Brief Overview of Indian Political History — Part 2: Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Years 1966–1984
CITIZEN ZERO PUBLIC CORRESPONDENCE 2023.01.26: E-mail Notes to Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, The General-Secretary of Indian National Congress Party.
Editorial Note: These Citizen Zero e-mail correspondences below were exchanged with the current General-Secretary of Indian National Congress, Shri. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in 2023. On the ocassion of India's 74th Republic Day on the 26th January, they are being published here on the substack platform for free public-domain access. Mera Bharath Mahan! Jai Hind! Vande Mataram! •
[Part 2 of Note To General-Secretary of Indian National Congress by Citizen Zero of India]
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<20230108>[20230117]
Immediately that year in 1966, after taking office as India's 3rd Prime Minister Ms. Indira Gandhi visited the United States, with a request to President Johnson to expedite the PL480 funding for release of food-aid and some $900 million in economic aid.
India at the time had faced the last of its major drought/famine situations over the Gangetic Delta in the 20th century? But the USA President had controlled the release of foodgrains in piecemeal tonnage contingent to India implementing some farm-policy reforms, and altering its international/UN stance on the Vietnam War. Affronted, Shri. Indira Gandhi would not comply and would be more vociferous of US bombings in North Vietnam. The other fallout was she had to abandon setting aside some $300 million for Indo-American Educational Foundation from the PL480 due to its Leftist opposition in the parliament.
Also, around that year, India facing a slowdown in Industrial growth endangering its 4th Five-Year Plan, had applied for further economic aid from World Bank and IMF, for which Shri. Indira Gandhi had allowed India to devalue its currency by over 35%. It was a decision she admitted to regret in her later years because the devaluation then had not effected an increase in Indian-exports and foreign-capital investments as anticipated. This devaluation policy, along with the rate of unemployment, inflation, food-shortage, and non-payments of dearness allowances had led to a strikes by government-workers and bandh-shutdowns of civilian offices and infrastructures, and partly as being galvanized by the non-Congress Parties and Congress dissidents with an eye on the upcoming 1967 elections.
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[20230117] On a personal-level, the 1967 General Elections, could be seen as a major affirmation and success for Shri. Indira Gandhi as she charismatically led the campaign trail as her father had previously, and led the Congress Party to a 4th successive victory in the National elections. Considering that in her first-term, this new young Prime Minister had faced occasional chauvinism and sexism in the parliament, and while the establishment members of her own Party Syndicate, those of who had prevented her from picking her own Cabinet ministers, and of who had begun imposing Party-Organization proxy-control over Government-operations, had, in fact, failed to get re-elected, it could be seen as the beginning of a new era where Shri. Indira Gandhi would take over as the undisputed leader of the Congress party, and of the nation at the time. However, from the point-of-view of the seat-swings in the parliament, the Congress party had for the first time, nationally,
acquired only a simple majority compared to its absolute or 2/3rd majorities from previous elections, while the Communist Parties had surged in Kerala & West-Bengal, and the motley of communal, feudal, and regional parties had gotten the rest of the seat-share.
Additionally, the Congress had lost majorities in 8 of the State Legislative Assembly elections then, resulting in many non-Congress coalition State governments, who were of all manner of volatile partnerships between Left & Right Parties, and communal & secular parties. So much so that President's Rule had been invoked on 8 separate occassions in 7 states in the next 5 years with some 800 assembly members defecting parties and 1/5th of them gaining ministerial-cabinet upgrades, and that dissolutions and bye-elections had no effect changing these dynamics.
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[20230117] With regards to Agriculture then, there were a couple of main impediments to Central Government's drive towards Land Reforms, Farming, Pricing & Food Procurement Policies at the time. In States of UP, Bihar, Punjab, there had been the rise of regional parties representing the rich-peasant-farmer class who had gradually replaced the feudal & semi-feudal landlords from previous decades. They too, as before, would oppose the implementation of small peasant-proprietorships, and even thuggishly impose to prevent voting among poorer Dalits / Scheduled Caste agriculutral-labourers. And, because the Congress Party too had its share of rich-peasantry, and as to not alienate their vote base, the Governments could not effectively push through with those reforms.
The other related development in 1967 was over at West Bengal, where the Communist Party of Marxists (CPM) having formed a coalition government there with the Bengal Congress?, had decided to shelve their call for 'armed peasant insurrection' against the state's 'capitalist-government', while that very participation in the democratic-setup by their parent Communist Party of India (CPI) had originally been the reason to form into that splinter group in 1964 inspired by the Maoist Revolution in China. Again, dissidents from within CPM launched an insurrectionist peasant uprising from the northern Naxalbari Region of West Bengal, and this is said to have started the Naxalite movement, and which also attracted many college and university students from surrounding towns over the general discontent with unemployment and economic negligence of those regions. By 1969, a new Communist Party of Marxists-Leninists (CP-ML) gained ground in the States of WB, Bihar, UP, Orissa, Andhra, Kerala, and Punjab too, mainly to secure their own equitable agrarian relations in the existing feudalism, and they had joined forces with Naxalites, running armed peasant bands in some rural pockets and clashing with the police. While these rebellions were eventually suppressed by those State governments, it was more disturbing that these groups apparently were known to receive political and ideological from the Chinese government until the 1970s with the post-Mao Chinese leadership's disavowal of The Cultural Revolution.
