The rising son

Book Extract

To try and write the history of a country like India, post its independence, may seem like a foolhardy task but historian Ramchandra Guha, after meticulous research, puts together a book that would appeal not just to those interested in history in an academic way but even to a lay reader. And the author, as he says in the prologue, "has been driven by curiosity rather than certainity, by the wish to understand rather than the desire to pass judgement."

Six weeks into the emergency Sanjay Gandhi gave a long interview to the Delhi magazine Surge. He spoke there of his personal life "" he didn't drink, or smoke ""and of his relationship with his mother ('yes, she obviously listens to my views', he said in answer to one question; 'She listened to them even when I was five years old'). He spoke of his work "" he claimed to spend twelve to fourteen hours a day at his Maruti factory "" and of the car he would soon produce, which would 'out-corner either the Fiat or the Ambassador' (the two cars that dominated the Indian market).

He expressed himself in favour of free enterprise "" 'the quickest way to grow' "" and thought that the government should remove all controls on where, how and in what manner industries were established. Asked his idea of democracy, he said that it 'doesn't mean the freedom to destroy everything there is in a country. Democracy means the freedom to build a country.' Asked about the Congress, he said it should be a 'cadre-based party'. When the interviewer pointed out that both the Jana Sangh and the communists were based on cadres, Sanjay dismissed the first as 'a favour-based party'. As for the latter, he commented that 'if you take all the people in the Communist

Party, the big wigs "" even the not-so-big wigs "" I don't think you will find a richer or more corrupt people anywhere'.

Surge was a new magazine, and the interview was a scoop. The editor quickly sold the story to the agencies, who in turn passed it on to newspapers both Indian and foreign. These chose to highlight Sanjay Gandhi's views on free enterprise "" so at odds with his mother's professed socialism "" and his characterization of her loyal allies, the communists, as 'corrupt'. When these excerpts were published, the prime minister sent a panic-stricken note to her secretary, P N Dhar. Sanjay's comments were 'exceedingly stupid', she wrote.

It would 'not only grievously hurt those who have helped us', but create 'serious problems with the entire Socialist Bloc'. Dhar was able to contain the damage "" no more snippets appeared in the press and Surge was prevented from printing the interview. Sanjay himself was persuaded to issue a statement clarifying that leaders in the Jana Sangh and Swatantra parties were even more 'corrupt', and that the CPI must be saluted for its support to 'progressive policies, specially those affecting the poor people'.

Sanjay was not deterred from giving more interviews, though. When the Illustrated Weekly of India asked him about curbs on the press, he answered that the papers 'constantly told blatant, malicious lies. Censorship was the only way to put an end to this.' Asked to provide a balance sheet of the emergency, he said that 'the greatest gain is a sense of discipline and the speeding of work'. And 'what has the country lost? Smuggling, black-marketing, hoarding, bus burning and the habit of coming late to work.'

The editor of the Weekly, Khushwant Singh, emerged as the chief cheerleader and trumpeter of the rising son. Sanjay was termed as 'The Man Who Gets Things Done' and chosen as the 'Indian of the Year'.

The magazine ran lavish features on Sanjay and his young wife, Maneka, pages and pages of photographs accompained by an invariably fawning text. (Samples: 'He has determination, a sense of justice, a spirit of adventure and a total lack of fear'. 'Sanjay Gandhi has added a new dimension to political leadership: he has no truck with shady characters or sycophants; he is a teetotaller, he lives a simple life...his words are not hot air but charged with action.')

Less surprising perhaps was the attention paid to the prime minister's son by All India Radio and the state-run television channel, Doordarshan. In a single year, 192 news items were broadcast about Sanjay Gandhi from the Delhi station of AIR. In the same period Doordarshan telecast 265 items about Sanjay's activities. When he made a twenty-four-hour trip to Andhra Pradesh, the Films Division shot a full-length documentary called A Day to Remember, with commentary in three languages.

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INDIA AFTER GANDHI
The history of the world's largest democracy

Ramchandra Guha
Picador India
Price: Rs 695
Pages: 775