Sanjay Gandhi, as director of Maruti Technical Services, had received a fee of Rs 3,00,000 for imparting technical know-how to Maruti Ltd. Asked by an income tax officer what Sanjay had contributed to the technical side of the car project, W.H.F. Muller replied, ‘Actually a set of drawings, incomplete set, in respect of the car he had built… . What actually was produced was a few prototypes hand-made.’
Income Tax Officer: ‘It is said that some Maruti cars are running on roads. Have you any idea about this?’
Muller: ‘These cars were given to certain people. In all about ten or twelve. These are all prototypes not the same in design, etc. They are different from one another. They were changed several times… . It would be an exaggeration to say that a workable plan or mode existed.’
In Muller’s opinion Sanjay would not ‘provide a feasible working prototype nor the planning required’.5
Maruti concerns found lucrative outlets in state governments for roadrollers, tractors and other equipment supplied by them. Hardeo Joshi, chief minister of Rajasthan, told the chief engineer of the Public Works Department that if he did not place an order for Maruti roadrollers before January 3, 1976, ‘this is Emergency time, and anything can happen to you’. The chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh pressured their officials to hurry orders from Maruti companies, and the chief minister of Punjab ordered fifteen Maruti roadrollers without administrative or financial sanction.
Though the car had not appeared on the market, eighty distribution agents were appointed between 1972 and 1976, each required to deposit a sum ranging from Rs 3,00,000 to Rs 6,00,000, an exorbitant figure compared with the deposit of Rs 5000 charged by the makers of the well-known Ambassador car. In some cases the purchase of Maruti shares was made a precondition for an agency. The Gupta Commission records the experience of several agents. Rattan Lal, a partner of Vishal Motors of Chandigarh, who had paid Rs 2,50,000 as deposit, did not demand its refund when the car did not appear, ‘Because in the meanwhile we had come to know that one or two dealers who had dared demand their deposits back were harassed, and some of them were put under detention under MISA.’ Om Prakash Gupta of Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on May 16, 1974, because he asked for payment of interest as provided in the agency agreement. He was in jail for two months until the Allahabad High Court ordered his release on a habeas corpus petition. S.C. Aggarwal paid Rs 6,00,000 for agencies at Hissar in Haryana and Guwahati in Assam. At Sanjay’s insistence he also bought a plot at Hansi in Hissar for a showroom and a garage. A car was delivered to him on June 30, 1974, for exhibition, not sale. It broke down while he was driving it to Hansi. On June 2, 1975, his firm sent a notice to Maruti Ltd, terminating the agency at Guwahati. He was threatened with arrest and later made to touch Sanjay’s feet in apology. Daljit Singh, another agent, was charged Rs 20,000 for a car to exhibit. He found its brakes and clutch defective and returned it to the Maruti factory for repair. He got neither the car nor his money back. Yet Maruti’s annual report for 1974–75 claimed that during the year ‘it was possible to start the manufacture of Maruti cars on a moderate basis’ and that the car had ‘shown very good performance’ on plain roads as well as at high altitudes and was ‘liked and welcomed by all’. Shareholders did not appear to agree. Liquidation proceedings were started against Maruti Ltd soon after the Emergency was lifted.
The press registered its stern and shocked reaction to the Gupta Commission’s findings:
… as with the Shah report, the cumulative effect, as classified and evaluated by a fine judicial mind, comes with an impact which is not merely horrifying, but disgusting. (The Statesman, September 9, 1979)
… the finds have been … certainly sufficient, under conditions of genuine parliamentary democracy, to keep son and mother out of public affairs for life. (The Hindu, September 12, 1979)
The Roman hand of Mrs. Gandhi can be seen at every stage in the process by which land was acquired and enormous loans given to Maruti by banks whose officials were under threat or were promoted with a view to securing favoured treatment … it would seem that, even more than the Allahabad judgement in her election case, it was Sanjay’s megalomaniac plans regarding Maruti which compelled her to declare the second Emergency in June 1975 so that the Maruti scandals could be hushed up. (Deccan Herald, September 11, 1979)
At her Shivaji Park meeting in Bombay in September 1979, Mrs Gandhi declared she had no time to read the ‘trash’ published by the commissions of inquiry, and referred in her speech to the ‘petty judge’ who had dared unseat the prime minister (on June 12, 1975). ‘I am unconcerned about the disclosures about Maruti,’ she told reporters when asked for her comment. et her concern for Sanjay mounted as the Janata government began to prepare a series of criminal and civil cases arising out of the report. It is certain that its submission to the government in May made the dislodging of the Janata government an urgent objective with Sanjay, who is credited with the strategy and arrangements that led to Charan Singh’s defection, paving the way for a midterm election.