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[20230118] With regards to the arrival of the trend of coalition governments with its characteristic defections and dissolutions, as seen in those states between 1967-71, and how such a trend would enter into mainstream Indian Politics at the national level in 1977, and then later in 1990s and 2000s, and recently between 2014 & 2022 by a series of 'political-coups' through resignations and defections of groups of MLAs in the various State Governments as orchestrated by the Central BJP party.
I have had certain new thoughts on the matter I'd like to append to this note.
[20230117, 20230118] It is thus some kind of a strange behaviour in our Constitution, and no less a burden on the People as Voters, when the Legislative Body they have collectively elected cannot function on a 'Nonpartisan Basis', without the Executive Body of the Cabinet necessitating Government formation.
Whereas it ought to be closer to the ideal that individual elected-members should have the benefit of personal discretion to agree/differ with the party-line in voting on a Legislative Bill if they should so chose without this being considered as 'Defection' per se, and without this further triggering a 'No-Confidence' motion in the event of a failure in the passage of a Bill mooted by the ruling-majority. Often such a trigger is seized to carry out intrigue, party-defections and change of Government as we have seen in the past.
In fact, other than for disciplinary reasons, it should not be possible for a Legislative Body (such as the MPs of Lok Sabha) to be dissolved en-masse before the completion of their elected term just because the voters have delivered a mixed-mandate where no single-party has a parliamentary-majority? It is a waste of public funds and precious time of the voters to constantly have to endure parliamentary dissolutions and mid-term elections because of changing power-politics. In fact, voters should be encouraged to vote for the best candidate representing their constituency, and not merely go along with some party ideology imposed on them. Elected Representatives (MPs) have a responsibility and allegiance to the electorate of the people, to their constituency, their state, and their country and not merely to arrive at the national parliament to simply make up numbers so that their party may form a cabinet and a government. Because the Lawmaking process is the responsibility of Elected Representatives (MPs) as a Collective, and Laws passed affects Peoples and States as a Collective, and it cannot merely be made into a Party-prerogative.
In light of these questions and ponderings, one solution would be to suppose the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to be chosen based on First-Choices & Second-Choices of a collective-ballot exercized by these elected members, and to arrive at a 'Naturally-Formed Coalition' that way? No doubt there is more than one solution for such a parliamentary condition, but this to me appears to be one that's least disruptive to the existing set-up as designed by the Framers of Our Constitution.
And, it is a further wonder, to me at least, how the Federal structures of the Central Government and the Bureaucracy can still administrate independently over the State during President's Rule without needing mediation of the People of the State and of their Right to a Federal Statehood? This too would be somewhat addressed by with the above solution applied to Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and in the forming of the Chief Minister's Cabinet.
"'Paisa' for your thoughts, Ma'am?" ;-)
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[20230121] It is during those years of PM Indira Gandhi's leadership between 1967-71 that the Indian National Congress (INC) party would move towards a split that would separate the party into two as the PM Indira Gandhi's Congress-R (Requisitionists) and Congress-O (Organization) headed by Shri. Moraji Desai and other Syndicate members who had returned to the parliament in by-elections and had again begun asserting party-control over functioning of Prime Minister's Cabinet and the government. Ideologically, the Congress-R may be seen as the Leftist Socialists and the Congress-O as the Rightist Capitalists flanks within the INC, and their bone of contention at the time concerned PM Indira Gandhi's policies then with regards to the Economy, Agriculture & Industrial Reforms she had initiated.
[20230123] More specifically, in 1967, PM Indira Gandhi's "Congress Working Committee had adopted a radical Ten-Point program comprising social control of banks, nationalization of insurance, state trading in import and export, ceilings on urban property and rents, curbs on business monopolies and resource concentration, public distribution of foodgrains, land reforms, housing projects for the rural poor, ban on corporate donations to political parties, and significantly at the time, the abolition of privy purses signed with former princely-states.", Whereas, the Capitalist-flank party members had advocated "a dilution of central-planning, reduced public-sector emphasis, increased participation of private industry and foreign-capital, suppression of leftist agrarian peasant movements while favouring policy for rich farmers and large landowners, and somewhat surprisingly, for foreign policy alignment for geopolitics economic relations with USA, and the West." And, eventually the split came about with PM Indira Gandhi's nominee Shri. VV Giri for President of India won the Electoral-College vote over the rival Congress nominee Shri. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy.
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[20230121, 20230123] As discussed previously, because of the splurge in India's military expenditure from the two wars, with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965) coupled with US/UK's punitive economic sanctions in those war-times, meant that India's previously minimal budget allocation for Defense within the Five-Year Plans had to be accomodated somehow, and this sacrifice was made from some of the allocations for the Industrial Development budget in the Third Five-Year Plan, which therefore had to be broken down and implemented into three Annual-Plans between 1967–69? So, the Industrial-Growth Rate had been a slowing down from 7.5% between 1951–66 to 4.99% between 1966–74.
