Indra and Her Times

Chapter 17

 Indra and Her Times

 

Post BD civil war, Indira Gandhi[i] enjoyed immense popularity in India. She had managed to dismember Pakistan, a feat her father Pandit Nehru and many Indians had only dreamed of. She had not been able to accomplish much during her first term, did not quite have the party apparatus under her control and had won re-election largely by projecting herself as a bearer of the torch her father had carried.

          Now success had gotten to her head. Lord Acton famously said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". I would venture an addendum. Power befuddles the brain, absolute power befuddles it absolutely. She started behaving autocratically, ejecting supporters who had elevated her to the high office, from the government and inner circle. They had initially deluded themselves that being a woman and in experienced in government, she would be putty in their hands. She had proved herself an artist in intrigue and possessed of nerves of steel.

           The king makers had to adapt to changed circumstances and behave with abject servility to their protégé. She would not let things be. Like kings of old did to any potential challengers from their own clan, she exiled them, some to provincial outposts, dismissing others and appointed mediocre toadies to the cabinet. She rode rough shod over friends and foe alike. She broke rules, and got away with it[ii].

Smarting under repeated belittling and slights, opposition, disaffected adherents of her own party, security agencies and the judiciary were waiting for an opportunity to get even with her. They finally got a chance. Using official transport for election campaign was a minor violation of rules. During such campaigns few government leaders use different vehicles for official duties and political junkets. The more scrupulous ones would get their political party to reimburse the cost to the treasury. Indra when asked a question on the issue contemptuously dismissed the charge. The opposition ran away with it and filed a suit in a court. Indian judges have a tradition of independence, which had not been undermined by government manipulation as was done to their counterparts in Pakistan. They did not stoop to favor the establishment as the Supreme Court in Pakistan had done on more than one instance

  A brief look at the Judiciary of the two countries shows up the stark contrast between the political structures of India and Pakistan. India is a mercantilist/capitalist democracy, which does not permit the party in power to openly confront and subjugate the courts. They prefer to act in a more subtle fashion. Like democracies elsewhere they make justice so expensive that it is out of the reach of the common man. Pakistan, on the other hand is ruled by 'A Quad' of feudal-army-bureaucrat and Mullahs. The components of the Quad swap periods of primacy. The judges bend over backwards to rule in favor of the party in power. Under martial law members of upper judiciary are routinely required to sign papers affirming legitimacy of usurpation of power. Those who do not and those not invited to sign on the dotted line are summarily dismissed. They buck the trend only when the ruling establishment loses its grip.

 Here two well-matched foes- Indira and combined opposition- both flag bearers of capital sponsored political dispensations, were at odds. The courts decided against her and declared her election to the parliament void. Instead of bowing to reality, conceding and opting to offer herself as a candidate in a bye-election, she rejected the court decision. There were howls of protests in the parliament and in public. Demands for resignation reached a crescendo.

She borrowed a leaf from neighboring Pakistan's book, declared emergency, clamped down on press and other media, jailed protestors and ruled by fiat.

She had overlooked history; her own as well. As a child, she used to gather other children around her and lead mock protests. Indians had taken on the almighty British Empire and humbled it. Jail was a stamp of honor and a ladder to name, fame and power.         Opposition counted stalwarts of independence struggle in their ranks. They reveled in revival of the good old days.  Security agencies could not cope with the sustained uprising. There were fears that India would sink into anarchy or worse, follow Pakistan into a repressive unrepresentative military regime.

Capital would not brook its supplantation by a fascist dispensation. Indira backed off, lifted emergency and allowed elections. Her party was routed. She lost her own seat. For the first time since independence India had a non-congress government though it was still headed by a former member of Indian National Congress and a notable leader of freedom movement.

The new government was not magnanimous or even prudent. If they had left her alone she would be reduced to nursing her wounds alone, hopeless and shunned by all. But like all small-minded people they hounded her. She made the most of it, once breaking into sobs as security agents surrounded her car and dragged her out of it at a railway crossing near Dehli. A sizable crowd gathered at the spot. Their chivalrous spirit woken and challenged, they rose to the defense of a "helpless" female and nearly lynched the policemen. She was finally apprehended, tried and jailed. Public opinion took an abrupt turn. She did not deserve to be treated like a common criminal. As a child she had faced off the repressive foreign regime. She had demolished Pakistan. She had been feted in all countries of the world. She had made a mistake. The courts had over reacted. She had suffered enough and on and on.

She had to be released.

The successor government was reactionary; an uneasy coalition of conflicting interests and egoistic personalities. Their only common meeting ground and passion was hatred of Indra. With her out of the picture, the jackals fell to fighting over the feeding trough. Fissures hitherto papered over, widened. They were also inept and inefficient, unable to manage economy, industry or welfare. Indra, on the other hand, showed penitence, toured the country with characteristic vigor, regained ground, went on the offensive and attracted ever-larger crowds of admirers.

The government was tottering. Coalitions are notoriously unstable. Loyalty changes hands easily, is bought and sold to the highest bidder. Indian leaders, though, were not as bad as those in post World War II Italians or Pre Ayub Pakistan. They called for early elections.

Indira reanimated by public adulation, and once again surrounded by sycophants, was still uncertain of a winning a majority in the parliament. Right wing Hindu fanatics were snapping at her heels. She was also facing a formidable array of opponents from the center and the left. She went for the overkill and resorted to parochial politics, pitting majority Hindu against minority Muslim and Sikhs. Her father, atheist, liberal, socialist and non-communal to the core, must have, metaphorically, turned in his grave. (He was cremated. Hindus burn their dead).

 I was in Lahore on the day of polling. The city is only thirty miles from Amritsar in India and catches the programs of All India Radio and TV, which ran continuous audio and visual programs. What kept Pakistanis riveted to the media was the play of old movie songs and exhibition of movies. In between the shows election results were announced. It became clear with in a few hours that Indira would sweep the polls. . She eventually won big but at a heavy cost. The carefully woven fabric of communal harmony had been torn to shreds.

Though they had lost the elections the fanatics were no longer on the political fringe; they had been energized and acquired a measure of respectability and legitimacy. Fissiparous tendencies soon gained ground.  Separatist movements in Naga land (North East India) Naxalities (followers of Mao) in Bengal and Sikhs in the Punjab raised the banner of secession. The most ominous was the call for Khalistan (Sikh style themselves Khalsa, roughly pure, genuine) an independent homeland in Indian Punjab.

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[i] Gandhi was her married name. She had met Feroz Gandhi, no kin to the Mahatma, during the independence movement. Feroz was a Parsi (Zoroastrian). Indians like their European counterparts sometimes adapted their professional name as surname. Gandhis are perfume makers and would correspond to such names as Goldsmith, Butcher, carpenter etc.  Feroz did get elected to Indian parliament, but his relations with Indra were reported to be strained. She preferred to act as the hostess in her father's home.

[ii] She tried an unsuitable appointment in the Supreme Court, but was thwarted by the relatively independent judiciary.

Dr. S. Akhtar Ehtisham
(607) 776-3336
P.O. Box 469,
Bath NY 14810
USA
Blog syedehtisham.blogspot.com
All religions try to take over the establishment and if they fail, they collaborate with it, be it feudal or capitalist.