STORY OF SPLIT IN CONGRESS
This particular
chapter deals with the splitting of congress party through the leadership of
two congress leader named by Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai. 8th
February 1967 it was for the time in the Indian history that in the absence of
Nehru congress party was moving forward for an election. It was indeed a
transition phase for the congress party because of its internal differences.
Opposition outside the party was against of Indira Gandhi and most importantly
people from the congress party also opposing Indira Gandhi and it was one of
the foremost reasons for which congress party splited. Even in the presence of
all these internal disturbances congress could manage to win the election of
1967. But the result was bit unsatisfactory to the congress party because this
time congress party lost majority in eight states and that was the beginning of
coalition government in India. There was a major group of the congress party
have already thought to rethink about the leadership Indira Gandhi but most the
opposing candidates lost their election. Most importantly Kamraj the kingmaker
of the congress party lost his election. Then it put question mark before the
existence of the syndicate members in the party politics. After the election
yet again Morarji Desai wanted to be the prime minister but he had to face
Indira Gandhi, prior to that he also submitted his candidature for the post of
prime minister after the demise of Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. But due to the
opposing voices from the syndicate memebers he couldn’t able to be the prime
minister. This syndicate was weak, so he thought it is a good time to be the
prime minister of the nation. People were insisting Morarji Desai to be the
number two in the congress party after Indira Gandhi but he didn’t agree to be
the number two at any cost. Because this time supporters of Indira and she
herself didn’t want election because of the Lok Sabha election result. With the
due effort of DP Mishra, a meeting was held between Moraji Desai, Kamraj and
Indira Gandhi, where Morarji agreed to leave his candidature for the post of
prime minister but he wanted to own the post of deputy prime minister and home
minister under his belt, which was hard on the part of Indira Gandhi to agree
on the proposal of Morarji Desai. At that point Morarji declared that he will
go for election. Everything was full of drama, suspense and thriller because it
was all about the next prime minister. But after the meeting of Indira Gandhi
with CB Gupta it was clear that CB Gupta will go to Morarji Desai and he will
try to convince Morarji Desai to agree on the proposal of Indira Gandhi.
Because CB Gupta was close to Morarji Desai. After that Morarji Desai agreed on
the proposal of Indira Gandhi. From all these people came to believe that
Indira Gandhi’s political acumen is not less than anyone. This time in the team
of Indira Gandhi most of the members were from Kashmir and they were popularly known
as Kashmiri Mafia. PN Haksar was one of them; he was in London as the acting
high commissioner. He was the friend of Firoj Gandhi and his ideal was
Nehru. Indira Gandhi appointed him as
her personal adviser and commissioner. He believed on Marxism and it was impacted
on the policies and forum of government as well. Indira has already started to
take big decision and her power in the party has tremendously increased. So the
people of congress who were against of Indira were not happy ad they were
trying to boycott Indira and it was known to Indira Gandhi. So at that point of
time, she looked for popularity and for which she took some stunning financial
decision by which the financial history of India tasted a new dimension. She
used the banks as the medium to attract the common masses support. On 19th
July 1969 in the All India Congress Committee meeting at Bangalore where she
couldn’t able to attained but she had sent a note through Fakhreddin Ali Ahmed,
in which she mentioned about the nationalisation banks. But most of the
congress leader was not agreeing on that proposal but finally after few times
of discussion the committee passed the proposal of Indira Gandhi. It was
regarded as one of the big decision of government till that time. According to
that proposal the banks are supposed to be in the hands of government because
during that point of time most of the banks were privately owned and they were
limited to the urban areas only. People of the rural areas didn’t have any
means to go to the banks. The congress leaders who were against of Indira
Gandhi were just watching everything silently because presidential election was
knocking on the door. Indira Gandhi has already thought that to give the post
of president to the vice president VV Giri. After the protest over her decision
she proposed Morarji Desai to be the President but Morarji didn’t accept the
proposal of Indira Gandhi. 12th July 1969 the meeting of the
congress parliamentary board was held where two names were proposed one name
was Sanjeev Reddy, which was proposed by few members of the parliamentary board
and the other name was Jagjiban Ram, which was proposed by Indira Gandhi. The syndicate wanted such a person to be the
president who will not be a puppet in the hands of the prime minister, whereas
Indira Gandhi wanted that person to be the president with whom her rapport is
good. But finally it was Sanjeev Reddy who got majority of the congress members
vote and Indira was upset with this, so she came openly to the battel and her
first move was by taking back the post of finance minister from Morarji Desai.
