the  Vivian Bose Commission to enquire into more than a dozen companies including the Bonnet &  Coleman company publishing the Times of India and several other papers, controlled by Ramakrishna Dalmia-Jain family. This family owned airways and an Insuracne company as well. Ramakrishna Dalmia was jailed after a trial on charges of embezzlement of funds of companies under his management. Sriyans Prasad Jain  also faced similar charges. The government had moved for removal of the Board of Directors of TOI group of newspapers headed by S.P Jain on the ground that it was being mismanaged and company funds diverted.  Even the ownership of TOI was under question. TOI editor had appealed to the government to transfer the ownership to a cooperative.  (During the emergency full ownership was restored to Ashok Jain.). A commission of enquiry had established serious fraud charges against S.P.Jain but action was not taken against him reportedly because he enjoyed the protection of the home minister G.L.Nanda. Again Nanda’s reputation for probity was unquestioned.

The Vivian Bose Commission in a separate enquiry into the state of Audit in the private sector had  found that the institution of auditors had lost  credibility, as some famous auditing firms had conducted audits but had not cared to check the records for their veracity (in the  same way Arthur Anderson and other so-called Audit biggies had audited multi-national firms such as ENRON, WorldCom in 2000-02 and Meryl Lynch, AIG in 2007 ).

The Tatas and some others  had even quit FICCI, as S.P.Jain accused of misappropriation of funds of companies he was managing and facing legal proceedings had refused to quit as FICCI president (reminiscent of the case of the former BCCI boss K.Srinivasan controversy!)

C.Rajagopalachari, had coined his famous ‘Licence -Permit Raj’ as a short hand for denoting the prevailing corruption. The country had adopted the decimal system (1957) and Naya Paisa became the currency replacing the earlier Rupee, Ana, and Paisa (a Rupee had 16 anas further divided into 192 Paisa). For the first time, aluminium alloy coins came in circulation, replacing  genuine silver, copper and brass coins. Rajaji, commenting on this transformation of coins, had written that the rot in the government was so bad that even the coins minted by such a government had lost their weight and begun to float in water (the light weight 10 Naya Paisa coin actually floats in water for some time before sinking and that was a fun game kids of my generation played!).

PSU – PR: PSUs were duty bound to be more open and expected to engage in public communication about their activities. This burnished the government image as well. As a result they became the patrons of PR and pioneers by setting up well staffed PR units with good budgets. This was in contrast to the private firms. Excepting some big, far sighted  houses like the Tatas, very few private firms engaged in PR. Of Course, they had advertising wings. Even in the  field of advertising, corporate PR and advertising was not in much vogue. Most brands in the market were extension of international brands, as Indian FMCG and other products were a very small part of the market. This supplementary position of private sector continued for several years after independence.  

Overall, the (mis) behaviour tendency of the private sector and the  political communication that derided the profit motive of private enterprise  largely have gone to  condition the Indian  public perception of  the private firm. It has not come out of such a negative image even after role of the PSUs and the government in the economy have undergone a substantial change in the post-reform period.

Father-Daughter in Driving Seats: On the political front there were some unusual turns. The PM’s daughter Indira Gandhi had been made the Congress president in 1959. Although senior party leaders were very resentful of  Mrs Gandhi’s elevation, there was no open opposition because  Nehru was the tallest party leader and a vote catcher. For the first time in history in 1957 elections, a communist government (headed by E.M.S.Namboodaripad) had come in Kerala. With the active support of Mrs Gandhi as the Congress president, a massive agitation was mounted for toppling this duly elected state government. Religious sentiments were stoked for the move.  The president of India Dr.Rajendra Prasad (according to  the autobiography of  D.P.Misra, a Congress chief minister  of M.P and a staunch supporter of Nehru and Mrs Gandhi)  very reluctantly had approved Nehru cabinet decision for dismissing this elected government. This was the first instance of the central government misusing Article 356 of the Constitution that vests power in the Union government for removing a state government, if the latter was not in a position to be carried out in accordance with the constitution. The prime minister was roundly criticised for using his daughter for this political putsch.

There were sudden  developments  on the northern borders of India derailing the much hyped ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai,Bhai’ and Panch Sheela declarations. The Chinese army had occupied Aksai Chin (part of Pak occupied Kashmir) heights ceded to it by Pakistan. China had ended autonomy of Tibet  and the Dalai Lama had sought asylum in India. Around this time, there were unconfirmed reports (now confirmed in a biography of Gen,K.S.Thimmiah, though) that the army chief Gen. Thimmiah had offered to quit his post. The army chief had differed with the defence minister Krishna Menon over the defence forces preparedness to meet the Chinese threat. Reportedly, there was pressure to cut the defence spending that was just a little over Rs300 crore. The Indian Express had reported that factories meant for making guns and ammunition had made improved coffee filters under the orders of the minister. Also, Krishna Menon was alleged to have interfered with senior army appointments.

Nehru and Krishna Menon 

There was a blistering attack on Menon in Parliament by one of the opposition stalwarts- J.B.Kripalani, a freedom fighter and a Gandhian who was not afraid of  differing with Gandhi. Kripalani was now in the socialist party and a critic of Nehru. In a memorable speech in Parliament, Kripalani said; ‘under Menon’s watch we have lost 12,000 square miles of our territory without striking a single blow “ (reference to Chinese occupation of Aksai Chin). It seemed that the entire opposition ire against Nehru was being heaped on Menon, seen to be a favourite of the prime minister. There were media reports that some of the members of the cabinet were not even on talking terms with Menon.

The 1962 parliamentary elections were held against backdrop of  several challenges before the government. While the Congresss victory was a foregone conclusion  (even a lamp post would get elected under the Congress flag, to quote Frank Anthony M.P),  the entire nation’s focus on  North Bombay constituency where Menon was challenged by Kripalani. It was a high profile and a tough contest at that, in which Nehru staked his prestige. One campaign poster on behalf of Kripalani had this memorable ditty: ’Chini hamla hote hai/Menon saab sote hai’ (from the book on this contest by Dastur). The Congress party  saved Menon’s seat by investing enormous  resources. The poll campaign was remarkable for its high decibel level that inaugurated the confrontationist politics.

Rajaji had galvanised and united the splintered opposition. Nehru had carpingly described the Swatantra party as the party of tycoons, landlords and princes representing a bygone age. The Congress juggernaut, as expected, rolled on and won 361 seats out of 488 contested. But the opposition despite its disadvantages had scored. The Communist party was the biggest gainer with 29 seats. Swatantra party made its debut with 18 seats. Jan Sangh touched double digits (14). What the opposition lacked in numbers in parliament, it made it up in terms of the personalities.

Krishna Menon’s poll victory turned out to be a pyrrhic one. In October, the Chinese had moved their army into Indian territory and inflicted heavy defeats. This post has begun with the mention of  events leading up to November 21^st, 1962.

The politics and political communication then on moved into a new phase, replacing the single most  dominant voice of the first prime minister with many. The most significant outcome of India’ s debacle on its borders  was that for the first time the hitherto unthinkable question - Who After Nehru -  began making the rounds. A year later, an American writer By Welles Hengan published his bestselling book with the same title.