Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (in Hindi: इन्दिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गान्धी; Allahabad, November 19, 1917-New Delhi, India, 31 October 1) became an Indian Prime Minister 94 1966 and 1977 and again from 1980 until his death in 1984. Additionally, he was the leader of the Congress Party between 1959 and 1984 and held numerous other ministerial posts in Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet and also in his own government. The daughter and political heir of India's national hero, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi is the second longest-serving Prime Minister of this country (second only to her father) and the first woman to do so.
After completing her education abroad, she returned to her native country, where she married Feroze Gandhi (after whom she took her last name and who is not related to Mahatma Gandhi). She soon began her political career, when she joined the Indian National Congress (CNI) in 1938 and actively participated in the struggle for Indian independence, led by the legendary Mahatma Gandhi. After India's independence in 1947, she became her father's political partner during his seventeen-year rule. Indira's frequent appearances at political events, diplomatic trips, international and national events ended up making her a figure known to the public and served as a basis for launching her own political career.
In 1959, his father handed him over as president of the Indian National Congress, in an act intended to ensure that the organization remained controlled by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Then, in 1964, after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, the CNI politician Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as Prime Minister of India with Indira as Minister of Information and Broadcasting, a position she held until 1973. After the untimely death of Shastri, Indira Gandhi took over the post of Secretary General of the CNI and became Prime Minister in 1966. Additionally, she successively held the positions of Minister of Foreign Affairs (1967-1969), Minister of Finance (1969-1970), Minister of the Interior (1970-1973) and Minister of Defense (1975).
During his government of almost eleven years, he developed an economic policy aimed at industrializing the country. He maintained good relations with the Soviet Union and supported the independence of Bangladesh in order to weaken Pakistan, his neighboring country and geopolitical rival. His foreign policy also included a substantial distancing from the United States. In 1975, he declared a state of emergency in the country, censored criticism in the media, suspended the right to defense in courts of justice, ordered compulsory sterilization and ruled by decree until 1977, at which time he called new elections. which he lost to the Indian People's Party. In this way, the leader of this political formation, Morarji Desai (and one of his main opponents) became prime minister.
After his departure from power, he faced accusations of corruption, violations of the electoral law and of having carried out a repressive policy against his opponents. However, the division among the members of the government that had succeeded her in 1977 led to a vote of no confidence against Morarji Desai. The president, Neelam Reddy, tried to save the legislature by appointing Charan Singh as the new prime minister, but his government collapsed after a few months and new elections were held in 1980, in which Indira Gandhi and the CNI were victorious.
During this new term in government, Indira focused on repressing Sikh nationalism in the Punjab. This movement wanted a confessional Sikh state and sought to make the Punjab independent to achieve this. The Government of Indira repressed the attempts to carry out the separation of the Punjab, leaving a balance of hundreds of civilian deaths and ordered the execution of Operation Blue Star , which resulted in the death of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh leader who had been one of the central figures in the separatist movement. These actions generated great discontent among the Sikh minority in India but strengthened her popularity among various segments of the country's society, which allowed her to win the 1984 elections. Three months later, she was assassinated by two of her bodyguards, who they dealt 31 bullet impacts. The bodyguards were part of the Sikh minority and were shot down soon after.
Childhood and beginnings
Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917, the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, a lawyer descended from a wealthy family in India, educated in the United Kingdom, attended Somerville College in Oxford. She graduated from Cambridge University [citation needed ] and had an important role in the Indian independence process.
Indira grew up among the comforts offered by the family economic situation. Her father's political career for Indian Independence kept her estranged from him during her childhood. Indira was educated at prestigious colleges and institutions in India, Switzerland and the UK.
After returning to India, in 1942, she married Feroze Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), although her family did not fully approve, with whom she had two sons, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi. However, the continuous infidelities of her partner led her to a progressive distancing that ended in abandonment, moving to her father's residence and becoming her confidante from then on. That was how she began Indira Gandhi's approach to politics.
