Prime Ministers - from Nehru to Modi!

I had never seen my father shed tears as a young boy. One day I was surprised to see that. A gentle enquiry revealed that one Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru had died and that he was the Prime Minister of India. It was in May 1964 and I was about 10 years old. The papers carried extensive photographs the next day with large crowds mourning the death of Pandit ji. I also vaguely remember discussions earlier about the Indo-China war with our boarding school notice board displaying the “McMohan line”. He was a cult figure those days with people like my dad revering him for his work during the freedom movement. I am sure they were also aware of the scandals surrounding Mr. Nehru but the perception that he was an intellectual known for his erudition and international standing perhaps overshadowed this downside. “Who after Nehru?” seemed to be the question on everyone’s lips. I don’t remember much about his era as the PM though.  

After a “night watchman” Mr. Gulzarilal Nanda’s short tenure, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri became the PM, thanks to Mr. Kamaraj, the king maker, those days. What a stalwart Mr. Kamaraj was! I can only laugh at the pygmies who call themselves leaders in TN today, who do not command even a semblance of respect from the masses now! The diminutive Mr. Shastri was very popular those days belying his humble background and was a total contrast to the glamourous Pandit ji. I remember the 1965 war with Pakistan very well and Mr. Shastri’s slogan ”Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” reverberated throughout the country. I vividly recall that we skipped our dinner on Monday in our boarding school in response to the clarion call of beloved Shastri ji. Pakistan was given a sound thrashing and Shastri ji went to Tashkent in January 1966 to sign a peace agreement with General Ayub Khan never to return. His untimely death was an unfortunate moment in our history for Shastri ji impressed one and all during his short stint as a man known for his simplicity, practicality and one who would steer the nation with grit and integrity. Alas, it was not to be!

Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the petite I&B minister in Shastri ji’s cabinet was catapulted to the PM’s post after Shastri ji’s demise once again by Mr. Kamaraj ahead of Mr. Morarji Desai who was the more senior parliamentarian. In her first term from 67-71, Indira ji, courted controversy several times like supporting Mr. V V Giri ahead of Mr. Sanjiva Reddy , the official congress candidate for Presidency, split the congress after she was expelled, abolished privy purses and nationalised  private banks. These decisions had far reaching consequences on the history and progress of our country. After the glorious victory liberating Bangladesh in 1971, Mrs. Gandhi’s rule was marked by her declaration of emergency in defiance of Allahabad High Court orders invalidating her election. There was a virtual dictatorship in the country between 75 and 77. This was the time when I joined a Bank in Uttar Pradesh as a probationary officer! If UP was like what I saw during emergency, GOD help them in other times, was my feeling. Her son Sanjay Gandhi was ruling the roost with extra constitutional authority. Forced sterilisations and grazing unauthorized constructions through brute force were the order of the day. Those who are crying hoarse today that we are facing a fascist government and an authoritarian PM have not seen what emergency was, obviously. News was censored, and anyone with even a whimper of criticism was put behind bars. I remember seeing Tughlaq magazine with a black front page in protest. Most of the opposition, irrespective of age, were behind bars. A number of leaders were in hiding fearing imminent arrest. Elections were postponed and opposition ruled states were dismissed using Article 356. It was during the first tenure that the Nagarwala bank case became a talk of the town. Compared to today’s scam’s it was a pittance – only about 60 Lakhs!

In the meantime all opposition had come together under Sri. Jayaprakash Narayan. The Janata party was born with parties of all denominations being a part of it. In 1977, Mrs. Gandhi called for elections, presumably under the false impression that her popularity was intact – perhaps based on intelligence reports! Congress lost miserably and Janata party came to power. The next three years saw the coalition tamasha with Mr. Morarji Desai and Mr. Charan Singh taking positions of power as PM. While Mr. Morarji was a seasoned politician with extensive administrative experience, Mr. Charan Singh had no such credentials. There was an open lust for power with the result that the government collapsed under its own contradictions. This should definitely be a lesson for today’s youngsters if they think an alliance of parties without any ideological congruence can come together and provide a stable government!  

