"India had no option but an alliance with the Soviet Union" ❤️

Nayantara Sahgal | Her Courage and Convictions

#OnherBirthdayToday

Was Maruti Motors Ltd, originally founded by Sanjay Gandhi, s/o Indira Gandhi?

Was Sanjay Gandhi the real reason behind the 1975 Emergency?

Was Indira Gandhi pushed into politics by her Father Nehru? because of her unhappy married life?

Nayantara dares to bare it all in her uncompromising book on her cousin and former Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi, titled, Indira Gandhi: Tryst With Power (2012)

Nayantara Sahgal (98 years old and still going strong) is one writer who calls a spade a spade! Known for her courage in addressing sensitive and controversial topics, including the harmful effects of political corruption, and the hard times during the Emergency period in India - she is one of the fiercest critics of Indira Gandhi!

Indeed, there were much more fiercer critics of the former Prime Minister – Smt Indira Gandhi!

Salman Rushdie, Arun Shourie, Ram Manohar Lohia, Shiv K Kumar, just to name a few.

However, Nayantara’s criticism of Indira Gandhi assumes added significance as Nayantara happens to be Indira’s own sweet cousin, and the niece of Pandit Nehru.

Well, on a personal note, I remember listening to Nayantara Sahgal (88 -years old then) during the Hindu Lit Fest in 2015, when Nayantara was in conversation with Geeta Doctor and Ritu Menon.

“When my father was first arrested, I was two years old. So my mother didn’t want us to be unhappy. So whenever dad went to prison, she would make us chocolate cakes and give us, and that explains the title,” 

she explained, when asked about the significance of the title of her memoir, Prison and Chocolate Cake at the Hindu Lit Fest.

[You may want to read more on this exciting conversation with Nayantara on our past blogpost HERE on our blog]

Coming back –

On the reason for writing the book on her cousin, titled, Indira Gandhi: Tryst With Power, Nayantara says -

The book owes its tone to the intense anxiety I felt at what was happening in the country. The Emergency itself was a watershed in Indian politics. 

The memory of the terror it established overnight in June 1975 - of arrest without warrant and imprisonment without trial, of censorship, surveillance and the abolition of civil liberties, even of the right to life and liberty - has faded with the years but its shadow lingers in the public’s and Parliament’s mind. No one wants to go back there.

Internally, the country lost a decade of development under Indira Gandhi. 

The populism that replaced Jawaharlal Nehru’s pragmatism made for rousing political theatre but without sound practical backup it brought no reduction of poverty nor benefit to the economy.

On an international scene where the US was locked in a war on Vietnam, and had thrown its military and diplomatic might behind Pakistan in its conflict with East Bengal, India had no option but an alliance with the Soviet Union.

Indira Gandhi was forty-six years old when her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, died on May 27, 1964. Since Independence she had been her father’s companion and hostess at New Delhi and had accompanied him on official visits abroad.

In 1955 she had been appointed to the Congress Working Committee, the party’s executive, with charge of the women’s and youth wings, and had become a member of its two subsidiaries, the Central Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee, soon afterwards.

These responsibilities placed her at the heart of election preparations for the second general election of 1957.

Her emergence onto the scene of political and public endeavour took place during a period of marital strain and difficulty, and Nehru welcomed her increasing involvement in the party, both as the natural outcome of her background and as therapy for her troubled domestic life.

The Congress party’s and his own championship of women’s rights had been instrumental in creating a climate of pride in women’s opportunities and achievements.

It was a special satisfaction to him that his daughter, whose health and unhappy marriage had been a continuing anxiety to him, should now find a way to fulfil herself through national activity.

He wrote to his sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who was India’s high commissioner in London, on March 12, 1957, from the family home at Anand Bhawan, Allahabad, where he had gone to cast his vote:

When voting finished today, large numbers of our Congress workers turned up at Anand Bhawan, including many women. Indu has specially shaken up the women, and even Muslim women came out. 

Indu has indeed grown and matured very greatly during the last year, and especially during these elections.

She worked with effect all over India, but her special field was Allahabad City and District which she organized like a general preparing for battle.

She is quite a heroine in Allahabad now and particularly with the women. Hardly eating and often carrying on with a handful of peanuts and a banana, she has been constantly on the move, returning at midnight, flushed, slightly gaunt but full of spirit and with flashing eyes.

In 1959, at the suggestion of its outgoing president, U.N. Dhebar, the Congress party accepted her as his successor. Mrs Gandhi accepted the office with tears in her eyes, and it was an emotional occasion for many present at the party meeting.

She occupied the office, normally a two-year term, for barely a year, though during this period she took two initiatives.