After Sanjay Gandhi’s death, Mrs Gandhi’s government nationalized Maruti Ltd by presidential ordinance between two sessions of Parliament, telling a press conference, on October 21, 1980, that the company had more assets than liabilities and ‘has to be used for the national good’. Madhu Dandavate, General Secretary of the Janata Party, described the measure as the ‘nationalization of corruption’, and Maruti affairs came before Parliament again in November 1980, with Opposition parties united in their objection to the public exchequer meeting the heavy liabilities incurred by Sanjay Gandhi behind the cover of nationalization.
When Sanjay Gandhi celebrated his thirty-third birthday in December 1979, he was in command of the youth wing of the Congress-I. ‘If Sanjay tells me, I will even put my head into an oil seed crusher.’ The remark, made by Hakim Singh aged thirty-six, elected to the Lok Sabha in January 1980 from Punjab, was typical of the aggressive emotional ramparts the youth wing had erected around their leader. In its brief interlude in the wilderness, the party’s youth organization had concentrated on a tempestuous campaign to obstruct court proceedings in cases against Sanjay. A crowd of supporters accompanied him on his court appearances in Delhi, Lucknow and Dehradun. Court work had to be suspended on occasion when the noise outside or with the Sanjay band pouring in halted proceedings. The public prosecutor was at times not allowed to enter the court room until it was filled with the faithful. On one occasion the public prosecutor was assaulted. Books were thrown at a judge, papers torn and furniture broken in court. The new style dominated the 1980 Parliament, where about 180 out of 351 Congress-I MPs were associated with the party’s youth wing and loudly obstructed proceedings when they wished to express their disapproval.
On May 7, 1980, two editors commented on the distinct change in the political climate. Girilal Jain of the Times of India wrote:
Mr. Gandhi is impatient with bureaucratic delays and procedures. He is a doer and not a thinker. He is generally anti-Left. His followers share some of these characteristics which are very different from those of Congressmen who prospered under Mr. Nehru.
Kuldip Nayar of the Indian Express wrote:
Those who are gaining limelight are generally drop-outs from schools or colleges or the ones who were below average students. They are rootless individuals who have no respect for values or standards and who have only one aim, how to make a fast buck.
It was generally agreed that the scene was different in substance and essence from the past and that the new element in it was ‘activist’. Romesh Thapar wrote in the Economic & Political Weekly of January 12, 1980:
It would be a mistake to imagine that the ruling party represents a Congress continuity. Quite the contrary. It is a new party of Indira and Sanjay devotees… . The overwhelming democratic mandate for a party described as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘fascist’ creates an extraordinary situation… . Indira Gandhi’s earlier reliance on the bureaucratic machine (civil, mili
tary and police) to implement her vague ideas of change has been much reduced by Sanjay Gandhi’s demonstration of the power of the mob …
Sanjay’s death on June 23, 1980, when the aerobatic aircraft he was piloting without sufficient experience crashed, left a design in ruins about his mother. The cabinet decision to hold an open judicial inquiry to investigate the reasons for the disaster was dramatically changed at the initiative of the prime minister, leaving the inquiry to departmental sources, inevitably controlled by the executive. A comprehensive public inquiry might have laid bare a labyrinth of violations, from the import of the aircraft with doubtful justification and against normal policy to its unlawful and reckless uses. Mrs Gandhi was aware that no familiar alibi—vested interests, the Opposition or the foreign hand—could be blamed for the tragedy that had killed a young man in his prime and with him the helpless instructor who had been an unwilling companion on the flight.
