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.