A Show of Independence

As a proud and somewhat willful lady, Indira Gandhi smarts under the allegation that she was picked as Prime Minister largely because the Congress Party's political pros reckoned that she would be easy to control. Yet she seemed to confirm that charge two weeks ago when she backed down on three Cabinet changes after running into strong protests from party bosses. Last week, as if to assert her independence, Mrs. Gandhi went right ahead and made some Cabinet changes anyhow.

Defense for Home. True, no one was fired. But four ministers were moved to different jobs, and in the process she rid herself of a portfolio that she had inherited unwillingly two weeks ago. It was the important Home Ministry, from which she had removed Gulzarilal Nanda for his failure to block the violent Hindu demonstrations against cow slaughter that recently erupted near Parliament. Now she passed the powerful post to Y. B. Chavan, 53, the former Defense Minister. In so doing, she also created a powerful potential rival for the future.

So far, Chavan has been impeccably loyal to Indira, but he, too, has the qualifications of a Prime Minister: service as an anti-British guerrilla in his teens, two jail terms during the independence struggle, experience as a former chief minister of the highly industrialized state of Maharashtra, which includes Bombay, and an excellent record as a Cabinet minister. He was originally summoned to New Delhi and given the Defense post in 1962 by Jawaharlal Nehru, who needed a replacement for Leftist Krishna Menon in the dark days after Red China's attack. Chavan rammed through an effective rebuilding of the army. Now he was clearly out to rebuild the Home Ministry's gentle image. His first major orders in his new job were to prohibit a student demonstration in New Delhi and to jail two socialist members of Parliament who encouraged students to defy his ban.

In Indira's other ministerial switches, Swaran Singh, 59, went from the Foreign Office to Chavan's old post at Defense. His place in foreign affairs was taken by Mahomedali Currim Chagla, 66, an Oxford-educated Moslem who has served as ambassador to both the U.S. and Great Britain. Chagla's vacant spot in Education went, in turn, to Fakhruddin Ahmed, 61, whose old post as Minister for Irrigation and Power will be filled temporarily by one of his senior assistants.

Syndicate Worries. What had Indira gained? Very little, her friends feared. True, she had shown that she could defy the bosses, and her shuffle put stronger men in more important posts. The big fear was that her tactics had turned the most important party bosses against her. Powerful Railways Minister S. K. Patil was upset over the elevation of Chavan, a rival in Bombay politics. Patil is one of the three kingmakers who comprise the "Syndicate" that has often controlled Congress Party appointments. The other two--West Bengal Politico Atulya Ghosh and Transportation Minister Sanjiva Reddy--were also upset by Indira's sudden show of independence. If they are still angry about it after next February's national elections, they just might try to edge the proud lady Prime Minister quietly out of her job.

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