Indira unvarnished: Warts and all

Sandeep Sinha 

Mourn not the dead, but the 
cowed and the meek
Who see the wrong done, but 
dare not speak.

A day after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated, on October 31, 1984, one remembers reading these lines by an unnamed American poet in a national daily as a tribute to the woman who was at the helm of affairs for 16 years. It was also a period that bridged the hiatus between the Nehruvian era and the vision for the 21st century India propounded by her son and successor Rajiv Gandhi. 

Madhav Godbole, a former Union Home Secretary, was privy to many of the developments. In his book, he seeks to present a "dispassionate, critical but not wholly unsympathetic" account of Indira Gandhi's reign.

The book seeks to examine many aspects of Indira Gandhi's personality as well as her legacy. The author says despite her many failings, the imperious streak in her and impression of being ruthless in politics, she left a legacy that has been more lasting than her father’s. Jawaharlal Nehru, despite his lofty idealism, is remembered more for the China debacle and the Kashmir imbroglio. Indira Gandhi, despite the excesses of Emergency and devaluing of institutions like the media, judiciary, bureaucracy and even the Presidential office, driven perhaps by her sense of insecurity, left a more lasting legacy in the creation of Bangladesh, which was her finest hour. 

It marked the coming into own of a leader who had to battle it out against the party old guards despite being Nehru's daughter. These battles were not only on the domestic front, but also diplomatic ones as she checkmated Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger of the USA with her steeliness and hard-headedness as also China, by signing a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union.   

The author dwells in detail on her personality and the enigma of it. She would seem warm, caring and accommodating at one point but would be cold, aloof and distant at another. As a child, Indira had to face the continuous illness of her mother and her early death, long periods of imprisonment of her father, staying away from home and an estranged married life, which seemed to have instilled in her a sense of insecurity and a kind of persecution complex. 

As she wrote to her friend Dorothy Norman, “I feel I am and have learnt to make all the separate personalities quite friendly to each other. But I still do not know how to present them to the world.”  The rough and tumble of politics ensured that her softer side was kept in abeyance.

The book begins by dwelling on the premonition Indira Gandhi had, especially after Operation Blue Star in 1984.  The author says Indira knew she had signed her own death warrant by ordering Army action in the Golden Temple. 

Adams and Whitehead have given an account of her last few days, “The situation here is a disturbing one… I am truly depressed.” Death was very much on her mind. On October 30, after her public meeting in Orissa, where she made that “Khoon ka ek ek katra…” speech, PC Alexander found her looking “old and tired…looking all her 67 years…”

The Latin saying: Quis custodiet, ipso custodes? (Who will guard the guards themselves) seemed justified in her case. The irony is that Indira Gandhi had vetoed the decision taken by her security team to change the guards at her residence for it would have sent a wrong signal in the surcharged atmosphere. One of the guards had refused to take the customary Diwali bonus she gave and it had rung the alarm bell. But the march of destiny had willed otherwise.

Godbole writes about the Punjab problem that led to Operation Blue Star and its aftermath. He says it was the rivalry between Zail Singh and Darbara Singh that was responsible for aggravating it. Instead of bringing them together, the party high command used the tussle between them to increase the Centre’s  hold over Punjab affairs. There were instances like the murder of Nirankari Baba Gurbachan Singh, DIG AS Atwal at the Golden Temple and Lala Jagat Narain, but no decisive action was taken. 

Giani Zail Singh is quoted as saying in his memoirs that Darbara Singh scuttled the move for a settlement with the Akalis fearing the credit would go to Swaran Singh. He also refutes the charge in the book, Amritsar, by Mark Tully and Satish Jacob that it was he who propped up Bhindranwale saying the main source of information for this was Darbara Singh. 

The author also quotes Darbara Singh telling journalist Inder Malhotra that Home Minister (Zail Singh) was “still protecting him (Bhindranwale).” Kuldip Nayar is quoted as saying that after Atwal's murder, Darbara Singh wanted the police to enter the Golden Temple to arrest the killer. “It was an opportune time as Atwal, a Sikh, had been murdered as he came out of Darbar Sahib after prayers. And Bhindranwale was still at Guru Nanak Niwas. New Delhi did not agree.”

KPS Gill described how Bhindranwale became a pawn in the Congress-Akali political tangle.  Arrested on 20 September, 1981, “he was lodged not in a jail, but in the comfort of the circuit house.” At a meeting with Indira Gandhi, the Akalis told her in categorical terms that in the 1979 Gurdwara elections, Bhindranwale had put up 40 candidates against Akalis with help from the Congress (I). He had even been reported to have campaigned for Pritam Singh Bhinder's wife, who was the Congress candidate from Gurdaspur.  

On the Chandigarh question, Godbole says it was Indira Gandhi's insistence on giving Abohar-Fazilka to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh that led to a stalemate. He says making Chandigarh a Union Territory was not justified and a new capital could have been constructed for Haryana like Chandrababu Naidu has done for Andhra Pradesh by building a Greenfield capital at Amaravati.

The book throws light on the men who helped Indira rule and it was the Kashmiri Brahmin triumvirate of PN Haksar, DP Dhar and PN Dhar besides others like Mohammed Yunus and Romesh Thapar, among others. The book describes in detail Indira's tussle with the judiciary, the bank nationalisation, her poverty alleviation programmes and scams like the Nagarwala episode and her soft corner for Sanjay Gandhi, who cared for her "like an elder brother would."

There are some dreary interludes in the book but for anyone interested in the events of 1960s and 1970s, the book makes for captivating reading.