Mrs Gandhi is not a traditional Hindu, and her defeat in the 1977 election did not alone account for the change of behaviour that took her to a succession of temples and shrines. Most Hindus, regardless of westernization, plan important events by horoscopes. Her pilgrimage made it evident that hers portended ill for her family. Before she moved into the official residence as prime minister in early February 1980, priests from Varanasi conducted eight-day religious rites. During her first thirty-eight days in office, she worshipped at about a dozen shrines from Jammu in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south.
The Hindustan Times, January 17, 1980:
The first thing Mrs. Gandhi does after landing here by an IAF aircraft at 9.30 a.m. is to worship at the Padmanabha Swamy temple… . She will begin the day on Friday with prayers at the famous Guruvayoor temple.
United News of India (UNI), February 27:
The Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, will arrive here tomorrow by a special plane to worship Lord Venkateswara… . From the airport, Mrs. Gandhi will motor straight to Tirumala where she will stay for the night. After worshipping the Lord, she will leave for Madras the next morning.
UNI, March 4:
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made a flying pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi cave temple … offering prayers under the guidance of head priest Pandit Prem Nath … . Before entering the 120-ft.-long cave, Mrs. Gandhi and other members of her party had the customary bath. The Prime Minister and others declined to ride ponies from Sanjichat helipad and covered the 2-kilometer distance on foot.
The Times of India, March 11:
Amid a hectic whirlwind tour of Gujarat yesterday, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, spared half an hour to pray before the ‘Amba Mata’ at the famous temple town of Ambaji. She was deeply engrossed in prayer as she sat before the main seat of the Goddess. She lay prostrate for ‘pranam’ for about a minute.
Press Trust of India (PTI), March 15:
Mrs. Gandhi today prayed for the welfare of the country and its people while offering a velvet ‘chaddar’ on the tomb of Khwaja Moiuddin Chisti here.
PTI, April 4:
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi today rounded off her day’s programme by visiting the temple of Lord Vishwanath—the presiding deity of Varanasi—and spent about an hour in the temple. Sitting before the Shiva ‘Linga’ Mrs. Gandhi worshipped the Lord by offering flowers and ‘bilva patra.’ She also visited the temple of Annapurna and Sankatmochan. During her tour of the drought affected areas she had also visited the Vidhyavashini temple.
The Statesman, April 6:
Mrs. Gandhi also visited Chitrakoot in Satna district in Madhya Pradesh and offered prayers at the historic temple of Kamla Nath. She also offered prayers at the temples of Lord Rama, Sita and Hanuman and Sati Anasuya… . Mrs. Gandhi also visited the Janakikund, a pond in which, according to mythology, Sita had bathed … . Before leaving Chitrakoot, she paid a visit to the holy rock where the footprints of Lord Rama are said to be inscribed. She placed flowers on the hallowed spot and bowed. Mrs. Gandhi also offered prayers at Pithambar Pith, a temple of Bagla Mukhi, the Goddess of Shakti.
The woman who, as prime minister of a religiondominated country, had attracted admiring comment when she told a television interviewer in Britain in 1971 that she did not believe in God, appeared to have changed fundamentally in the reliance she now placed on religious observance. The shadow of impending calamity has its own compulsions. The human being seeks courage where he can, and the ritual connected with religion is the oldest succour known to the human race. Nevertheless her dependency on astrology became the subject of national comment.
Sanjay’s death brought a genuine wave of public sympathy. The loss of a child—in India, particularly a son—is a grief beyond compare, and national comment seemed to agree that no one should die at thirty-three, though there was no doubting the immense relief outside Mrs Gandhi’s party at the providential removal of the most sinister presence modern Indian politics had known. For the maturing of democracy it was regrettable that a political challenge of the sort Sanjay represented had been removed by sudden death and not overcome by the effort and organization of those opposed to him. Mrs Gandhi’s extreme and awesome stoicism in her loss conveyed as nothing else could have done that she had perhaps lived through the possibility of just such a disaster many times in her imagination. Her self-possession was widely remarked when she returned to recover Sanjay’s keys and watch, both articles essential for access to his finances and documents, from his mangled body. This ensured that control of these would be hers and not pass to Sanjay’s widow, Maneka, and Maneka’s family, with the unforeseen political implications this might involve.
