‘Indira is India’

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 10

‘Indira is India’

“Indira is India” rings out the slogan, and as the Indira Gandhi show goes on the road one can understand the power of her appeal. She has been fighting the election like a soul possessed, cramming 22 active hours into the day for-.days on end, snatching a couple of hours sleep between stops by pulling her sari veil over her face. Where other leaders go exhausted through a village in a blur of dust, Mrs Gandhi halts to hold a meeting; there are converts to be won even at midnight. In a country where even the poor must own gold, she has had the women eating out, of her hand: “You" poor women sacrificed your gold and ornaments so that India could win and retain freedom, and now look what the new lot have done! You cannot even buy gold for' your wedding necklace!” A Brahmin playing to the sensibilities of Muslims and Untouchables, she has come a long way since she was chosen as Prime Minister in 1966 by the old men of the United Congress. They regarded her as a mere front for the party and felt sure they could manipulate her like a puppet. How wrong they vvere. She dispatched them, and followed up with an overwhelming win in the 1971 election. India lay at her feet. She was a goddess. She was a Nehru, plus youth, plus an ability to cut through problems. Indira was India,

and India waited for her to solve its problems. What followed showed that, sadly, Indira was for Indira. She was so busy making sure she had loyal lieutenants in, every state that her ringing election promises to abolish poverty were neglected. Inflation climbed, growth dropped, and when she left office there were more people than ever—between 250 and 400 million. Today there are no regrets for past failures. The excesses of the emergency are brushed aside. Her son, Sanjay, is in tow, with his well-attested reputa-. tion for steamrollering opposition. (When Sanjay’s ap-

peal against criminal conviction came before the Supreme Court a few weeks ago, the Chief Justice was threatened that it would be advisable to see things Sanjay’s way.) Sanjay Gandhi has had the largest say in choosing candidates for Indira’s Congress. There are even whispers that if the party wins he will be catapulted straight into the Prime Minister’s chair. Yet such is the state of the world’s largest democracy that most pundits favour Mrs Gandhi, and many press commentators are looking' forward to the day when the trains will again run on time -4f nothing else. —O.F.N.S., copyright.