Tightening the Grip

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenth anniversary in office was marked late last month with celebrations throughout the country. At one mass rally in Bombay, the president of India's ruling Congress Party compared her to the Hindu goddess of strength. The comparison was apt. On the last day of January she expunged one of the two remaining pockets of opposition by dissolving the state assembly and dismissing the government of Tamil Nadu--the populous (45 million) former state of Madras. In its place she imposed direct rule from New Delhi. Twenty planeloads of police landed in Madras to prevent trouble, and an estimated 6,000 people were arrested.

New Delhi's pretext for the takeover was that the ousted government of Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi was guilty of "acts of maladministration, corruption and misuse of power for partisan ends." The more probable cause was the prospect of state elections. In Tamil Nadu's assembly, Karunanidhi's Dravidian Progress Party, a populist movement dedicated to social reform and greater state autonomy, held a commanding majority. The assembly's tenure was due to expire March 21, and Mrs. Gandhi did not want to extend its life. Apparently she feared that any election--state or national--during the emergency might turn into a popular referendum on her authoritarian rule.

The takeover leaves only one of India's 22 state governments, Gujarat, as an opposition stronghold. Until recently Mrs. Gandhi had cited opposition party rule in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu as proof that India was still democratic.

That pretense now seems to have been abandoned, and Gujarat's days as a bastion of independence may be numbered.

Two other recent moves served notice that the government will not brook any kind of opposition. Dutifully heeding Mrs. Gandhi's request (TIME, Jan.

12), India's lower house of Parliament last week voted overwhelmingly to postpone national elections, which were due this month, for a year.

The handful of opposition members in the house argued vainly against the postponement, which was technically valid under India's constitution. One member even dared to state that "Hitler came to power under the Weimar Constitution."

At least as threatening was the approval by both houses of a tough new censorship law. Under it, no newspaper or magazine can publish any story or picture that is deemed "likely to excite disaffection toward the government."

The law also forbids publication of anything "defamatory" to India's President, Vice President, Prime Minister, speaker of the house or any state governor. Censorship decisions cannot be appealed in court.

The moves to tighten Mrs. Gandhi's grip on India came at a time when some observers had hoped for at least a symbolic relaxation of restrictions. Mrs. Gandhi's supporters insist that she could win an open election handily right now. She insists just as strongly that it is more important to carry out the reforms proposed in her 20-point economic and social program, such as abolition of indentured labor, land redistribution and expanded irrigation networks. That may be so. But her determination to quash all opposition suggests that she does not dare to risk a genuine test of her popularity. "Corruption is not the real issue here," deposed Chief Minister Karunanidhi told TIME Correspondent William Smith last week. "She wants one-party rule and one-woman rule."

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