Political career
Beginnings in politics
Indira begins her career in the political world when she begins to get closer to her father, the renowned Prime Minister Nehrú. Indira became not only her father's closest and most devoted ally, but also became a public figure of the jet set, traveling on different tours, meetings, conferences and other events., as well as getting to know the most prominent politicians at an international level. She accompanied her father to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953.
In 1959, she was appointed head of the Congress Party, and began to intervene more in politics, until finally in 1964, with the death of her father and the formation of the new Government by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, she was appointed Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Shastri's leadership was short-lived. Only two years later she died suddenly and Indira was chosen by the leaders of the Congress Party to be Prime Minister.This would be the beginning of a new era for India and a new era for Indira Gandhi.
Rise and consolidation in power (1966-1977)
Indira remains in her ministerial functions, despite the bad perception she seems to have in the political sectors, considering her incapable of holding any political position. But she Indira will not only show that she was indeed a good politician, but in fact she will appeal to her instincts becoming a popular leader among the Hindu masses.
Soon his parliamentary skills were honed and he managed, with a populist style, as well as an efficient propaganda system, to secure his leadership in the Congress Party, reaching the General Secretariat of the Party.
It is then that in 1966, with the sudden death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, parliamentarians were left in leadership limbo, before which, the bosses and leaders of the different parties determined that a docile leader would be the most convenient, whereby, as far as they were concerned, the harmless "Mrs. Gandhi" would be the ideal option, recognized, renowned and linked to the prodigious "Nehrú-Gandhi Dynasty". This is how she is appointed Prime Minister of India, but eventually the MPs would find out how wrong they were if they thought she would be a passive ruler.
Gandhi took office at a critical time in the country's history. The Indian-Pakistani war had started a week earlier. The nation was in the midst of a two-year drought, resulting in severe food shortages and a deeper economic crisis with rising inflation and unemployment. The political situation in India was equally affected. In the fourth general election, in 1967, Congress retained majority control (and Gandhi was re-elected as its leader), but lost control of half the state legislatures. After twenty years of political dominance, the Congress Party was beginning to experience serious difficulties.
Indo-Pakistani War (1971)
The Pakistan Army had been carrying out widespread atrocities against the civilian population of East Pakistan. This caused a massive immigration of the population of said territory to India. An estimated 10 million refugees fled to India, causing financial hardship and instability in the country, leading to severe international friction and a serious diplomatic and political confrontation between India and neighboring Pakistan. However, Indira did not stop the massive immigration, but allowed the entrance to India and maneuvered to receive it. This question caused international tension to increase and the United States government under the administration of Richard Nixon considered Indira's actions as irrational and irresponsible, which was added to the fact that neither Secretary of State Henry Kissinger nor Nixon himself took good with the indian president. In addition, India's relations with the United States had been clouded due to the leftist tendency of the Government of Indira Gandhi, for which the United States decided to support Pakistan.
But Indira knew very well what she was doing, she allowed the refugees to continue arriving while at the same time she signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union, obtaining as a result the political support of the other international giant and a Soviet veto in the UN, which left all countries out of action regarding this situation.
Without any resolution or organization that could stop it, it prepared the Indian troops and deployed 93,000 soldiers to East Pakistan, easily defeating the Pakistani armies and managing to install a new regime with popular support, making the territory independent with its victory military in 1971, giving birth to Bangladesh, an "independent republic," but actually a satellite nation of India.
Indira Gandhi's victory gave her heroine status and made her a respected and popular Prime Minister for good. Her conduct had been impeccable and thanks to it India had not only shown the world her political and military potential but also her firmness.
