Chapter Notes

Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress System

Following the era of one-party dominance discussed in Chapter Two, the Congress system faced its first major challenges during the 1960s. Political competition grew stronger, and opposition parties became more powerful and united. At the same time, the Congress party struggled with internal divisions, making it difficult to accommodate different viewpoints as it had in the past. This chapter explores this turbulent period, starting from the political transition after Prime Minister Nehru's death.

Challenge of Political Succession

The death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1964 raised two critical questions. The first was simple: "After Nehru, who?" The second was far more serious for a young democracy: "After Nehru, what?"

Many international observers were doubtful that India's democratic system could survive without its founding leader. They feared that, like many other newly independent nations, India might fail to manage a peaceful democratic succession, which could lead to military rule. The 1960s were even labelled the 'dangerous decade', a time when unresolved issues like poverty, inequality, and regional divisions could threaten India's democratic project and even its unity.

From Nehru to Shastri

India proved its critics wrong with a remarkably smooth transition of power. After Nehru's death, the President of the Congress party, K. Kamraj, consulted with party leaders and found a consensus in favor of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Shastri was unanimously chosen as the leader of the Congress parliamentary party and became the next Prime Minister.

• Who was Lal Bahadur Shastri? He was a non-controversial leader from Uttar Pradesh who had served as a minister in Nehru's cabinet for many years. Known for his simplicity and principles, he had once resigned as Railway Minister, taking moral responsibility for a major train accident.

Shastri's brief tenure as Prime Minister, from 1964 to 1966, was marked by two major crises:

1. Economic Crisis: The country was still recovering from the 1962 war with China and faced a severe food crisis due to failed monsoons and drought.
2. War with Pakistan: India fought a war with Pakistan in 1965.

To address these challenges, Shastri coined the famous slogan, 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer), symbolizing the nation's resolve to fight on both fronts. His leadership ended abruptly when he passed away on 10 January 1966, in Tashkent (then in the USSR), where he was signing a peace agreement with Pakistan's President, Muhammad Ayub Khan.

From Shastri to Indira Gandhi

For the second time in two years, the Congress party faced the challenge of choosing a new leader. This time, the succession was not as simple.

There was an intense competition between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi.

• Morarji Desai was an experienced leader who had been the Chief Minister of Bombay state and a minister in the central government.
• Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, had been Congress President and was the Minister for Information in Shastri's cabinet.

The senior leaders in the party, known as the 'Syndicate', decided to back Indira Gandhi. They may have believed that her relative political inexperience would make her dependent on them for guidance. The decision was not unanimous and was settled by a secret ballot among Congress MPs. Indira Gandhi defeated Morarji Desai by securing the support of more than two-thirds of the MPs. This peaceful transition, despite the competition, was seen as a sign of the maturity of India's democracy.

Fourth General Election, 1967

The year 1967 is considered a landmark in India's political history because the fourth general elections brought significant changes to the country's political landscape, challenging the dominance of the Congress party.

Context of the elections

The country was facing a grave economic crisis leading up to the 1967 elections.

• Economic Strain: Successive monsoon failures, widespread drought, and a decline in agricultural production led to serious food shortages.
• Financial Pressure: Foreign exchange reserves were depleted, industrial production dropped, and military spending had risen sharply.
• Devaluation of the Rupee: Under perceived pressure from the US, the Indira Gandhi government devalued the Indian rupee. Before, one US dollar cost less than Rs. 5; after, it cost more than Rs. 7.

This economic situation led to widespread public unrest. People protested against rising prices, food scarcity, and unemployment through frequent bandhs and hartals. The government's treatment of these protests as a law-and-order problem, rather than as expressions of public suffering, only increased popular anger.

Non-Congressism

Opposition parties saw an opportunity in the widespread discontent and the internal divisions within the Congress. They realized that the division of their votes was what kept the Congress in power.

• Strategy: Parties with very different ideologies came together to form anti-Congress fronts. They felt that Indira Gandhi's inexperience provided a chance to defeat the ruling party.
• The Architect: Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia gave this strategy the name 'non-Congressism'. He argued that Congress rule was undemocratic and against the interests of the poor, making it necessary for all non-Congress parties to unite to reclaim democracy for the people.

Electoral verdict

The results of the February 1967 elections were a "political earthquake" for the Congress party, which was facing the electorate for the first time without Nehru.

• At the National Level: The Congress managed to win a majority in the Lok Sabha, but with its lowest number of seats and vote share since 1952. Many prominent leaders and half of Indira Gandhi's cabinet ministers were defeated, including Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu, S.K. Patil in Maharashtra, and Atulya Ghosh in West Bengal.
• At the State Level: The political change was even more dramatic. The Congress lost its majority in seven states and was prevented from forming governments in two others due to defections. These nine states included Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madras, and Kerala.

In Madras (now Tamil Nadu), a regional party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), won a clear majority on its own—the first time a non-Congress party had done so in any state. The DMK's victory came after it led a massive student agitation against the imposition of Hindi as the official language.

Coalitions

The 1967 elections introduced the phenomenon of coalition governments. Since no single party won a majority in many states, various non-Congress parties joined together to form governments.

• These alliances were called Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD) in Hindi.
• A key feature of SVD governments was their ideological diversity. For example, the SVD government in Bihar included socialist parties (SSP and PSP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) on the left, and the Jana Sangh on the right.

