‘Fruits of power’

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 10

‘Fruits of power’

Mr Jagjivan Ram is not a pretty person, neither in looks nor in reputation. He is gross rather than fat, and his podgy fingers glitter with rings. He pants as he leans heavily on his §tick. . .’ As to his personal conduct', it is safe to say that he/his enjoyed life's fruits--to the full. His tenure, of, the ministries of railways, transport, defence and agriculture have provided him with, a good living. Yet these are: personal matters, which -is why Indian liberals, .pin their hopes on him as the man to save the country..'..'from' .the clutches of Mrs Indira Gandhi, whose hidulgences are, unlikely to be ; merely personal, but wilLoperate on an all-India stage. <■' If Janata wins the election, Mr Jagjivan Ram will be Prime Minister of India. He insisted that the promise be made in writing. In more than 30 years of Cabinet office in New Delhi it is the job he has most coveted. He is an Untouchable and sees it as symbolic of how free and democratic India really is. He has enormous abilities. As an administrator there is no one in India to touch him. He reads his despatch boxes, unusual among Indian Ministers. He allows civil servants and experts their say, then takes the decisions without dithering. He has travelled a long way from his native Bihar, where as • a schoolboy he was' not allowed to drink water from the same pitcher as the caste Hindus. He

broke the Untouchables’ pitcher so that he had -to be allowed to use the Hindu one. Now he is “a Brahmin among Untouchables”. His 12-room house in his birthplace village of Chadwa soars above the shanties and huts of his untouchable brothers. The most telling argument against Mr Ram is that he has been lured by power. Thus he stayed in Mrs Gandhi’s Government almost throughout the emergency, even though he was unhappy with it. He moved the Emergency Bill in Parliament and stayed put until February, 1977, when the elections had been announced. Similarly, in November this year all New Delhi knew that he was unhappy

with his Hindu nationalist partners within Janata. Everyone knew that his son, Mr Suresh Kumar, and Sanjay Gandhi were negotiating to get Mr Ram back with Mrs Gandhi'. . - In the end he stayed with Janata, but only after the promise that he would become Prime Minister. In an election broadcast the other day, he said: “The hand (the electoral symbol of Mrs Gandhi) that today is open .in greeting will ■ turn into a fist to strike you.” The problem is that no one is quite sure whether, if the same hand victoriously reached out to Mr Ram, he might not grasp it.—O.F.N.S., copyright. . , .