THE DRAMATIC DECADE : The Indira Gandhi Years by Pranab Mukherje

Author:Pranab Mukherje [Mukherje, Pranab]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9788129136015
Publisher: Rupa
Published: 2015-01-30T06:00:00+00:00

We met again and reviewed the situation. It was decided that we should launch an offensive as the other side was simply not prepared to accommodate reason. Indira Gandhi had been directly insulted by Y.B. Chavan. When she said that her followers were persecuted in the party, Chavan retorted caustically that she herself had been running the party in Uttar Pradesh ‘as a royal preserve’. In our informal group meetings attended by P.V. Narasimha Rao, Antulay, Kamalapati Tripathi, B.P. Maurya, Buta Singh, M. Chandrasekar, Bhagwat Jha Azad, Vasant Sathe and myself, Devaraj Urs argued very strongly in favour of a split. Most amongst us were not prepared for this because of a genuine apprehension that a split could destroy the party. The ideal case scenario would have been to try and take control of the party, but the success of such an effort was unlikely as it became increasingly clear that most of those once close to Indira Gandhi had actually deserted her. Out of the twenty-one (including invitees) members of the CWC, Indira Gandhi had the support of only five: Kamalapati Tripathi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, M. Chandrasekar, Buta Singh and A.P. Sharma.

The requisition move was dropped and it could not be revived again. Indira Gandhi resigned from the CWC and the Congress Parliamentary Board on 18 December. The reaction to this move was far from conciliatory; in fact it was rather hostile. A senior Congress member said (The Statesman, New Delhi, 20 December 1977): ‘To say the least, we have mortgaged our souls to her for eleven years—many of us who are much senior to her in the organization.’ Later, Brahmananda Reddy was reported to have stated in Hyderabad, ‘She wanted us to fight, take to the streets and go to jail. We are not afraid of going to jail. We have been in jail for years while she has been to jail only for nine months… But have we to involve ourselves in a scuffle with Janata leaders? Or should we agitate to support Sanjay Gandhi, Bansi Lal or Yashpal Kapoor?’ According to a report in The Statesman (New Delhi, 18 January 1978), Reddy observed that the organization had been ‘brought down with the tipping of a twenty-seven-year-old lad as the future Prime Minister. Vinash kale, vipreet buddhi [At the hour of destruction, one loses the sense of judgement].’ No one had to guess too hard to know the attitude of the Congress leadership towards Indira Gandhi in those days.

On 18 December, we formally met at Antulay’s residence at 2 Janpath, New Delhi, and constituted a steering committee to hold a National Convention.

The committee constituted a total of seventy-two members, and while some people like F.M. Khan and Chaudhary Randhir Singh were unhappy about not being included, I was determined to avoid controversial names to the extent possible. We met almost every day. Buta Singh, H.K.L. Bhagat, Lalit Maken and Jagdish Tytler were responsible for arranging accommodation, pandals and food. Antulay, a few others and I were in charge overall.

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