Foreign Policy
Gandhi later invited Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Shimla for a week-long summit. After the near bankruptcy of the talks, the two heads of state finally signed the Shimla Agreement, which bound the two countries to resolve the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means and negotiations. Due to his antipathy for Nixon, relations with the United States became distant, while relations with the Soviet Union grew closer. She was criticized by some for not making the Line of Control (LoC) a permanent border, while some critics even believed that Pakistani-administered Kashmir should have been taken from Pakistan, whose 93,000 POWs were under Indian control.. But the deal immediately eliminated United Nations and third-party interference, greatly reducing the likelihood that Pakistan would carry out a major attack in the near future. By not demanding big concessions on sensitive issues for Bhutto, Pakistan was allowed to achieve stabilization and normalization. Trade relations were also normalized, although some relations remained frozen for a year.
Nuclear weapons programme
In response to the nuclear threat from the People's Republic of China, Gandhi initiated a national nuclear program, which was launched in 1967 in order to achieve national stability and security, independent of those of the nuclear superpowers. In 1974, India successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, unofficially codenamed 'Laughing Buddha,' near the desert village of Pokhran in Rajasthan. The test was presented for peaceful purposes and India became the youngest at that time to use nuclear energy.
Green Revolution
Special Agricultural Innovation Programs and extra government support launched in the 1960s eventually turned India's chronic food shortages into surplus production of wheat, rice, cotton and milk. The success is mainly attributed to the workforce coming mostly from Sikh farmers from Punjab. Instead of relying on food aid from the United States—headed by a president who didn't like Gandhi very much (the feeling was mutual: for Nixon, Indira was "the old hag")—the country became a food exporter. That achievement, along with the diversification of its cash crop production, has become known as the "Green Revolution." At the same time, the "White Revolution" was an expansion in milk production, which helped combat malnutrition, especially among young children. The programme, called "Food Security", was another source of support for Gandhi in the years leading up to 1975.
Founded in the 1960s, the Green Revolution was the official name given to the Intense Agricultural District Program (IADP) that sought to secure abundant, low-cost grain for the urban population on whose support Gandhi—as indeed all Indian politicians—to a large extent depended. The program is based on four premises: 1) new seed varieties, 2) acceptance of the need for the chemicalization of Indian agriculture, i.e. fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc., 3) a commitment to the national e international cooperative research to develop new and existing varieties of improved seeds and 4) the concept of development of scientific institutions, agriculture in the form of Land Grant Colleges.
Electoral victory, second term
Indira's government faced greater problems after her term ended in 1971. The internal structure of the Congress Party had withered from its numerous divisions, leaving it totally dependent on its leadership, for the fortunes of its election. Garibi Hatao (Eradicate Poverty) was the theme of 1971 that Gandhi offered. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give support to Gandhi on a national basis, concentrating on rural areas and poor urban areas. This would allow him to bypass the ruling castes of state and local governments, and likewise the urban business class. And, for their part, the poor managed to gain political weight, which made those political programs worthwhile.
The programs created through Garibi Hatao, although carried out at the local level, were funded, developed, supervised and administered by New Delhi and the Indian National Congress party. "These programs will also provide central political leadership because of vast new patronage resources that will be delivered across the country..." Scholars and historians agree on the failure of the Garibi Hatao to alleviate poverty, since only 4% of the funds allocated for economic development went to the three main anti-poverty programs, and some of these never arrived. to "the poorest of the poor", so the empty slogan of the program was used mainly to generate support for the re-election of Gandhi's populists.
Corruption and electoral fraud
On June 12, 1975, the Prayagraj High Court declared the election of Indira Gandhi vacant on the grounds of voter fraud. Her removal was triggered by a petition filed by candidate Raj Narain, who had denounced her on several high-profile charges, including using public resources for campaigning. Thus, the Court ordered the removal of her from her seat in Parliament and she was prohibited from participating in the elections for six years. Following this, the prime minister was required to be a member of either the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament of India) or the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament). Therefore, this decision effectively removed her from office. Mrs. Gandhi had asked one of the best jurists in India and also one of her colleagues in her government, Mr. Ashoke Kumar Sen to defend her in court. It has been written that Mrs. Gandhi was told that she would only win if Mr. Sen was with her.