Structurally, a part of the reason for this slowdown is also attributed to the plateauing or stagnation from the Industrial policies that were being carried out from the Nehruvian-era. Mainly, because of the Industrial Licensing-Quota and Import-Controls systems that were in place, may be, to prevent resource concentration among the few large industrialists at the time, and from intending an early protectionist support to promote domestic small-and-medium industry for intermediate capital goods production. This meant that there was little capital surplus and with those further restrictions on expansion, it could not effectively be re-invested into the means of production, thereby not being able to afford to carry out the basic capitalist model of producing the "bigger, better" product continuously. This complacency had meant the basic uncompetitive-ness of Indian-manufactured goods within the domestic and international markets for a long time. Nonetheless, towards 1970, "PM Indira Gandhi went ahead and launched the much-postponed 4th Five-Year Plan with double the investment outlay as the previous plan."
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[20230121] Whereas, in comparison, in the early 1960s among East Asian Nations as seen in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and by end of 1970s among China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, there had been an inflow of large foreign-capital accompanied by transfer of manufacturing processes too as a result of evolution of Western capitalistic economies?, specially in the USA, towards 'stimulating' profits from Consumerism & Spending, and thus seeking out Cheap Labour & Low-Cost Production within these developing nations then. The flip-side was the expansion of USA Military bases and arms-race escalations in the Asia-Pacific, and in Latin America the rise of USA-funded foreign military dictatorships who overthrowing their elected socialist democracies gave way to neo-colonized 'Banana Republics' controlled by monopolies of USA Corporations, and their continued exploitation of indigenous resources.
This was somewhat similar and yet different from the experience of previous British/European colonialism where foreign princely-administrations were baited and supplanted by superior colonial militia and their weapons technologies, allowing capital and resources to be extracted from colonies to create industry and employment abroad in those early stages of European industrialization. It was this reminder of an old memory and the basic conservatism over foreign-capital or Foreign-Direct-Investments (FDI?) in India during the Nehruvian Era that however meant missing out on the 'Wave of Industrialization' that spread over East Asia. (Commendably though, Capital Formation through Domestic Savings and Investment rates doubled between 1950s to 1975–76, for a nation of India's size and population.) It is part of the reason for the transformation of Japan into the world's 2nd largest economy in 1980s, and likewise in the case of South Korea whose economy in 1962 was comparable to the Indian Economy but that its rapid industrialization had led to manifold increases in per-Capita Income and Purchase-Power-Parity matching developed countries, and additionally it had improved local manufacturing within those Asian countries to a high degree of competitiveness and superior product-quality, that ultimately made them viable for international markets. Whereas by 1980s, "India's share in world exports would be a meagre 0.42%, and in volume of manufactured-exports amount to about one-half of China's, or one-third of Brazil's, or one-quarter of South Korea's".
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[20230121, 20210123] PM Indira Gandhi was responsible for instituting the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act of 1969. When instead of encouraging private mergers and acquisitions at the time with many of its heavy industries that had become 'Sick' or poorly performing by accumulating bloated operational costs and low output capital, the government had felt compelled to takeover their burdensome management and this was an instance when those self-imposed restrictions had negatively hurt the Indian Economy. Government 'Nationalizations' was carried out over some 14 major Banks out of 35 commercial banks operating in India at the time, and nearly 36,000 branches (by 1981) were opened up for providing rural savings and agri-credit. "While the Supreme Court of India had ordered an invalidation of those bank nationalizations in 1970, PM Indira Gandhi went ahead and invoked a Presidential Ordinance to force them through." To PM Indira Gandhi at the time, it might have appeared as the means to spread these essential financial services to the wider urban poor, and rural masses of India who were mainly agriculturalists, and who were still being stifled in the backward states under prevailing moneylender debt-ridden societies. Further, she had wanted to carry out land-ceiling policies for large-holdings of feudal landlords to improve the condition of landless tenancy farmers, but had faced constitutional restrictions from the Right To Property assertion, and this too she had tried to amend. In these matters she additionally found support from the Communist Party of India (CPI) at the time.
[20230121] It is over these policies, specially in agricultural matters, that the rift widened between the Congress-R and Congress-O who had the support of the rich-peasants and large farm-holding special-interest groups, and of not wanting to lose that vote-bank to non-Congress parties, and had thus wanted favourable agricultural policies for them. But it was also, essentially, because these old-guard Congressmen had been losing control of the party to the growing independence of PM Indira Gandhi's leadership. So, INC party split while keeping the government afloat for the time being, and the Congress-O started the “Indira Hatao” ("Remove Indira!") campaign with its Grand Alliance (of the Socialist Party, Swatantra Party, and others, including known communalists parties the RSS-Jan Sangh), but who together with this tunnel-vision one-track agenda lacked any sense of political organization or mass mobilization. While PM Indira Gandhi with some gifted sense of timing, with less than a year remaining in her term, called for the dissolution of the Parliament and early elections in 1970 November, and hitting back at her opponents, though subtly and impersonally, with the “Garibi Hatao” ("Let's Remove Poverty!") campaign, gained the overwhelming support of the Indian People at the time, and her party the Congress-R returned to power with an absolute majority and 2/3rd parliamentary seats.
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<20230105> Yet, it wasn't merely posturing. For among Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's crowning policy achievements in that term and what followed, was the decisive impetus she gave to the 'Green Revolution'.
