The Press TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1974. India: the brink of chaos

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33533, 14 May 1974, Page 12

The Press TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1974. India: the brink of chaos

Early In January, New Delhi was the venue for an international symposium on education towards a non-violent social order. The Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi, in an opening message, suggested that any effort aimed at stabilising society on a basis of selfdiscipline was to be welcomed. India — the world’s most populous democracy — appears to be almost ungovernable. The Government’s internal difficulties have multiplied alarmingly since the beginning of the year. If the latest trouble — a nation-wide stoppage of railway services in support of a demand for higher wages —is not quickly settled, the Federal Government may find itself incapable of governing. This situation, indeed, was predicted only a few weeks ago by a writer in the “ Far Eastern “ Economic Review ”, who said that Mrs Gandhi had clung to power for almost a decade, “ a period “ marked by alarming decadence in political life, “ galloping inflation and corruption ”. In the writer’s judgment, India’s very survival as a democratic entity is in doubt

Mrs Gandhi’s task is bedevilled by the inadequacies of State politics as well as the incompetence and dishonesty within her own cumbersome Council of Ministers — a body enlarged in February to 60 members, including 19 of Cabinet rank. The Minister of Railways, Lalit Narain Mishra, has offered to release arrested strike leaders — a handful among the 7000 recently arrested — if a return to wage negotiation is agreed to. The unions, however, have little faith in ministerial promises, even if they have Mrs Gandhi’s endorsement. In the case of Mr Mishra, mistrust may be justified. In a recent election in Bihar it was alleged that, under political pressure, he stopped every train and bus to Madhubani on the eve of the voting. Thousands were thus prevented from voting at all. The pattern of disorder, political and communal, seems to radiate from Delhi itself, where recently many died in fighting between Hindus and Moslems. In Gujarat and Bihar, in March, more than 100 died during battles between students and police. Some 60,000 troops and police were sent into Bihar as a result The Chief Minister of Bihar, Abdul Gafoor, charged that 75 per cent of the State’s food inspectors were corrupt. In West Bengal, armed supporters of the ruling party closed a poll at midday, and no inquiry was ordered. There has been fighting in two State Assemblies, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. In Uttar Pradesh, security guards fired to protect Ministers from attack by Assembly staff.

When unrest among doctors and nurses, and students and teachers in many universities, is added to the prevailing picture of social disorder, it can be seen that intervention by the central Government is virtually impossible. The Government, it appears, requires Army and police units to man services during the transport crisis, which has produced threats that the rail strike may be widened to include electricity workers. Whether Mrs Gandhi’s Government can survive the present upheaval is in doubt — but no party or coalition could provide an alternative government, with any prospect of asserting its authority. And since railwaymen are the key workers in the strike, questions may be asked about the morality of their own organisations. One writer has asserted that since the nationalisation of coal mining no-one offers bribes to railway officials to obtain waggons for coal movement — so coal just does not move. A society as sick as India’s is not far from collapse and anarchy.