However, Gandhi has rejected calls to resign and has announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. The verdict was delivered by Mr. Sinha in the Prayagraj High Court of Justice. Nearly four years later the case was brought by Raj Narain, Indira Gandhi's defeated opponent in the 1971 parliamentary election. Gandhi, who testified in her defense during the trial, was found guilty of dishonest electoral practices, excessive electoral spending, and of the use of machinery and government officials for their own use. [14] The judge rejected the most serious accusations of corruption against her.
Indira insisted on the conviction not to weaken her position, despite having been removed from the lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, by order of the Supreme Court. She said: "There are many who say that our government is not clean, but from our experience, the situation was much worse when [opposition] parties formed the government." She also pushed back against criticism of the way the Congress Party raised campaign funds, saying all parties used the same methods. The prime minister maintained the support of her party, which issued a statement backing her. After news of the verdict spread, hundreds of her supporters demonstrated in front of her home, pledging her loyalty. India's High Commissioner to the UK Braj Kumar Nehru said Gandhi's conviction would harm his political career. "Mrs. Gandhi still has overwhelming support in the country today," he said. "I think the Prime Minister of India will continue in office until the electorate of India decides otherwise."
State of emergency
Gandhi set out to restore order, ordering the arrest of most opposition rioters. His cabinet and his government recommended President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency, due to the disorder and lawlessness following the Prayagraj High Court decision. Consequently, on June 26, 1975, Ahmed declared a state of emergency caused by internal disorder, based on the provisions of Article 352 of the Constitution. Through this act, the civil liberties of citizens were suspended, the press was sharply censored and the majority of the opposition was detained without trial. Throughout what is known as the "Reign of Terror," thousands of dissidents were imprisoned without due process.
Government by decree
Within a few months, presidential rule was imposed in the two opposition party-ruled states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, bringing the entire country under the direct rule of the central government or governments led by the Congress party. Police were given powers to impose curfews and detain citizens indefinitely. All publications were subjected to significant censorship by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Finally, impending elections to the Legislative Assembly were postponed indefinitely, and all opposition-controlled state governments were revoked under the constitutional provision that allowed the removal of a state government on the recommendation of the state governor.
Indira Gandhi used emergency provisions to change conflicting party members. "Unlike her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, who preferred to deal with strong ministers who controlled his legislative parties and state party organizations, Mrs. Gandhi set out to remove all independent-based Congress ministers and replace them with loyal to her... Even so, she could not maintain the stability of the states... ".
President Ahmed issued ordinances that did not require debate in Parliament, allowing Gandhi to rule by decree.
At the same time, the Gandhi government launched a campaign to stamp out dissent as the arrest and detention of thousands of political activists, Sanjay began clearing the slums around Delhi's Jama Masjid, under the supervision of Jag Mohan, later the lieutenant governor of Delhi, which would have left thousands homeless and hundreds dead, and led to communal bitterness in those parts of the country's capital, and the family planning program that was imposed by force vasectomy on thousands of parents, and it was often mismanaged.
The Fall
1977 Elections
In 1977, after extending the state of emergency twice, Gandhi called elections to give the electorate a chance to legitimize his rule. It is likely that Gandhi misjudged her popularity by reading what the heavily censored press was writing about her. Charan Singh's Bharatiya Kranti Dal party, which represented peasants and farmers in the north. The Janata alliance, with Jai Prakash Narayan as its spiritual guide, claimed that the elections were the last chance for India to choose between "democracy and dictatorship."
During the campaign, the Congress Party split as longtime Gandhi supporters like Jagjivan Ram, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna and Nandini Satpathy split around a new political formation, the CFD (Congress for Democracy), due to mainly to the internal politics of the party and to the circumstances created by Indira's son, Sanjay.
Gandhi's Congress party was soundly defeated in the elections. The slogan "democracy or dictatorship" promoted by the Janata alliance caught on with public opinion. Gandhi and his son Sanjay Gandhi were unelected, lost their seats and the Congress party was reduced to 153 seats, compared to 350 in the previous Lok Sabha chamber, 92 of them in the south.
