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The Indira Gandhi Legacy

Written by John Elliott
Monday, 02 November 2009
Mrs Gandhi electioneering in 1971 Twenty-five years later, it doesn't look very good Twenty-five years ago on October 31, I was in Mussorie listening at lunchtime with other British journalists and diplomats to Tibetan refugee children singing to Princess Anne, who was visiting from the UK. The car drivers turned their radios on and heard the news – on Pakistan Radio – that Indira Gandhi, India's prime minister, had been assassinated. We wondered if it was true, or did Pakistan Radio put such disinformation out every day? No phone or other communication links were available, but we all eventually decided it must be true and started a seven hour (or more, I forget) drive back to Delhi, our cars being plastered with newssheets mourning her death in towns on the way south. An era had ended. One of India's most notable politicians was dead, shot by her Sikh security guards, leaving a legacy that will long be debated but is generally regarded more negatively than positively. Mrs Gandhi increased socialist economic controls started by her father Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the doors to widespread corruption that leading politicians and bureaucrats now routinely practice day by day by, and sowed the seeds for both her own death and that of her son, Rajiv Gandhi, by encouraging a militant Sikh leader in Punjab and separatist Tamil activity in Sri Lanka. She also increased separatist sentiments in Kashmir. If Nehru was greater than his deeds, as many people say, Indira was not as great as she should have been, and her deeds were more damaging than she probably intended. Nehru's controversial post-independence policies of economic centralism and peaceful relations with China are now generally regarded as well-meaning but misguided. Mrs Gandhi's mistakes however are generally seen less charitably as the actions of an insecure woman, desperate to build power and relying too much on her malevolent power-hungry younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, who encouraged her to declare a two-year State of Emergency in 1975. Strangely, Mrs Gandhi is seen much more favorably abroad as a great though flawed leader who did her best to manage a massive poverty-stricken fractured country. It is easy to catalogue her failings and the damage that she did to the country that she undoubtedly loved. Maybe she did not realize the long-term impact of actions that she took for short-term political reasons – more often than not stemming from her paranoia and concern about her power base. But there was more to her than that. She tried more than any government before or since to protect India's environment, which has been progressively plundered since independence in 1947, most recently by a series of corrupt environment ministers (until the current minister, Jairam Ramesh, was appointed in May). She is also remembered for strengthening the confidence of Indian women, and for her ability to reach out to people and to care – a gift that her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, and her grandchildren Rahul and Priyanka, now display. In her final years, she started tentative reforms to open up the economy and unravel the central controls that Nehru and she had put in place. These reforms were continued by hesitatingly by Rajiv, who succeeded her as prime minister and was killed in 1991, and then by the 1991-96 Congress government led by Narasimha Rao (with Manmohan Singh as finance minister), and by subsequent administrations. She also initiated (after a disastrous false start by Sanjay Gandhi) a very successful joint venture, Maruti, with Suzuki of Japan, which triggered a gradual modernization of India's engineering industry that is paying dividends now with the country's internationally competitive auto companies. Her legacy also lives on in other ways, 25 years after her assassination. Internal and regional problems of the sort that Mrs Gandhi dabbled in for short-term political gain have expanded enormously and, judging by recent Naxalite developments in West Bengal, some politicians still play her dangerous game of trying to capitalize on the ambitions of rebel movements. In foreign relations, India has moved on from its reliance on the old Soviet Union, which Mrs Gandhi described as a friend that had never let the country down. As was illustrated by a speech made in Delhi this morning by former US President George W Bush, India now straddles wider international relationships, especially with the US that has recognized its nuclear weapon status. Bush described that agreement, perhaps a little euphorically, as India's "passport to the world". But India's regional relationships have not grown out of the hegemony practiced by Mrs Gandhi in South Asia. Here it is being outgunned by China, which is raising the specter of its defeat of India under Nehru's watch in 1962 by exacerbating border disputes between the two countries. Finally, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is firmly entrenched, with Sonia Gandhi controlling both the Congress Party and the current government, and Rahul preparing to take over. Such dynastic succession brings a form of political stability to India's turbulent and fractured politics, but it also blocks the emergence of other leaders at the top. Even worse, it has now spawned a cascade of dynasties across the country involving families that rarely have the Nehru-Gandhi family's sense of service, but instead are primarily aimed at maintaining wealth that comes from prestige, patronage and corruption. This dynastic surge is both the cause and effect of a sharp decline in the standards of Indian politics that began in Mrs Gandhi's time and has worsened enormously in recent years as personal greed has replaced politicians' concern for the country. John Elliott is a former Financial Times correspondent based in New Delhi and is the author of the blog ‘Riding the Elephant,' which appears elsewhere in Asia Sentinel. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 25157 Comments (5) Subscribe to this comment's feed The Indira Gandhi Legacy-INNER TRUTH written by Balbir Singh Sooch-Sikh Vichar Manch, November 02, 2009 The Indira Gandhi Legacy “Mrs Gandhi increased socialist economic controls started by her father Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the doors to widespread corruption that leading politicians and bureaucrats now routinely practice day by day by, and sowed the seeds for both her own death and that of her son, Rajiv Gandhi, by encouraging a militant Sikh leader in Punjab and separatist Tamil activity in Sri Lanka. She also increased separatist sentiments in Kashmir”. http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2126&Itemid=255 INNER TRUTH by: Balbir Singh Sooch www.sikhvicharmanch.com +2 'Father didn't kill Indira Gandhi to make Sikhs happy' (25 years after Indira ... written by Balbir Singh Sooch-Sikh Vichar Manch, November 02, 2009 'Father didn't kill Indira Gandhi to make Sikhs happy' (25 years after Indira ... http://sify.com/news/39-Father...jacc.html “My father had killed Indira Gandhi neither at the behest of any organisation nor to make any Sikh 'jathebandi' (group) happy. This extreme step was the outcome of intense feelings that carried away my father, and under the circumstances we all respect his feelings”…….. …………. ………….. “Papaji had done it without any expectation from anywhere, so there was no question of help or support from any one. If we talk about justice for the 1984 Sikh massacre, then it was the duty of our Sikh leaders to make sure that justice was done, but unfortunately nothing substantial happened” Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the 30-year-old son of Beant Singh, told IANS in an exclusive interview. In reference to the above, also read views as under: “Symbolic Bandh- Symbolic Protest On Nov 3 2009 Only In Punjab So named religio-political radical groups should not to be allowed to harm anybody or damage the public property under the garb of the dramas i.e. bandhs, protests in Punjab. After everything covered up with help of the various so named religio-political radical groups, now, no hope left to get justice and The Indira Gandhi Legacy- Inner Truth i.e. “Mrs Gandhi increased socialist economic controls started by her father Jawaharlal Nehru, opened the doors to widespread corruption that leading politicians and bureaucrats now routinely practice day by day by, and sowed the seeds for both her own death and that of her son, Rajiv Gandhi, by encouraging a militant Sikh leader in Punjab and separatist Tamil activity in Sri Lanka. She also increased separatist sentiments in Kashmir” to be promoted silently by the same people who as sincere and obedient soldiers supported the legacy so far in order to ruin Sikhs again. After 25 years, the same religio-political radical groups seem to be directed to resort to disrupt rail road taffic only in Punjab, must be symbolically by so-called various religio-political radical groups under the aegis of the Khalsa Action Committee, the Dal Khalsa has given a call for complete bandh on Nov 3 to mark the ‘Nov 1984 anti-Sikh Carnage’. The Symbolic Punjab Bandh - Symbolic Protest on November 3, 2009 like holding seminars etc in the past experienced by the same radicals being said to be significant at the large scale (It seems to be sponsored by the Indian central agencies) as it has a full backing of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Damdami Taksal, Akand Kirtani Jatha, Chief Khalsa Deevan, Sikh Youth of Punjab, Bhindrawale Federation, Shiromani Khalsa Panchayat, SAD (Amritsar) and various factions of Shiromani Akali Dal & Sikh Students Federation. “Fight for justice to riot victims, now is just for symbolism as “I knew what I was doing. Taking on politicians and police officers was never going to be an easy task especially when both were involved. And considering the immense power they wielded, it made my job that much tougher,” says Phoolka……… “Most of the cases against politicians and police officers are over. They have already resulted in acquittals. Only four to five cases are left now like that of Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler,” he said……..””, said lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka. The Sikh Vichar Manch understands the compulsions of the Indian agencies to celebrate such shameful occasions by lighting candles, bandhs, protests, conducting seminars etc symbolically for the promotion and the advantage of their men on one pretext or the other, but submits that they should not to be allowed to harm anybody or damage the public property under the garb of the dramas i.e. bandhs, protests in Punjab”. Balbir Singh Sooch-Sikh Vichar Manch November 2, 2009 www.sikhvicharmanch.com +2 Dustbin of history written by Mao, November 03, 2009 Indira Gandhi's policy of state sponsorship of terrorism like Khalistan, Tamil tigers etc. should be banished to the dustbin of history as truly irresponsible that benefit neither India nor its perceived enemy. +2 PUKI! written by lol, November 10, 2009 yede puki di indira gandhi..wahaha..LOL! :p +0 ... written by Jindal, September 23, 2010 The largest English-speaking democracy in the world has loads of untapped talent. However, India has not been able to shine like other players of the Asian miracle. Engineers run the show in PRC and their numbers speak volumes. In contrast, India's largely incompetent bureaucracy continues to be a farce for a nation vying for a rightful seat at the table on the world stage. Unless there are drastic improvements, I'd myself suggest that the world not take India seriously unless it can articulate a vision. Thanks to the largess of others, there are already ridiculous quotas for Dalits and Muslims. Have any diamonds come out of the grand giveaway in 60+ years? Has there been a study to estimate staggering losses from denial of education and posts to the highly qualified which were instead thrown away at average quota claimants? A huge landmass was generously given away as Pakistan during the partition all in the name of Islam -- has Pakistan produced a single world class scientist or a noteworthy invention? Instead of eliminating the legacy of the caste system, has the socialist era quota system not reinforced silly fault lines of the 20th century, along with backward divisive politics of vote banks? What is even more interesting is that the Congress Party has been instrumental throughout in promoting caste-based politics, and giving election tickets to dubious "connections". A lack of vision is so obvious. Given that in the 21st century India is finally on the road to economic progress, why not Indian politicians wear proper suits during foreign visits instead of donning uptight stodgy Mao-wear or the trademark cotton pajamas (cleverly used for fooling vote banks too)? No change in mindset or apparel -- the body language speaks for itself. Regardless of the party that holds the reins, leadership should be based on qualifications only i.e. pure meritocracy, not any other criteria, and definitely not birth certificates! History shows that dynamic countries lead, others follow. India can't afford giveaways anymore. What India needs is to reinvent itself. +1 Write comment Name Email Website Title Comment smaller \| bigger Subscribe via email (Registered users only) Write the displayed characters