indira gandhi a biography pupul jayakar pdf

To finish her house in Mehrauli. But then she decided to put it off. So she was really short of money. Now what happened from the time she won the elections again I don't know.

Q. Did you ever sense a miasma of corruption around her? A. I'm quite a shrewd woman, and I have my ears open. I've lived in Delhi and met her when she was abroad. But I never sensed anything wrong.

Q. What were her fatal flaws? A. She didn't have that intellectual strength to build an institution.

Q. But her father did. A. Yes. He built institutions. Though god knows how successful they were. But his instincts were right. He was a noble person.

Q. One does not get that sense with Indira? A. Well, she had many personalities. There was a part of her that was noble but there were other parts of her which were destructive, trivial. She was a better politician than her father; her father was the greater person.

Q. But what was her fatal flaw? A. A great suspicion. I don't think there was anyone - except Sanjay - who escaped this.

Q. Why? Did her marriage to Feroze have anything to do with it? A. Yes. It was a complete disaster. But somehow I feel if he had lived she might not have become prime minister. For a husband and wife relationship is strange. He was deeply upset when she was elected Congress president-because he had contributed more in the Lok Sabha.

Q. There have always been rumours about Mrs Gandhi's affairs? A. She told me on tape that there had never been anyone else (but Feroze). And she was telling me the truth. I would stake my life on it. You know, no one will believe me. Two women are great friends over a long period and they don't ever talk about their sexuality. It's very difficult to believe, but I don't remember Indira ever bringing up the subject.

Q. So the rest was just bazaar gossip? A. Yes, yes. There was nothing.

When Indira Gandhi broke 'One Nation One Election' cycle

I t was the night of December 27, 1970, radios at homes crackled and Indira Gandhi, then the Prime Minister, began her address to the nation. 

What Indira Gandhi was going to announce on that cold winter night would freeze the election process for decades, until the nation once again attempted to revert to the earlier process of simultaneous polls.

"In the present situation, we cannot go ahead with our proclaimed programme and keep our pledges to our people," Indira Gandhi said. The Prime Minister then declared that the Lok Sabha was being dissolved, a full 15 months before the end of its term.

That was the first time that the Lok Sabha was dissolved in Independent India.

"We are concerned not merely with remaining in power but with using that power to ensure a better life for the vast majority of our people," Indira said in her broadcast.

Ousted from the Congress, Indira Gandhi was leading a minority government cobbled together with the support of several regional parties, including the DMK, and would have been the PM till February 1972. But she didn't just want to be in power. She wanted to be firmly in power.

Indira's decision to dissolve the Lok Sabha and call for the general election 15 months ahead of schedule would result in decoupling the parliamentary election from the state polls. Till then, the parliamentary and the Assembly polls were held simultaneously in India.

The current government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after five decades, revived the idea of holding polls simultaneously in India.

Boasting the perks of reduction in governance distractions, moral code of conduct impact, poll expenditure and horse-trading, the government is considering a 'One Nation One Election'.  

A high-level committee led by  former President Ram Nath Kovind recommended amending the Constitution and the election-related laws   for simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha, all the state assemblies and local bodies, starting in 2029. 

The Congress, Indira's own party, has criticised the Modi government's simultaneous poll move.

But what exactly led to Indira Gandhi advancing the general election by 15 months, and what was it like when elections were held simultaneously?   

1951-1952 WAS THE FIRST 'ONE NATION ONE ELECTION'

Had Indira Gandhi not recommended the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 1970 and called for an early general election, the elections for Lok Sabha would have taken place in 1972 along with polls for state assemblies.

If one would rewind to the initial days of the republic, India conducted its first elections in the winter of 1951-1952. The election of 1951-1952 was in fact a fine specimen of 'one nation, one election' , even if it was not a conscious choice of the founding fathers. It was the first election, and it had to be conducted together for both tiers of government.

Understandably so, the first election was co-conducted for the Lok Sabha and all the state legislatures simultaneously, after the Constitution of India came into effect in January 1950.

However, it must be noted that local body polls were not part of the 1951–1952 polls.

The simultaneous polls which commenced in 1951-1952, as a result, went on for around two decades to come.

The batches of Lok Sabhas and Vidhan Sabhas would commence and end their five-year terms together until Prime Minister Indira Gandhi tinkered with the harmonious polls in 1970.

The harmonious poll cycle disrupted by Indira Gandhi was, however, a result of many complex factors and circumstances. 

WHEN INDIRA GANDHI WAS EXPELLED FROM CONGRESS

The backdrop to the development was a period of considerable turmoil and transition within the Indian National Congress in the 1960s. The late 1960s, after the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shashtri, was an era of fragmentation for the Grand Old Party.

