Whither Mrs Gandhi ?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32076, 26 August 1969, Page 18

Whither Mrs Gandhi ?

Mrs Gandhi appears to have won another round in her fight against the powerful Right-wing faction of Congress. The election of her candidate, Mr Giri, as President, has surprised many observers. When she removed Mr Desai from office as Minister of Finance, her challenge to the controlling party “syndicate”, the conservative Right-wingers, was brought into the open. Mr Desai had opposed her decision to nationalise the hanking system, which was regarded as an attempt to appease the Left-wing elements in Congress, whose support was indispensable to her efforts to defeat the official party candidate for the Presidency, Mr Reddy. Argument over banking control has divided Congress for years. The Right has asserted that “ social control ” was already effective and that outright nationalisation would discourage the inflow of capital on which the development of India’s resources must depend. Mr Giri’s relatively narrow win, taking into account the voting system used, must have given Mrs Gandhi little satisfaction. It emphasises that Congress, which has ruled India since the attainment of independence in 1947, is now irretrievably split. The Prime Minister herself is driven—whether she likes it or not —to rely on the Left, including the Communists and the extreme Samyukta Socialists, for the maintenance of her authority to govern. Congress has for years steadily lost support in the states, all of which it ruled in the heyday of its power; and it is thought likely that, in an election that cannot be delayed later than 1972, it will for the first time lose its majority in the central Government. Many observers think that defeat at the polls is certain.

What will Mrs Gandhi do> now? She is believed to be ready, now that her nominee is in the Presidential palace, to seek a dissolution of Parliament and a General Election this year, perhaps within six months. In view of the dissidence within Congress, this might be her best course. Those who are determined to bring about her downfall might well hesitate in the face of such recent evidence of Mrs Gandhi’s electoral strength. She has been described as the only leader with an appeal to Indians of every class and creed. In this vast and largely illiterate electorate her decision on bank nationalisation—ruled unconstitutional, incidentally, by the; Supreme Court—will be given far more importance than it has in reality. She will want to capitalise on whatever this advantage can bring her. But there are other things to be taken into account. Control of the party machine, important in an election campaign, is still in the hands of her opponents; she herself, although belonging more to the Centre than to the Left, has been forced into an association which she must regard as politically unsatisfactory.

All this, in the view of one of India’s bestinformed journalists (Inder Malhotra, writing to the “ Guardian ”), points to the development of a cynical political game. He thinks the basic balance of forces is unlikely to be changed even by a snap election. New coalitions inside Congress might enable a government of sorts to be formed; but Mr Malhotra fears that no arrangement based on fickle loyalties and shifting alliances could last. New Delhi, in his judgment, seems due for a prolonged period of the sort of unprincipled and opportunist politics which has been seen all too often in some of the state capitals. It is not a reassuring prospect for a country desperately in need of wise, courageous, and stable government.