A Constitutional Crisis

Indira Gandhi bids for a comeback

Across the Indian subcontinent, the people whom Mohandas Gandhi once lovingly called harijans (children of God) began to find their voices. The 85 million harijans, or Untouchables, who are the lowest in the rigid Hindu caste system, had thought for a brief moment last week that durable Jagjivan Ram, 71, the widely acknowledged leader of India's politically potent harijans, was soon to be Prime Minister. It was not to be. Their hopes were dashed by a bitter impasse in India's parliamentary system that culminated in an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

The turmoil began with the resignation of Prime Minister Charan Singh, 76, only 15 minutes before a vote of confidence in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, that would have sent his 24-day-old coalition government down to certain defeat. In line for the job, or so he thought, was Ram, also official leader of the opposition. But India's President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy bypassed Ram and heeded the advice of outgoing Charan Singh to dissolve the Lok Sabha and call new national elections. He appointed Charan Singh as head of a caretaker government until elections can be held in mid-December.

Reddy's decision was furiously challenged on the constitutional ground that as Prime Minister, Charan Singh had never faced a vote in Parliament. For that reason, Charan Singh's opponents assert, the President was not bound, in the British tradition, to accept his advice. A disappointed Ram declared, "The country will not excuse the President for his undemocratic dissolution of the Lok Sabha." Certainly there was the danger that the Untouchables would not. In ignoring Ram, the President had offended millions of harijans, who suffer the humiliation of daily discrimination and harassment.

Reddy justified his move on the basis that it was the only way to bring in a government with a popular mandate. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had already informed him that she would not support Ram, and without the backing of her 71-member Congress Party branch, Ram would not have been able to form a government. Rarely before had India's parliamentary system been in such disarray.

The re-emergence of Indira Gandhi as a pivotal political force marked an astonishing change in political fortunes. Earlier this summer Mrs. Gandhi was still confined to political oblivion, a disgraced leader with no seat in Parliament and still under investigation for alleged illegal acts committed during the emergency rule she imposed in 1975-77 as Prime Minister. After the Janata Party disintegrated last month, and in the absence of any party with a clear-cut majority, her faction, Congress (I) (for Indira), had become essential for the survival of any government. Suddenly Mrs. Gandhi was once again at the commanding heights of Indian politics.

Her comeback was due in part to the vigorous campaign she waged to portray herself as a defenseless woman persecuted by a vengeful government bent on destroying her and her son Sanjay, even at the expense of ignoring India's monumental problems. As both Charan Singh and his predecessor, Morarji Desai, had been imprisoned by Mrs. Gandhi, there was perhaps some truth in her charge, though there is ample evidence of her government's misdeeds. She has conceded that there were excesses during her Emergency, but she has stubbornly refused to apologize for her stringent measures in a time of crisis, an act of political and personal boldness that seems to have won her increasing sympathy. A recent opinion poll shows that 48% of the urban Indian public now favor her as Prime Minister; the runner-up was Morarji Desai with 19%. Thus she will do better than her rivals and improve on her 1977 performance in the election scheduled for mid-December.

As a political tactician, Mrs. Gandhi outwitted, outfought and outcornered the opposition. With no current seat of her own in Parliament, she directed the Congress (I) from her home or from party offices. Having first backed Charan Singh in July in order to force the resignation of Desai, she then deserted Charan Singh to force his resignation less than a month later. Ram, who has been in every Cabinet since independence, stood by Mrs. Gandhi throughout the Emergency, but deserted her at the last moment to help the Janata Party win the 1977 election. Last week she took her revenge by denying her old colleague the support that would have made him Prime Minister. It was ruthless politics, but as her aunt Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit once observed of her niece in office, "She was the only man in the Cabinet."

Less than three years after she had been swept from office by an Indian public outraged by the Emergency and the heavyhanded execution of the sterilization policy promoted by her son Sanjay, Mrs. Gandhi could once more be the "daughter of the nation," successor to her father Jawaharlal Nehru and head of the political dynasty that has helped shape India's destiny for more than 50 years.

As the world's largest democracy, with almost 360 million voters, the majority of them illiterate, India needs time to organize its election. The chief election commissioner has already started work, but the logistics involved mean a delay of three to four months. Meanwhile, the caretaker government can only administer existing laws. Without a Parliament, it cannot initiate policy. Yet India is in desperate need of firm government to tackle urgent economic problems, including inflation currently running at 15%. To add to India's troubles, Pakistan has not abandoned its efforts to acquire an enriched-uranium plant, a crucial step in developing the so-called Islamic Abomb.

There is also widespread apprehension that the growing fragmentation of power and politics in India will only increase its political instability. Perhaps no party will win a majority, though it is widely expected that Indira Gandhi will do well. She remains the only political leader with a national rather than regional following. Even she, however, cannot rid herself entirely of the stigma of the Emergency. Voices are heard once again that perhaps democracy is not the most suitable government for India, despite repeated demonstrations from Indians that they are as devoted to democratic institutions as are any other people in the world. Noting his country's poverty, a left-wing Indian journalist once said in despair, "India doesn't even have the alternative of revolution."

Yet the divisions in Indian society run deep, and they are as old as history itself. Caste politics has intensified in the past few years, and secularism is bound to be one of the main issues. Since Jagjivan Ram is a harijan, the Janata Party's leaders have already started to say that an Untouchable was deliberately prevented from becoming Prime Minister. That is obviously the first drumbeat of the election, and it is not reassuring.

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