She advised the division of Bombay state, convulsed at the time by agitations demanding its separation into Marathi- and Gujarati-speaking states. Bombay was divided, bringing Maharashtra and Gujarat into being on May 1, 1960.

She also urged the Union government’s interference in Kerala, where the communist government formed in 1957 was locked in a confrontation with the Roman Catholic and Nair communities over the issue of state control of schools and colleges.

President’s rule was established in Kerala, and fresh elections held in 1960, when an alliance of parties led by the Congress won a majority.

Then Nayantara starts roasting Sanjay Gandhi – the prodigal son of Indira Gandhi, and his unwieldy might and influence in the political affairs of the nation.

In fact, it was her son Sanjay Gandhi who had originally conceived the idea of manufacturing an affordable “people’s car” for the Indian market in the early 1970s. He envisioned it as a private sector initiative. As a result, in the year 1971, he established Maruti Motors Limited, and he became its first managing director.  

Despite initial setbacks and controversies surrounding the project, Maruti was granted an industrial license in 1974 to produce 50,000 cars annually.

Following the political changes in 1977, Maruti Motors Limited faced liquidation. However, after Indira Gandhi's return to power and Sanjay's death, the government took control of the company and eventually collaborated with Suzuki of Japan, leading to the Maruti Suzuki we know today.

Nayantara observes that,

A storm broke in Parliament over the non-appearance of Maruti, her son Sanjay’s car project, his failure to account for the delay and his personal financial gains from government contracts. There was critical comment in the press and talk in marketplaces and coffee houses, where most controversial issues and political scandal ended for dissection.

Unlike his brother, Rajiv, a happily married airline pilot and father of two, who stayed out of the limelight, Sanjay did not enjoy a reputation for modesty or pleasant human relations. A problem student, he had been withdrawn from boarding school and tutored at home to prepare him for the school-leaving examination, and later, had left Rolls Royce at Crewe before completing his training.

Sanjay had developed a taste for authority and a lifestyle lacking restraint. Much is forgiven a handsome young man, particularly a prime minister’s son, and his escapades, which at one time included hijacking cars and coarse personal behaviour, were generally ignored.

He came to critical public notice for the first time as the recipient of government favour with no qualifications in education or experience to justify it, ‘suddenly heading a huge car manufacturing industrial complex involving an investment of ten million dollars, although his declared income for the year 1969–70 was Rs 748 [about $100]’.

The Emergency gave Sanjay wide scope for bullying command and vendetta. He already exercised authority without official position. He was now credited with ordering arrests and house and office raids.

He gave direct orders to government officials and had squads of the Youth Congress to do his bidding. An aura of terror now attached to his name, and it was augmented by the enforced sterilization campaign conducted by him.

By the end of the year he was given the status of a leading political personality, his arrivals in state capitals accompanied by official panoply to match his mother’s.

He was met by chief ministers and cabinet members, his visits elaborately arranged and attended by state politicians and officials.

Much of her private torment and anxiety must have centred on the undisciplined young man, dangerously addicted to the shortcut, says Nayantara.

Sanjay Gandhi, as director of Maruti Technical Services, had received a fee of Rs 3,00,000 for imparting technical know-how to Maruti Ltd. Asked by an income tax officer what Sanjay had contributed to the technical side of the car project, W.H.F. Muller replied, ‘Actually a set of drawings, incomplete set, in respect of the car he had built… What actually was produced was a few prototypes hand-made.’

It was Sanjay’s megalomaniac plans regarding Maruti which compelled her to declare the second Emergency in June 1975 so that the Maruti scandals could be hushed up.

Sanjay’s death on June 23, 1980, when the aerobatic aircraft he was piloting without sufficient experience crashed, left a design in ruins about his mother. The cabinet decision to hold an open judicial inquiry to investigate the reasons for the disaster was dramatically changed at the initiative of the prime minister.

After Sanjay Gandhi’s death, Mrs Gandhi’s government nationalized Maruti Ltd by presidential ordinance between two sessions of Parliament, telling a press conference, on October 21, 1980, that the company had more assets than liabilities and ‘has to be used for the national good’.

That’s all for excerpts’ sake from this ‘book of revelations’ from Nayantara.

This book is a must-read to know the hardcore reality behind Indira Gandhi’s real driving force – her prodigal son – Sanjay Gandhi!

To sum it up, Nayantara Sahgal carved a unique niche in Indian English literature by her courage and her convictions! In fact, she courageously interweaves the personal and the political in such a bold style of writing, quite unheard of for long in the Indian writing scene!

Let’s together wish the legendary 98-year old Nayantara Sahgal a very happy birthday today! 😊