The Janata alliance, under the leadership of Morarji Desai, came to power after the state of emergency was lifted. The alliance parties later merged to form the Janata Party under the leadership of the Gandhian leader, Jayaprakash Narayan. The other leaders of the Janata Party were Charan Singh, Raj Narain, George Fernandes and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Departure and arrest
Indira Gandhi's downfall began after India won the war against Pakistan in 1971. The Prayagraj High Court found Indira Gandhi guilty of election corruption in the 1971 election.
In 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency under Article 352 in which she ordered the arrest of her opponents, who later united and formed the Janata Party. In 1977, Indira Gandhi and her party, the Indian National Congress, lost the election to the Janata, a coalition of nearly all of Indira's opponents. After the election, Gandhi found himself without work, income, or residence.[citation needed] The Congress Party split during the 1977 election campaign: Gandhi's supporters, as the veteran Jagjivan Ram and his faithful Bahuguna Satpathy Nandini - very close to Indira - were forced to separate, due to politicking and possibly circumstances created by Sanjay Gandhi.[citation needed ] The main rumor was that Sanjay intended to evict Indira.[citation needed] The Congress Party was now a much smaller group in Parliament, despite official opposition.
Once the Janata Party came to power, its goal was to restore to all citizens of India the freedoms lost when Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency.[citation needed] The leader of the Janata Party was Jayaprakash Narayan, who held the party together. The leaders of the Janata Party were Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Raj Narain and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Unable to rule due to rebel coalition conflicts, Janata government minister Choudhary Charan Singh ordered the arrest of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay on various charges, none of which would be easy to prove in an Indian court.[citation required] The arrest meant that Indira was automatically expelled from Parliament. These allegations included that Indira Gandhi allegedly "had planned or thought of killing all opposition leaders in jail during the emergency".[citation needed] However, this strategy failed miserably. Her arrest and lengthy trial of her, however, won the sympathy of many people who had feared she would become a tyrant just two years earlier.[citation needed >]
The Janata coalition was united only by their hatred of Indira (or "that woman," as some called her).[citation needed] With so little in common, the government was overwhelmed by infighting and Gandhi was able to use the situation to his advantage.[citation needed] He began making more speeches, tacitly apologizing for "mistakes" committed during the emergency.
Jayaprakash Narayan died on October 8, 1979, which broke the unity of the Janata Party and Desai took his place. Desai resigned in June 1979, and Charan Singh was appointed Prime Minister by Reddy after Gandhi promised Congress his government's support from abroad. After a brief interval of time, he withdrew initial support from him and President Reddy dissolved Parliament in the winter of 1979. In the January elections of the following year, Congress returned to power with a landslide majority.
Back
Currency Crisis
During the 1980s, Indira failed to stop the 40% drop in the value of the Indian rupee, from 7 to 12 against the US dollar. However, it is argued that the Reserve Bank of the India decided to devalue the Indian rupee to make exports more competitive.
Operation Blue Star
Criticism of his tactics against opposition parties had been balanced by popular approval of his swift action last June to quell a terrorist outbreak in Sikh Punjab state. In July 1982, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the Sikh religious institution Damdami Taksal, based in the northern Indian state of Punjab, led a campaign for the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, with the intention of creating an independent confessional Sikh state in the region. In response to this outbreak of independence, Indira Gandhi ordered Operation Blue Star on June 6, 1984, during one of the holiest Sikh festivals: the Indian army opened fire on the Harmandir Sahib Golden Temple in Amritsar.
According to official government figures, more than 600 people were killed in the attack on the temple, including Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Other reports put the figure as high as 1,200. During the conflict, international media, Sikh devotees and human rights organizations were denied access. This event generated great discontent among the Sikh minority, leading to the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, at the hands of her Sikh bodyguard. The night before her death, she told a political rally: «I don't care if my life goes in the service of the nation. If I die today, every drop of my blood will invigorate the nation."
Murder
