Two Parties Face to Face

For months, India's long-ruling Congress Party has been racked by severe quarrels. Last week the party split into two rival groups, each of which claimed to be the legitimate party. One group was led by the old-line bosses, who are known collectively as the Syndicate. The other pledged its allegiance to Indira Gandhi. Under most circumstances a split in the Congress Party, whose unity in the past has helped hold the diversified country together, might have had grave effects on India's stability. As it turned out, Indira carried such a large part of the party with her that the country hardly felt a tremor.

The split itself was triggered by a power struggle. Angered by Indira's attempts to oust them from control of the party machinery, the bosses took an unusual step. After frenzied discussions, they expelled Prime Minister Gandhi from Congress for refusing to obey party discipline. Accusing Indira of encouraging a "personality cult that is threatening democracy in the organization," they called upon the party to elect a new government leader.

Test of Strength. Indira, who is a highly skilled political tactician, fought back. On the same day, after a 90-minute meeting with Indira, her chief supporters issued a statement that branded the Syndicate's action as illegal. Said Indira's backers: "Democracy and discipline within the Congress Party organization have been reduced to a mockery by a small coterie equating itself to the entire organization."

The test of strength came within 48 hours. In an outpouring of support, about 220 of the Congress Party's 282 M.P.s gathered in the high-domed Central Hall of the Parliament building. A slogan greeted her: "A new light has dawned--Indira has come." In response to the thunderous welcoming ovation, Indira, who wore a brown and red sari, folded her hands in the prayer-like Indian gesture of narnaste. She pledged to "rededicate myself, to rally the people to the cause of socialism and democracy and to rejuvenate the Congress." "The Congress Party has passed through many crises," added Indira. "We shall pass through this crisis also."

Her chief supporter, Home Minister Y. B. Chavan, put the entire blame on the Syndicate for splitting the party, and Food Minister Jagjivan Ram exhorted Indira's supporters to keep up their attendance at the Parliament. Though the party split leaves Indira some 40 seats short of a majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), she intends to try to remain in power. For the time being, at least, she seems assured of sufficient support. She commands the backing of the 25 members of the Dravidian Advancement Party, a regional grouping that seeks south Indian independence. She also has the support of 23 independents. If these pledges hold--as expected--Indira will not have to rely on the Communist votes to remain in power, and her minority government is given an even chance of surviving until the next national elections scheduled for 1972.

The 60 or so M.P.s who support the Syndicate cause plan this week to take their places on opposition benches. There was a strong probability that they would form an alliance with the 42 delegates of the free-enterprising Swatantra

Party. The most likely leader of the Syndicate's Congress wing is Dr. Ram Subhag Singh, 52, whom Indira fired two weeks ago as Railways Minister because of his association with her rivals. It was even possible that Indira and her backers might move to read the Syndicate bosses and their supporters out of the Congress Party.

Indira was probably happy to be rid of the conservative bosses, whom she blames for the party's decline. "The people are clamoring for a faster pace," she said recently. "Congress has not been keeping pace with the changing times and the new generation." Free of the foot dragging of the Syndicate, which is composed largely of aging men, Indira now has the opportunity to mold the party into a more attractive--and constructive--political force.

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