After the mysterious death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in January 1966, Indira Gandhi was sworn in as the prime minister , with the support of the 'Syndicate', which otherwise wasn't amenable to her.

However, she was not the first choice of the party leadership, dominated by the unofficial group within the Congress party.

The powerful 'Syndicate' consisted of K Kamraj, Atulya Ghosh, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, S Nijalingappa, SK Patil and Biju Patnaik, among others.

Indira Gandhi got the top job, whereas Morarji Desai, who also eyed the Prime Minister's chair, had to settle to be her deputy. Even outside the Congress fold, Indira Gandhi's credentials had not been tested yet, apart from her short stint in the Shashtri Cabinet as the Information and Broadcasting Minister.

Indira Gandhi was even dubbed a goongi gudiya (the dumb doll) by socialist stalwart Ram Manohar Lohia after she appeared too nervous to read out a Budget speech.

Gandhi was aware that she did not enjoy a lot of liking from her party people, particularly the 'Syndicate'. Hence, she started to consolidate her position among the masses.

An assertive Indira, therefore, had jumped into the central ring, contrary to what K Kamaraj held her to be, "a pliable, weak lump of clay they could mould and remould", writes Tariq Ali in his book, 'The Nehrus and The Gandhis' .

She gave it all in the 1967 Lok Sabha election and campaigned extensively with her slogan, "garibi hatao". Her stance on bank privatisation and privy purse did not go well with the 'Syndicate' and Morarji Desai.

With brewing opposition in the party, she was expelled from the Congress in November 1969 for "violating party discipline".

"The Syndicate had never forgiven her (Indira Gandhi) for the independent stand she had taken on vital issues relating to the country," noted Pupul Jayakar in 'Indira Gandhi A Biography' .

INDIRA GANDHI FLOATS NEW PARTY

Indira's response to her expulsion saw her float a new party called the Indian National Congress (Requisitionists), against the Indian National Congress (Organisation), led by K Kamaraj and later Morarji Desai.

Subsequently, Indira Gandhi's Indian National Congress (Requisitionists), formed a minority government with the help of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and left parties to stay in power. She was acutely aware of the instability.

On Indira's advice, President VV Giri dissolved the Lok Sabha.

"Indira's government after the split was vulnerable, and she was advised by [her secretary] PN Haksar to call a midterm election in 1971 to get popular endorsement of her policies," noted Inder Malhotra in 'Indira Gandhi: A Personal and Political Biography' .

The decline in the Congress in the 1967 polls, a period of drought, rising prices, two wars with Pakistan, growing corruption, the decision to devalue the rupee, and the successive deaths of two Prime Ministers came together for Indira Gandhi to call the polls a year prior in 1971, according to political scientist Myron Weiner.

The decision was fraught with risks, but  Indira Gandhi's gamble paid off.

Indira's Congress faction eventually went on to amass around 43% of the votes, translating to 352 seats (out of 518 seats) in the lower house, while the Indian National Congress (Organisation) could manage just 16 seats.

"By the margin of its victory, Congress (R) would require no qualifying suffix," noted historian Ramachandra Guha, saying, "Indira's Congress came to be known as the real Congress."

The premature dissolution of the Lok Sabha by Indira Gandhi, therefore, prompted a premature election in March 1971, which else would have taken place in 1972. This marked the first instance in India's 23 years of independence where Parliament had been dissolved prior to completing its full term.

By advancing the elections, Indira Gandhi effectively decoupled the national election cycle from that of the state assemblies, whose terms were yet to conclude.

STATES DE-SYNCHRONISED OFF POLL CYCLES EVEN EARLIER

Though Indira Gandhi's decision to call the general election early was a big factor in breaking the simultaneous poll cycle, there were some states that had already moved to a separate poll calendar.

As early as July 1959, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru advised President Rajendra Prasad to dismiss the government of Kerala, led by E M S Namboodiripad, the 'first elected Communist government in the world'.

The dissolution of the Kerala government cited its incapacity to rule based on the constitutional mandates, which historian V Krishna Ananth, called "a significant abuse of Article 356 of the Constitution."

As unstable state governments crumbled, Kerala, Haryana, Bihar, Nagaland, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal were compelled to hold midterm elections throughout the 1960s. 

Indira Gandhi, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "misused" Article 356 of the Constitution on 50 occasions to dissolve elected governments.

So, it was unstable Congress governments that fell off the simultaneous election calendar and the separation of the parliamentary election from the state polls was ensured by Indira Gandhi with her decision in 1970, which she broadcast on a cold December night in 1970.  

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