Indira’s reality check in Pathankot

I was going through my late maternal grandfather’s papers when an old, yellowed pamphlet with an image of Indira Gandhi fell out. It was about the Bees Sootri (20-point) Programme which the then Prime Minister had introduced after imposing the Emergency. The ambitious programme included measures to bring down the prices of essential commodities, promote austerity in government spending and end rural indebtedness.

It immediately took me back to an incident that my grandfather, Mittar Man Singh Kahlon, often narrated. He was a freedom fighter who had joined the Congress during his college days in Lahore.

In 1977, when he was serving as the president of the District Congress Committee, Gurdaspur, he was told to organise a huge rally to counter the Opposition’s anti-government narrative. Pathankot, being part of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, was chosen as the venue. Grandpa did not disappoint the party top brass; he organised a massive rally for Mrs Gandhi. Impressed by the turnout, the PM said the Congress would surely win the Gurdaspur seat. Grandpa, who didn’t mince words and called a spade a spade, decided to give her a reality check.

“On the contrary, Ma’am, we are set to lose. These people have not come in awe of you but in fear of you,” he said. The remark didn’t go down well with Mrs Gandhi and she gave the silent treatment to everyone during the rest of the rally.

A Congress colleague who went on to become a cabinet minister came to my grandfather and said, “Sardar ji, eh ki kitta, Madam nu naraz kar ditta.” He replied that somebody had to bell the cat.

When Mrs Gandhi was about to depart and bureaucrats were lining up to see her off, she immediately broke protocol and decided to walk down to where grandpa was standing. “Thank you for your honesty, Mittar. I appreciate it,” she said with a smile before leaving the venue. It took the sting out of grandpa’s words and ensured a cordial parting.

Some political observers and historians have portrayed Mrs Gandhi as a Machiavellian dictator whose ego and arrogance knew no bounds, but there was another side to her — at times, she was kindness personified and humble to a fault. Yes, the Emergency was a blunder and she had her faults, but who doesn’t? To err is human. She was human too.