[20230124] It was the popular nomenclature for use of Agricultural-Inputs as “High-Yield-Variety (HYV) hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, tractors, pumpsets, soil-testing, agricultural education programmes, institutional credit, etc.” obtained through the World-Bank's Bell-Mission and American guidance under Dr. Norman Borlaug, (and later, with indigenous bio-tech. research headed by eminent scientist Dr. MS Swaminathan), where already such programs had been carried out in East Asia & South-East Asia after WWII. As a policy it had been piloted at the time of Prime Ministers Shastri and Nehru Administrations as the New Agricultural Strategy or the Intensive Agricultural Districts Programme (IADP) in 15 select districts one per state.
But PM Indira Gandhi carrying out these well-made plans and transferring several millions of these above Agricultural-Inputs to the Indian States in three phases. “Firstly, between 1962-65 to 1970-73, in the wheat-growing North-West Regions of Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP; Secondly, between 1970-73 to 1980-83 in rice-cultivation in eastern UP, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc.; Thirdly, between 1980-83 to 1992-95 in West-Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Orissa, and other regions in MP and Rajasthan.”
Because the emphasis of these Agricultural-Inputs was to improve acreage-yield, “it helped improve the lives and productivity of both marginal, small-holding and medium-holding farmers who being the majority agriculturalists in India owning between 5-10-25 acre plots, as well as large-holding farmers with 25-acres or more, though increases in profits would widen the inequality between them. Nearly in every state where 'Green Revolution' was carried out resulted in not only an increase in agricultural-employment but also generated non-agricultural rural and semi-urban employment with growth of agro-industries, transport-industry, trade and ware-housing, local industries for fertilizer, pesticides, farm-equipment, and machinery, etc.”
A remarkable revolution for anywhere in the world, that would over the decades from mid-1960s (with India producing 50-90 million tonnes of grains and importing 10 million tonnes yearly) would go on to increase our overall Agriculture-Productivity and help achieve our Food Self-Sufficiency for the first time since Independence, and by mid-1980s (with India producing 130 million tonnes of grains with 30 million tonnes of surplus to the granary), a trend that has made our country among the top 2/3 food-producing nations of the world into the 21st century.
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<20230104> [20230122] Undoubtedly, History's most enduring testament to Madam Indira Gandhi's toughness and acumen, probably as India's Greatest War-Time Prime Minister rests undiminished in her leadership in the year 1971-72, only a few months into her third-term of administration, and she would champion Indian Army's victory in successfully securing the Independence and Sovereignty of Bangladesh as a new nation and neighbour of India in the war brought on by Pakistan. It was not only a war that necessitated the territorial defence of India and of India's resources at the time but it was also a "Righteous War" that without India's participation and Her ultimate victory would have led to the perpetration of yet another of Humanity's ruthless genocides being carried out by a cruel rogue military regime in Pakistan that operated then with audacity of the political leverage of Chinese support, and of the shameful long-standing military funding of the USA, (that in the words of its Secretary of State of Pres. Nixon's cabinet, Mr. Kissinger, at this time of America's own humiliation unfolding in the Vietnam War, this apparent posturing of the nuclear-armed US Navy setting out into the Bay of Bengal against India, was said to secure USA's place in the "Right Side of History" in this war and South Asia, and nothing could have been further from the Truth, and more self-deluding than such a "dumbass" assertion.)
[20230122] It was not only a war that India won on-the-field of battle with the Indian Army forces led by General JS Arora and General Maneckshaw (later heralded as India's First Field Marshal) besieging the capital Dacca in those eleven days in December 1971 forcing the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani troops there, while the Indian Air-Force had kept-off air-raid attacks on the Western Sector, but it was also a war that India won off-the-field over the 9 months of that year, from March 1971, previously where Madam Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister of India, manouvered on many fronts– Firstly, with enabling provisions for sanctuary, food and clothing for over 10 million refugees from East Pakistan into West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, who were of all manner of religions being Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, being ethnically-massacred by the West Pakistan army, proving the pernicious falsity of the pre-Independence Two-Nation Theory posited by the British Vice-Regal Offices in disposing off of Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority British Provinces by 'Divide and Rule'; Secondly, when the Awami League Party had won 99% of the elections in East Pakistan and with those numbers were poised to take office at Islamabad, it had alarmed West Pakistan's parties led by Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhuto to instigate General Yahya Khan's Army to re-impose martial-law, to kidnap and arrest Mr. Mujibur Rahman the leader of their majority party, and then to carry on out the genocide of Bengalis in East Pakistan, and so here too, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi intervened allowing the operation of the Emergency Parliament of Bangladesh out of Calcutta; Thirdly, PM Indira Gandhi authorized the essential military training for Mukti-Bahini, the army of Bangladeshi volunteers to carry-out reconnaissance and guerrilla warfare over East Pakistan over those 6 months, so as to reduce the actual involvement and presence of Indian Army to be deployed as needed for the tactical battle at the right time; Fourthly, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi worked to build up international opinion to articulate India's difficult position in the matter of providing safe haven for such huge influx of refugees and in responding against the atrocities of genocide being carried out by the enemy, and in countering any false notion that this war was some kind of "Imperialistic Aggression" by India on the Kashmir-front as was being portrayed by Pakistani and Chinese Geopolitics, and in this matter she was thus able to secure UK and French abstentions and USSR veto in UN Security Council, with only USA and China voting alike; Fifthly, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi definitively aligned India's security relations with Russia (USSR) by signing the 20-year Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Co-operation in August 1971; And finally, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was able to peacefully accomplish the repatriation of refugees after the creation of Bangladesh, and within the following year in 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi & Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto signed the accord for the Simla Declaration, managing to secure Pakistan's recognition of Bangladeshi sovereignty with Mr. Mujibur Rahman as its first prime-minister, facilitating the exchange of over 90000 PoWs, and India agreeing to return some few thousand sq. km of “Pakistani-territory gained in the war except some strategic points in Kargil Sector in order to secure the Kashmir Valley road-links between Srinagar and Leh-Ladakh." Finally, emphasizing the agreement to resolve all matters with India and Pakistan bilaterally without foreign involvement; Most memorably speaking in the parliament in defense of signing this Simla Declaration, Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would say: "All I know is that I must fight for peace, and I must take those steps that will lead us to peace... The time has come when Asia must wake up to its destiny, must wake up to the real needs of its people, must stop fighting amongst ourselves, no matter what our previous quarrels, no matter what the previous hatred and bitterness. The time has come today when we must bury the past.";
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[20230123] Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's commitment to peace is again reflected in her famous quip that "The Buddha Smiles" in response to India's Atomic Energy Commission's first successful testing of an underground nuclear device at Pokharan Rajasthan on May 18th 1974, where she would emphasize the goal of this operation was to harness atomic energy and nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and not for developing any weapons program even though Indian had now acquired the capacity to do so.
