Nehru dynasty
Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964, but a dynasty had been born. Two years later his daughter, Indira Gandhi, took over the reins of power and championed Democratic Socialism.
Her authoritarian manner helped to establish her as the undisputed leader of a divided Congress party, as did India’s 1971 victory over East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Her Green Revolution turned tenant farmers into landowners, guaranteeing her an agrarian power base well into the 1980s.
It was a turbulent time. When, in June 1975, the Allahabad High Court found Gandhi guilty of corrupt political practices, she reacted by imposing a State of Emergency that was to last two years. The press was censored, 100,000 political opponents and activists were imprisoned, slums were cleared and enforced sterilizations were carried out. Inevitably, there was a backlash. Her Congress (Indira) party decisively lost the 1977 election, which brought to power the Janata Dal party, led by the octogenarian Morarji Desai. In a political drama unusual even by Indian standards, Gandhi was put briefly behind bars. Against all odds, however, she was back in office in 1980.
Her joy was short-lived, for later that year her son, Sanjay, died in an air crash. Although his ruthlessness had won him scant popularity, Sanjay was being groomed by Gandhi as her heir apparent. On his death she persuaded her second son, Rajiv, a pilot with Indian Airlines, to make his first appearance on the political stage.
Problems in Punjab
Also making headlines in 1980 was Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a charismatic, turbaned militant leader based in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines. Surrounded by a group of young, educated and fanatical Sikhs, he demanded greater rights for the Sikh community and separation of the state of Punjab from the rest of India. Indira Gandhi’s tactic of pitting Sikh groups against each other only aggravated the crisis and the Sant’s followers were able to terrorize, rob and murder Hindus unhindered.
By 1984 the threat had reached the capital, and Gandhi sent the army into the Golden Temple, large parts of which were destroyed. Much blood was shed and the Sant was killed. Revenge was not long in coming: on 31 October, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.
A shocked Congress party elected Rajiv Gandhi prime minister. It seemed to some a rash decision, given his inexperience, but the electorate overwhelmingly endorsed Congress’s decision by sweeping Rajiv to power in the subsequent elections. His manifesto was ambitious, promising to revive industry with new technology and management techniques. It was an appealing mix in a year that had seen a shattering accident at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, when gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by the US multinational Union Carbide, killing 2,000 local residents and affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
Five years later, amid allegations of political corruption, Congress (I) was defeated catastrophically in the polls. A key issue was the Bofors scandal, in which suspect commissions had been paid by a Swedish arms manufacturer in order to supply guns to the Indian army. Rajiv’s defence minister, V.P. Singh, resigned in 1987 alleging Congress corruption in the affair and formed a new party, the National Front. In the 1989 election he won enough votes to form a minority government, which was toppled in 1990 over caste and religious issues.
Rajiv, believing that he had lost the 1989 election by being too aloof, plunged into a populist campaign, driving in an open Jeep through milling crowds. In Tamil Nadu a woman approached him with a sandalwood garland and detonated the bomb on her belt. Gandhi and 20 others were killed in the blast. Such had been the grip of the Nehru succession over the Congress (I) party that no obvious successor existed. Desperate attempts were made to draft Rajiv’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, as his successor, but she resisted until 1998, when she campaigned to salvage the reputation of the dynastic party and then was chosen to head it.