Sanjay’s tragedy was in reality a political climate that allowed him to use an administration, and then a party, to further his ends. But for this infatuation with power, encouraged by the unbridled authority he was permitted to exercise, he might have remained an unremarked and unremarkable young man, shaped by steadier and more ordinary processes and opportunities. The larger tragedy may well be the fever of our times, which elevates wealth, power and speed as admirable goals, worthy in themselves.
*F.A. Ahmed, minister for industrial development; T.A. Pai, minister for heavy industry, V.C. Shukla, minister for defence production; H.R. Gokhale, law minister; Pranab Mukherjee, minister for revenue and expenditure.
NINETEEN
The Face of the Future
A prime minister’s personal tragedy does not usually become a political dilemma, but Mrs Gandhi’s political career had been shaped by ever growing personal and family considerations, and Sanjay’s death left her in a political and psychological vacuum of her own making. She faced the gravest problems in her career with the weakest and most inexperienced team of ministers, most of whom had been chosen for their special equation with Sanjay. The price rise achieved new heights, tensions in the rural sector mounted, communal violence erupted and an increasing sense of insecurity gripped the cities. An electorate that had hoped Mrs Gandhi would be better able than a disunited coalition to cope with problems found her unequal to the task. After Sanjay’s death she also faced turmoil within her party. This, unlike 1971, was not the settled weather of an exhilarating victory.
The use of her party as an instrument of dynasty should in the ordinary course have become irrelevant after Sanjay’s removal from the scene, leaving his following to find its own level. The men his patronage had elevated to importance had, almost without exception, no firm political base of their own and, in the case of some new entrants from among the princes and business houses, very recent and tenuous links with the party. Sanjay’s satellites found they needed a new and powerful sponsor close to Mrs Gandhi to ensure not the seats they already occupied in Parliament and state legislatures but the leverage and ultimate control they had counted on capturing. The keys of this kingdom were now out of reach, along with the expectation of a steady harvest of material advantage. The campaign to draft Sanjay’s elder brother, Rajiv, as his successor recognized Mrs Gandhi’s incapacity to repose her confidence outside her bloodline.
Mrs Gandhi could at this stage have abandoned dynastic notions and trappings, using her own now undiluted authority to end dissensions in the party and restore it to the kind of functioning that would admit new political blood. Her reaction was quite different. She appeared to take it for granted that her elder son should now enter politics, if not as his brother’s successor—which his own dislike of such a proposition made unlikely—then as his mother’s aide. This development laid bare the extremity of her isolation and the extent of her estrangement from normal parliamentary government and of her own retreat behind the blood bond. As a leader she had shown little interest in, or aptitude for, the interaction and interdependence of the parts of a system that makes for a balanced, healthy whole. The plan to induct Rajiv into politics occasioned no surprise in public comment and none in her party. Rajiv Gandhi, uninterested in politics, reluctant to give up a career as an Indian Airlines pilot, in which he enjoyed high professional standing, found himself forced to make a difficult and unwelcome decision. It was, however, clear that he would not in any sense be a Sanjay substitute when Mrs Gandhi moved swiftly to strip Sanjay’s inner circle of the free access his key associates had had to the prime minister’s house. Implicit was the warning that they no longer could count on special status or protection. The action was reminiscent of similar treatment in the past towards colleagues of her own generation who had become security risks. Yet it had its own significance. The house that Sanjay built contained elements, some disreputable and dangerous, that only he could control. The disciplining of a corps that would have presented her with problems of impatient ambition, even had Sanjay lived, seemed to free her from imminent and even ugly duress. Publicly she showed every sign of relaxation. The Youth Congress-I too, placed under a more pliant leadership that did not seek laurels for itself, would be more amenable to her own guidance. This quiet demotion of Sanjay’s following proceeded alongside memorials to him. This kept the family name before the public, while the ground was prepared for the new member, Rajiv, to fill the gap.
Indira Gandhi Page 29