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[20230122] Paradoxically, in years after the war, a series of legislations, parliamentary proceedings and some public protest movements would lead to a situation where Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would go on to declare a National Emergency in June 1975, extending from a year to a total of nineteen months until January 1977. What's noteworthy is that this was not a war-time emergency, nor in response to some a large-scale natural-disasters, nor some widespread civilian instability, riots and violences, although localized remedial actions exist in our normal constitutional provisions to address these occurences, but was something that arose out of seemingly ordinary circumstances where power-politics of an authoritarian leadership and reactionary opposition parties would precipitate a mass situation, one that goes on to corrupt the main person with absolutest Power, and a Totalitarian System is unleashed. It was the first and only time in our Nation's Parliamentary Political history to have witnessed such overt autocratic structures in action, and clearly it becomes important as voters to bear in mind, and as legislators to consider what form of evolution in our parliamentary systems and constitutional amendments would be needed to continue to maintain the necessary friction in our system of checks-and-balances between the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. So, it's worthwhile to see what those events were that brought about this National Emergency in India.
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[20230122] With this rise of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's stature at home and abroad, there was generally a certain bolder authoritarian streak in her dealings with parliamentary legislations, and with the politics of the States. Most importantly, this wave of Madam Indira Gandhi's popularity certainly helped a great deal with Congress-R victories in all the State Elections that occured in 1972 (which was all but 4 states going into the polls then), and she had thus complete control and choice over the party, the cabinet, and all the chief ministers at the time.
[20230122, 20230123] Firstly, with those state governments aligned with her leadership, she went ahead with important agrarian land-reforms which included ceiling on large land-ownership and distribution of surplus lands to marginal farmers and landless labourers; Instituting the Ration-Card Scheme (PDS?) to distribute cheap foodgrains to economically backward sections of society, and a rural-employment scheme (CRES). Perhaps, controversially though, PM Indira Gandhi went on to pass the 25th and 26th Amendments, the first of which in effect granted the parliament the ability to amend the Fundamental Rights, which until then the Supreme Court of India had designated as 'Basic Structure of the Constitution' that could not be amended, while with that the latter amendment granted the government an indisputable position at the Courts with regards to the 'Right To Property' compensations doled out in the case of public takeover of private property and nationalizations, which PM Indira Gandhi might have seen then as necessity in carrying out her agrarian land reforms?
Secondly, PM Indira Gandhi had carried forward the Nationalization Drives with General Insurance in 1972. Furthermore, perhaps, with the view of meeting energy requirements from the growing burden of Government undertakings of many 'Sick' industries at the time, PM Indira Gandhi had carried out the Nationalization of the Coal Industry with India's Coal Reserves being under-produced and underutilized. Additionally, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had implemented the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) in 1973, that would while placing numerous restrictions on foreign investments and foreign companies in India, (whose technology collaborations were rather preferred), it would further aggravate an inherent ‘Export-Pessimism' among Indian Manufacturers, and would overall contribute to an industrial slowdown and growing unemployment rates.
Thirdly, there was an economic and industrial recession in the India at the time. Large budgetary deficits had arisen from the massive expenses of 1971 war and in managing the Bangaladesh Refugee Crisis, and contemporaneously in facing the quadrapole surge in global oil-prices triggered by ARAMCO Inc. and OPEC Nations? Accompanied with major droughts and monsoon failures, the resultant shortage of foodgrains, led to a steep rise of inflation to nearly 22% from being well-controlled at 2% between 1952–64. All these happenings would trigger a wave of strikes between 1972-74, among public sector workers, students, Indian railways, some police-constabulary, etc. all across the country.
