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A POLITICAL ESSAY
Her signature was Leadership !S. Narendra
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 the absence 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 for a 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.
Dakshin Gangotri
In 1969, the Nehru family's hold on
power was about to slip out. Indiraji
resolutely rescued the dynasty and
made the Congress a family owned
party, against daunting odds.She, thus,
set the trend of dynastic politics. 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.
Chandrayaan
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 through
SITE experiment; this was followed by
satellite telephony experiment.
Indiraji was criticised for spending
money on fancy projects. In a
congratulatory message to ISRO,
Indiraji 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. 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.
Pokharan-I
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 per cent went to
agriculture. 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. Indiraji'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 in a 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 'Licence raj', 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. On that occasion, the poet in Atal Behari Vajpayeeji 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 the 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 steamrolling 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. Pokharan-II History has mysterious ways of revisiting itself. Unlike her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, after India's victory over Pakistan in 1971, Indiraji` veered towards the cult of personality. Wikipedia 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.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Her party president Devkant
Barooah became famous with his
quote; 'Indira is India'. Indiraji became
irritated by media criticism and began to ignore the media. She had said that
the media represent 0.001 per cent 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. The academic literature on
Power states that power is rarely
given; It has to be acquired and
exercised and make others feel it in
action. She brought that into full
play in the months leading up to
the Indo-Pak confrontation over
Bangladesh. This pact, according to some commentators, stopped the US from sending a contingent of its 7th Fleet into Indian Ocean to browbeat 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 the post-Independence history of India is indelible. In the government policy area, the shadows of her polices linger, though unacknowledged. Her signature was leadership! |