The Joys of Dictatorship

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi last week won overwhelming parliamentary approval for the dictatorship euphemistically known as a state of emergency, which she proclaimed on June 26. It was a rather hollow victory. After the lopsided votes in the upper and lower houses, most members of the opposition stalked out in protest.

Speaking before a special one-week session of the legislature--whose approval was necessary under the constitution to extend the emergency beyond 60 days--Mrs. Gandhi sought to justify the extreme measures her government has taken. They include the suspension of civil liberties, the imposition of rigid press censorship and the arrest of an estimated 10,000 people, among them ranking opposition political leaders as well as some dissident members of Mrs. Gandhi's own Congress Party. Arguing that the emergency "was undertaken not to destroy the constitution but to safeguard democracy," she said the proclamation had been a "painful necessity" because opposition groups had attempted to subvert the government and destroy democracy.

Embittered Protest. One by one, opposition members rose to denounce the measures, especially the censorship rules that bar all Indian newspapers and radio from reporting their speeches. After the Lok Sabha voted to approve the emergency by a margin of 336 to 59, the bulk of the opposition made an embittered but dignified protest and announced they would boycott the rest of the session. They then walked out. Said P.G. Mavalankar, an independent: "This is the most obnoxious piece of legislation ever introduced in the history of India." Undeterred, the government then moved for approval of a constitutional amendment barring court review of the emergency decree. It passed the lower house by 342 votes to 1. The lone dissenter was Shamim A. Shamim, an independent Kashmiri, who declared: "I will keep up the flame."

Permanently Muzzled. Parliamentary ratification means that Mrs. Gandhi can prolong the state of emergency indefinitely. So far, she has given no indication of how long it might continue, although she noted last week that "nobody wants this type of situation to last forever." She hastened to add, however, that even when the emergency is lifted "there can be no return to the total license and political permissiveness" of before. That could mean that the ordinarily opinionated Indian press might be permanently muzzled. Last week the government indicated how seriously it regards control of the news when it expelled three foreign newsmen for failing to sign a pledge to observe new censorship guidelines (see THE PRESS).

The most serious resistance to Mrs. Gandhi's emergency rule came last Saturday when Chief Minister Babubhai Patel, leader of Gujarat state's right-wing government, spoke to some 10,000 demonstrators in Ahmedabad, the state's main city. Patel told the crowd that members of his government were speaking out simultaneously against Mrs. Gandhi's tactics in all 19 districts of the populous West Indian state. Most Indians, however, have refrained from such protests. Many, in fact, seem pleased to see a touch of authoritarianism applied to their country's frequently chaotic bureaucracy--or at least are prepared to give it a chance. Businessmen, delighted that strikes have been declared illegal, note that routine banking procedures that used to take four days can now be concluded in four hours. Because hundreds of suspected criminals and smugglers have been put behind bars, crime has decreased dramatically. A crackdown on black marketeers has caused prices on such basic commodities as rice and cloth to drop as much as 25%.

While many Indians apparently feel that a little more "law-and-order" is all to the good, the real test for Mrs. Gandhi is whether she can use the emergency to Institute lasting economic changes. The political aims of 90% of India's 600 million people, forced to subsist on an annual per capita income of less than $100, can be summed up in four words: more food, lower prices. Toward that end, Mrs. Gandhi outlined a sweeping 20-point economic program earlier this month. It calls for enforcement of ceilings on land ownership, abolition of rural indebtedness, which has put generations of peasants in thrall to usurious moneylenders, and a ban on bonded labor. Last week, responding to charges of corruption within her own party, she decreed that Congress Party members had until Aug. 15 to declare and surrender land in excess of acreage ceilings.

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