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[20230122, 20230123] Meanwhile, the motley crew of opposition parties at the time, thus being out of power in the states had decided to throw their weight behind these protests movements that had erupted. And so, between 1974-75, these sporadic student protest movements had intensified into “gherao” siege-strikes in the State of Gujarat, demanding the resignation of elected-assembly members on charges of corruption, etc. The law and order situation broke down completely with the police clamping down on the protestors with excessive force and indiscriminate arrests with the protests having turned violent with looting, rioting, arson, etc. and so PM Indira Gandhi intervened with Article 356 and dissolved the Congress-majority assembly in Gujarat, but that had inadvertently allowed the opposition groups an opportune gain there in the follow-up election. Similarly in Bihar, under the populism of Shri. Jayaprakash Narayan, the former Socialist-Party leader, who never did hold office anyhow, had organized a follow-up “gherao” siege-strikes, and though unsuccessful in forcing a dissolution of the legislature there, this agitation had goaded the non-Congress opposition parties to join him in organizing nationwide protests in Delhi and other states of North India, drawing large crowds/bystanders of students, traders, middle-class folks, etc. But without a political platform, the momentum petered out somewhat with the students returning to classes in end of 1974.
[20230122] Then, with less than year for the next national elections, events would start to precipitate more quickly, in the month of June 1975, when the UP High Court of Allahabad on a public interest litigation of a private citizen, charges PM Indira Gandhi with election fraud malpractice on a supposedly technical detail from 1971, and one that could effectively remove her from office and ban her from appearing in an election for the next 6 years, and so she rejects the High Court's decision and appeals at the Supreme Court, where it turns out the Chief-Justices are on some winter-break, and so the sitting judge in place rules against PM Indira Gandhi saying that she may remain in Parliament without participating until the justices can rule on her appeal. Again, the redoubtable Shri. Jayaprakash Narayan and the Janata Party leader Shri. Morarji Desai emerges with renewed 'gherao' demands for resignation of Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and further instigating insurrectionist calls goading the police and army to stop allegiance to the government, and with that go on to besiege her Official Residence with a crowd of hundreds of thousands of volunteers on June 25th.
[20230122, 20230123] It is at this point, in fact the very next day, in responding to this situation with 'thunderbolts and lightening', Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, stating as it involves a serious and dire threat of insurrection, and supposedly foreign interference in national matters, invokes the clause for National Emergency under Article 352 that a "grave emergency exists whereby the security of India or any part of its territory is threatened by war, external aggression, or an armed-rebellion", institutes National Emergency Rule in the whole of India, and assuming complete and total authority until such time of normalcy as may be determined when the Emergency may be revoked. If indeed 'Hell hath no fury as the wrath of a Woman scorned', it was unleashed then upon the Democracy of India on June 26th, 1975.
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<20230105> [20230123] After Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared National Emergency, protests everywhere was immediately stifled by law-enforcement. In the period of nineteen months of Emergency, over 100,000 people were arrested temporarily under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) or Preventive Detention?, while some of PM Indira Gandhi's political opponents were jailed for the entire duration of Emergency; Many fundamental rights were suspended accordingly such as Peaceful Public Assembly Rights, Free Press Rights, etc., while daily publishing could only be carried out only under strict government oversight; Further, State Legislatures were rigidly controlled by the Center exercizing final authority on all matters in the State List as well, while two of the state governments were dissolved and placed under President's Rule. The national parliament was largely ineffective as government decisions were carried out unilaterally from the Prime Minister's Office and the Cabinet loyal to her;
Many constitutional amendments (38-42) were passed during this Emergency period, some of which notably included– Overwriting agrarian land reforms in various states; Curbs to the powers and jurisdiction of courts particularly revoking ability of State High Courts to review Central Laws and reserving it only for the Supreme Court; Establishing precedence of Directive Principles of Government Policy above Fundamental Rights of Citizens; Redacting Citizen's Right to Constitutional Remedies at the courts; Preamble of the constitution was amended in her justification from ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’ to ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’; Some sweeping anti-corruption and crime-laws against anti-national activities through amendments to the Defence of India Act and MISA were passed that granted police and law-enforcement authorities with heightened powers to conduct arbitrary search and seizures, and citizens' arrest, etc.;
[20230124] In all, over the extended duration of nineteen-months of Emergency, people who had initially perceived the restoration of public order from the chaotic protest movements as a sign of normalcy returning to the country, were blankly unaware of the assault on Constitution, Civil Liberties and Fundamental Rights being enacted out of the Central Government as they were not being reported in the Press under Emergency restrictions, but rather were deceived by the increased reporting of "well-publicized actions against smugglers, hoarders, black-money marketeers, illegal foreign currency traders, tax-evaders, and preventive-detention arrests, etc." Furthermore, PM Indira Gandhi opportunely publicized her more expansive "Twenty-Point Programme of socio-economic reforms from before, which included: liquidating agricultural debts of rural masses, abolishing bonded labour, distributing over 1 million acres of surplus land from large-holding ceilings, housing sites provisions, increases to agricultural minimum-wage, availability of rural credit from co-operatives and nationalized banks, other essential price-cuts, low-income group tax-exemptions, etc."