While everyone was thinking that she will take strict action against YB Chauhan
who had given vote to Sanjeev Reddy, but she did act against Morarji Desai.
After that move of Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai met her and after that meeting
he resigned from both the post finance minister and deputy prime minister. With
this move of Indira Gandhi, she could able to gain two things and that were,
first she could able to aware the members of the syndicate who were against of
her and second was she got popularity from the common masses of the country.
And on the way of this path she took such big decisions in the history of
India, by which she has treated by the public as the messiah of poor’s. She
announced nationalisation 4 banks, by which the common individuals of the rural
area of the country now will have chance to go to the bank. It was indeed a
master stroke of Indira Gandhi. By that decision she could able to get numerous
support and appreciation from the common masses of the country. With this
historical move Indira showed her power to the syndicate and finally the
presidential election came and an amazing thing happened that the vice
president of that time named by VV Giri announced his candidature for the post
of President independently and it was a plan of Indira Gandhi. And everyone was
looking that to whom Indira Gandhi will support congress candidate Sanjeev
Reddy or someone else. But finally she supported independent candidate VV Giri and
VV Giri became the next president of India. It was one of the most surprising
and historical presidential election till date and it was a blinder for the
congress party. As a result, congress party expelled Indira Gandhi from
congress party on dated 12 November 1969. It was the time, when at one side the
whole congress party stood and on the other side it was one person Indira
Gandhi. The members of the congress party had to choose one. During that time a
total of 429 member of congress party were in the two houses off the parliament
and out of them 310 stood in support of Indira Gandhi, so yet again Indira won
the battle against Syndicate. Then the time came when 84-year-old party splited
two part. One was named by Congress (R) which was in support of Indira Gandhi
and the other was Congress (O) which was in support of syndicate and other old
guard of congress. After than Indira Gandhi proved her majority in the
parliament. She merged with CPI, Akali Dal, AIDMK and few independent members
of the parliament to gain 306 votes to prove her majority. After getting the
congress party she got its benefits as well, she could stand as one-man army
and she proved her leadership inform of the common masses. She emerged as a
national leader. She was totally independent; she holds all the power of the
party and her positions. Now she could able to take any big decisions without
any opposition and hesitancy. And she took the advantage at the fullest manner
as well. Now her aim was the princely states and their kings, that she was
willing to stop the purses bill which was given especially to the princely
states. After two years of discussion with the princely states, finally Indira
made the changes in the constitution, and according to the bill the purses bill
was passed in the Lok Sabha but it could not able to pass in the Rajya Sabha
due to shortage of one vote. Then Indira Gandhi took presidential order on that
bill, but princely states had already moved to Supreme Court where the court
cancelled the order. By nationalisation of banks and demolish of Purses bill,
most of the business houses and kings were against of Indira Gandhi’s
government. Then congress (O) and opposition alleged that Indira Gandhi wants
to make India as a communist country. Then finally with the strong opposition
and allegation from the anti-Indira camp, at the end on 27th
December Indira Gandhi announced that she will go for plebiscite. She announced
election before the term of Lok Sabha. People got amazed but Indira Gandhi
wanted an absolute majority so that she could do whatever she wants. Opposition
was using the term Indira Hatao dialog to gain the votes of the people who did
not support Indira. But the decision of nationalisation of bank has
tremendously increased the popularity of Indira to the apex level. She gave
strong reply by using the dialogue called Garibi Hatao to his opposition. It
was the wave of Indira Gandhi which was resounding everywhere, she did more
than 300 rallies within 43 days before the election and its impact was clearly
visible in the results that this time Indira broke all the previous records by
backing 352 seats out of 518 seats. Indira Gandhi used two dialogues in the
1971 election one was Garibi Hatao and she talked about the poverty and the
issues of the poor’s. All anti-Indira got a strong reaction from the result.
Indira won the election of 1971 by her own efforts. It was not the win of
congress party; it was regarded as the win of Indira Gandhi. A new dialog
emerged from the party itself that India is Indira and Indira is India. She was
becoming more powerful than ever but was the country becoming powerful?
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