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)
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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 19th 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.
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| 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 7th 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.
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