Quite disturbingly also at this time, it was known that PM Indira Gandhi entrusted significant powers to her older son Shri. Sanjay Gandhi who was heading the Youth Congress, and he was known for some kind of thuggish highhandedness in the New Delhi civilian and political scene, where apparently he went about with some personal social reform project in dismantling city slums, and conducting extreme family-planning drives that was further implemented apparently as a national project with rural government employees being asked to nominate households for mass-sterilizations, etc.? and in addition, he was said to have been allocated with large government resources for opening a car manufacturing plant, and so on;
So, by mid 1976, peope had become more anxious about the continued infringement of their freedoms and rights by petty officials and law-enforcement, and had grown more suspicious of the central government and its designs, while the economic conditions of inflation, unemployment, etc. continued to deteriorate.
Finally, after Emergency had been extended thrice over 6-month periods, free-elections were first postponed by a year and then suddenly in January 1977 the elections were announced to take place in the next 3 months, and saying thus Emergency was lifted, and dissidents released from jails.
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[20230123] Quite predictably, Madam Indira Gandhi's political opponents at the Congress-O, Socialist Party, Swatantra Party, Bharitiya Lok Dal, Jan Sangh and others came together to form the new Janata Party, and they swept the polls winning an absolute majority and nearly 2/3rd seats at the parliament mostly from Northern States, while Southern States had fared better for the Congress-R party. Former Congressman and leader of the Janata Party, Shri. Moraji Desai (1977-1979) became thus the 4th (5th) Prime Minister of India.
[20230123] This new government carried out two more amendments to the Constitution, in effect reversing some of the changes incorporated during Emergency, among which were– Restoring the Powers and Jurisdictions of both High Courts and Supreme Court; Reducing the sweeping nature of crime-laws against anti-national activities that was subject to abuse of power by law-enforcement; Preventive Detention was curbed to not exceed two months of detention; Right to Property was changed from a Fundamental Right to a Legal Right, and any land-ceiling or public-use compensation of private property was to be determined by market-value, and not as arbitrarily set by government; Most significantly, Parliament was prevented from being able to amend Fundamental Rights itself, and any such changes would require an approval by referendum of the People directly; Duration of President's Rule under Article 356 was reduced to 6 months, not exceeding a year, and when determined by the Election Commission not exceeding a total of 3 years for new elections; Finally, Emergency Proclamation under Article 352 was made more stringent to invoke by specifying that the triggering condition of war, external force, armed threat was not the same as internal disturbance arising out of peoples' protests, assemblies, or gatherings, and further specifying a requirement of a majority-approval in both Houses, and for any of the Emergency's extensions beyond 6-months;
[20230123] But in a stroke of opportunistic political vendetta, this central Janata Party Government arguing that, in nine of the State Legislatures where Madam Indira Gandhi's Congress governments were still operating, that they had supposedly lost a "moral mandate of the people" proven by the poor electoral performance in that year's national election, would go on to initiate dissolutions of those governments and call for their fresh elections in June 1977. Clearly, this move by the Janata Party Government had set a bad precedent in the abuse of President's Rule through Article 356.
(State Legislative Assemblies can be dissolved on a couple of accounts in our Constitution presently. One, the de jure Governor of State can invoke Article 174 to 'dissolve the Legislative Assembly from time to time' though this probably involves 'Recommendation of the Chief Minister's Cabinet' or the case of a 'Hung-Legislature'. Two, President's Rule or Article 356 of Emergency Provisions in the event of ‘Breakdown of Constitutional Machinery of the State’ can be invoked upon recommendation of the Prime Minister's Cabinet.)
[20230123, 20230124] Briefly, from an economic point-of-view, however, in those two-and-half years, the Janata Party coalition government adopted a more capitalistic stance favouring policies for rich agriculturalists, that had tended to set of caste tensions with landlords and moneylenders trying to reclaim allocations made to the rural poor under Emergency. Whereas in Industry, while they did not seem to have endorsed any centralized-planning or large-scale public sector industrialization, they pushed through with policies favouring small-scale labour-intensive industry, and initiated a partially successful 'Food For Work' program to counter rural unemployment and build up village infrastructure. But by 1979, this lack of a planned approach had led to increase in essential commodity prices, and an inflation rising up beyond 20%. Furthermore, the communal groups within this Janata Party coalition, such as the RSS-Jan Sangh who with a significant number of seats in this parliament, had been somewhat dangerously allowed to assert themselves from the center in the area of education syllabus, recruitement of police, teachers, news-media, etc. which would have its own pernicious repercussions to follow.
[20230122] Meanwhile, in 1978, Shri. Indira Gandhi was required to take a stand before an Inquiry Commission and Special Court in 1979 for her role during the Emergency Period, about which she would refuse to testify claiming to be bound by the Official Secrets Act of the Prime Minister's Office. But the tide had changed, and this continued harrassment of her by the government now evoked peoples' sympathies and she returned to parliament winning a by-election in November 1978 out of a constituency in Karnataka.
[20230124] But the Congress-R party by now had once again split-up with those members remaining with PM Indira Gandhi forming the Congress-I (for Indira), while the remaining Congress-U members went away to partner up with one faction of the volatile coalition of the ruling Janata Party, who had now faced a division on account of disagreement of its secular groups with the Jan Sangh members who had maintained a dual-membership with the communal RSS group. As a result Shri. Moraji Desai was forced to step down and Shri. Charan Singh, went on to take office as the 5th (6th) Prime Minister (1979). This was a very short-lived time, for in about a month or so, Shri. Indira Gandhi's Congress Party withdrew their temporary support, so that a no-confidence motion was passed, and parliament was dissolved calling for fresh elections in 1980. It is at this point, heading into the next elections, the RSS-Jan Sangh and other members of the former Janata Party disbanded to form the new Bharatiya Janata Party, or the BJP.