Defection

Another important feature of this period was defection, where an elected representative leaves the party on whose symbol they were elected to join another.

• After the 1967 elections, breakaway Congress legislators were instrumental in forming non-Congress governments in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
• This period of shifting political loyalties gave rise to the expression ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’.

Split in the Congress

While the Congress retained power at the center after 1967, it was with a reduced majority, and its authority was weakened. However, the real challenge to Indira Gandhi came not from the opposition but from within her own party.

Indira vs. the 'Syndicate'

Indira Gandhi had to contend with the 'Syndicate', an informal group of powerful and influential Congress leaders who controlled the party organization.

• Who was in the Syndicate? It was led by K. Kamraj and included powerful state leaders like S. K. Patil, S. Nijalingappa, N. Sanjeeva Reddy, and Atulya Ghosh.
• The Power Struggle: The Syndicate had helped Indira Gandhi become Prime Minister and expected her to follow their advice. However, she gradually began to assert her authority, choosing her own advisors and sidelining the Syndicate.

To counter the Syndicate and regain the political ground lost in 1967, Indira Gandhi adopted a bold strategy. She turned the power struggle into an ideological one.

• She launched initiatives to give government policy a Left orientation.
• In May 1967, she got the Congress Working Committee to adopt a Ten Point Programme, which included policies like social control of banks, nationalization of insurance, land reforms, and public distribution of food grains. While the Syndicate leaders formally approved this, they had serious reservations.

Presidential election, 1969

The rivalry between Indira Gandhi and the Syndicate came to a head in 1969 with the election of a new President following the death of President Zakir Hussain.

1. The Candidates: The Syndicate nominated N. Sanjeeva Reddy, a long-time opponent of Indira Gandhi, as the official Congress candidate. In response, Indira Gandhi encouraged the Vice-President, V.V. Giri, to run as an independent candidate.
2. Populist Moves: At the same time, she announced major policy decisions like the nationalization of fourteen private banks and the abolition of the 'privy purse' (special allowances given to former princes). These moves led to the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Morarji Desai.
3. The Showdown: The Congress President, S. Nijalingappa, issued a whip requiring all Congress MPs and MLAs to vote for Reddy. Indira Gandhi openly called for a 'conscience vote', allowing them to vote for whomever they wished.
4. The Result: V.V. Giri won the election, and the official Congress candidate, Sanjeeva Reddy, was defeated.

The defeat of the official candidate formalized the split in the party. The Congress President expelled Indira Gandhi from the party. By November 1969, two distinct factions emerged:

• Congress (Organisation) or Congress (O): The group led by the Syndicate, also known as the Old Congress.
• Congress (Requisitionists) or Congress (R): The group led by Indira Gandhi, also known as the New Congress.

Indira Gandhi projected the split as an ideological divide between socialists and conservatives, and between the pro-poor and the pro-rich.

The 1971 Election and Restoration of Congress

The split left Indira Gandhi's government in a minority. However, she continued in office with the support of parties like the CPI and the DMK. To end her dependence on other parties and seek a popular mandate for her programmes, her government recommended dissolving the Lok Sabha in December 1970, and fresh elections were held in February 1971.

The contest

The election appeared to be a tough fight for Indira Gandhi's Congress (R).

• The organisational strength of the old Congress was with Congress (O).
• All major non-communist, non-Congress opposition parties formed an electoral alliance known as the Grand Alliance. This included the SSP, PSP, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Swatantra Party, and Bharatiya Kranti Dal.

The Grand Alliance, however, lacked a coherent political programme. Their main slogan was ‘Indira Hatao’ (Remove Indira). In contrast, Indira Gandhi presented a positive agenda captured in the famous slogan: ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Remove Poverty). Her platform focused on:

• Growth of the public sector.
• Ceilings on land holdings and urban property.
• Removal of income disparities.
• Abolition of princely privileges (privy purse).

Through this slogan, she built a strong support base among the disadvantaged, including landless laborers, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, women, and unemployed youth.

The outcome and after

The election results were a landslide victory for Indira Gandhi.

• The Congress (R)-CPI alliance won 375 seats in the Lok Sabha. Indira's Congress (R) alone won 352 seats.
• In contrast, the powerful leaders of Congress (O) won merely 16 seats.
• The Grand Alliance proved to be a grand failure, with a combined tally of less than 60 seats.

This victory established Indira Gandhi's faction as the 'real' Congress and restored its dominant position in Indian politics. Her popularity soared even higher after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Her party also swept the State Assembly elections held in 1972. She was seen as a protector of the poor and a strong nationalist leader.

Restoration?

Did Indira Gandhi's victory mean the old "Congress system" was restored? The text argues that it was not a simple revival. In many ways, she had re-invented the party.

• A New Congress: While the party's popularity was similar to the past, its nature had changed.
  • It relied entirely on the popularity of its supreme leader, Indira Gandhi.
  • It had a weaker organizational structure.
  • It no longer had many internal factions and was less able to accommodate diverse opinions.
  • It depended on a specific coalition of social groups: the poor, women, Dalits, Adivasis, and minorities.

While the Congress party's position was consolidated, the spaces for democratic expression in the country began to shrink, setting the stage for the political crisis that would follow.