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[20230122] And so, in January 1980, campaigning for a "Government That Works", Shri. Indira Gandhi and her Congress-I party returned to power with an absolute majority & 2/3rd seats once again in the 7th Parliamentary elections, and she took office for a 4th term as Prime Minister of India.
[20230124] Initially, reminiscent of her previous authoritarian streak PM Indira Gandhi dismissed 9 of the non-Congress State Governments under Article 356 President's Rule, and reclaimed majority in 15 of the 22 state elections in 1980. But after that her leadership in her final term was seen as relatively less energetic, and the Congress-I party apparently suffered from a lack of organizational experience as its veteran leaders had left to other parties, and it's membership was now new and untried. This manifested as defeats for Congress governments in Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka in 1983 where prior to that the Congress had never lost in those states.
Between 1980-84, militancy, religious and caste violences was seen to be increasing seperately in states of Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Bihar, and even parts of South India. While "PM Indira Gandhi continued to receive the immense love and adoration of women, minorities, tribals, harijans, scheduled castes," and the main focus of her work had always been social reform for a secular, egalitarian society and upliftment of the rural and urban poor, she however failed to leave behind an improvement of administrative/political systems for India, and the necessary up-shift in the gears of industrialization during her long reign.
While continuing to maintain planned-development to strengthen the public sector, she initiated certain slow measures for economic liberalization, that did yet result in average industrial growth rate having increased from 3.5% in 1960s to about 5.1% by mid-1980s, with overall GDP of 4% yearly, increased agricultural productivity, and reducing inflation to 7%. Additionally, these beginning in the 1980s saw an increase in Indian Stock-Market share issues, that from then onwards becoming an important source of capital for our industries. As part of this 6th Five-Year plan between 1980–85, India's Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) with a loan from IMF was able to invest in local oil-fields and increase indigenous oil-production to be able to reduce one-third of oil-import in domestic consumption and export-savings. India's foreign debt, however, between 1974–85 would increase from 32% of GDP to over 45% of GDP.
In foreign policy, PM Indira Gandhi, chaired the 7th summit of Non-Aligned Movement in 1983, while she did try building a better relationship with America, and later she went on to start "Six-Nation-Five-Continent Initiative of Argentina, Mexico, Sweden, Greece, Tanzania, and India, towards building international consensus for Arms-Race De-escalation and Nuclear Weapons Disarmament in the World".
She tried to normalize India's diplomatic relations with both China and Pakistan. While she did not support the deployment of USSR troops in Afghanistan, and advised on their speedy withdrawal, she vehemently opposed indirect intervention by USA in the region.
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<20230105> In 1984, in one of the most tragic turn of events in Indian Civil history, PM Indira Gandhi, to secure a law and order situation that had emerged in Punjab, had authorized the Indian Army to storm into Amritsar's Golden Temple of the Sikhs, where followed a shoot-out and showdown with armed civilians holed out within the premises for weeks. It is this situation that had resulted in the assassination of Madam Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her own bodyguards, who out of their personal Sikh religious affiliation had retaliated in vengeance at the perceived government mishandling of the crisis in Punjab. So, these were followed by months of anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, leading to deaths of 2800 or more civilians, where sadly enough, not only had rioters reacted violently out of inflamed passions, but also that some of the parochial Congress party-workers at New Delhi had further instigated those crowds and held back on police-action.
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<20230105> Following the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi, Shri. Rajiv Gandhi, her son would take office as the 6th (7th) Prime Minister of India (1984, 1985–1989?), being goaded by the new Congress Party High Command who were banking on the surge of "sympathy votes" in the upcoming 8th General Elections of 1985. Though it is well known that it was PM Indira Gandhi's older son Shri. Sanjay Gandhi who was being groomed to take her place, but that he had crashed and died piloting his own plane in 1980, and so, in being asked to help out the fledgling organizational capacity of this somewhat new Congress Party at the time, their mother Indira had assigned Shri. Rajiv Gandhi as one of the seven General-Secretaries of the Congress Party, who was until that time managing his own aviation career of 14 years, and had been known to have remained aloof from the political scene, rather jet-setting the world (and being interested in the Italian avant-garde Art scene perhaps, but where he would meet his spouse Ms. Sonia Maino Gandhi, and returning to India with him, and after many years following Shri. Rajiv Gandhi's demise, who would take the helm as the INC President from 2000, and would pass on the mantle to their son Shri. Rahul Gandhi in 2018, and their daughter Shri. Priyanka Gandhi taking on the role of General-Secretary of the INC, as her father once had.) But indeed, Shri. Rajiv Gandhi's foray in those 1985 elections would result in the largest ever margin of majority in Indian parliamentary history, bringing in some 415 out of 543 seats for the Congress Party, and he would, thereby, become the third in the succession of Prime Ministers arriving from the same political dynasty starting from Prime Minister Nehru.
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[End of Part 3 of Note to General-Secretary of Indian National Congress ]
Online References: To be added…