Mrs. Gandhi came back to power for the third term in 1980, thanks to the folly of Mr. Charan Singh who had her and her son Sanjay arrested. Such acts whip up frenzy in India and the result was a foregone conclusion. Mrs. Gandhi, during these years in power tried to meddle with the Akali politics in Punjab – supporting Bhindranwale initially and later he became a separatist fighting for Khalistan and took to arms. Mrs. Gandhi ordered operation “Blue Star” in which the army entered the Golden Temple complex and killed not only Bhindranwale but a number of innocent pilgrims besides damaging the Golden Temple Complex. Three months later, her own Sikh bodyguards assassinated her in her residence. This again was a tragic moment in our history. 

If I were to look at the prevailing political culture in this country and trace its roots, it would certainly point to Mrs. Gandhi. She was charismatic yet ruthless. She had her way. She brooked no opposition to her views. She roughshod over all institutions and threw away all conventions to the wind. It was during her time that the President’s office earned the ignominious nickname ‘Rubber Stamp’. Sycophancy was the norm and entire establishment was servile to her. She never allowed her regional heads to build a following of their own and ruthlessly decimated such persons if ever she felt that someone was remotely a threat to her. The coterie in Delhi started to build and the party was full of such sycophants who had no standing of their own. She is the mother of all present rhetoric and sloganeering that you see today – “Garibi Hatao” being her famous tagline. And not to be outdone, one of her sycophants had the temerity to coin the slogan “Indira is India and India is Indira!”

What followed her death was even more brutal and a blot on a country like India when thousands of Sikhs were murdered in broad daylight with the Delhi police twiddling their thumbs! It was one of the saddest days in my memory, for Sikhs are great people who have given only the best for this country. I have had many interactions with Sardars and they are the most helpful, hospitable and patriotic citizens you can see. During all these years, while I was not actively involved in politics, I always used to hear my father admonish and lambast Mrs. Gandhi almost on a daily basis! In  Mrs. Gandhi era, my father had slowly moved towards Rajaji’s Swatantra party and was a patron of their Swarajya magazine.  

If at all an opportunity presented itself to the Congress party to redeem itself and become a democratic one that they professed, that was the time. But alas, it was not to be. And we are now saddled with a dynastic party with that single decision. Buta Singh and President Zail Singh persuaded Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs. Gandhi’s son, to become the Prime minister. The seeds for a dynastic succession were thus sown. It may be argued that Mrs. Gandhi succeeded her father. But it must be remembered she was a minister in Shastri ji’s cabinet and was propelled to this role by Mr. Kamaraj and his friends! And Rajiv was not even in active politics being an airline pilot!

Rajiv, as a person was very suave, dignified and spoke well. He was liked by the masses and in his initial years, he appeared to be earnest in revamping the party and government. It was he who brought in a change of mindset relating to computers and telecommunication. In all fairness, he was the forerunner to what we acclaim as digital India today. People like me moved from traditional banking to IT, thanks to his policies. IT industry was reborn in India, so to speak, after IBM were all driven out of India during the Janata regime. He had his own pitfalls like decision on Shah Bano case which is talked about even today. However, what led to his downfall was the alleged bribery scandal in the Bofors and HDW deal. Ms. Chitra Subramanian of “The Hindu” – a paper which was highly respected then and people swore by its contents - exposed the money trail leading ultimately to the late Quattrochi. Mr. V P Singh, a minister and friend of Rajiv, resigned and was at the forefront of this agitation against the government. The slogan “Gali gali me Shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai!” could be heard all over India. Compared to today’s scandals, Bofors was a pittance though. In the 1989 elections that followed, Mr. V P Singh under the Janata Dal banner, despite being in minority, with outside support became the PM.

Mr. V P Singh’s tenure (89-90) was very short and less than a year. All that I remember of his tenure was his implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations leading to protests all over the country! He was a champion of social justice and had admirers in a number of opposition camps. That legacy continues to this day, especially in TN. This was also the time when Mr. L K Advani started his famous rath yatra and the Ram Janmabhoomi issue also came to the fore. BJP withdrew support to Mr. V P Singh leading to his downfall as he was against this stand of BJP. Mr. Chandrasekhar, who was also a part of the Janata Dal, formed his own party Samajwadi Janata party with a few of his followers. Though he was in minority, he became the PM with Congress support. However, in less than 6 months he had to resign in June 1991, after congress withdrew its support!

We had planned to visit Kanchipuram early morning the next day via Sriperumbudur in late May 1991. When we woke up the next day, we heard the tragic news of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur while addressing an election meeting. This was in retaliation to his sending the IPKF – the Indian Peace keeping force – to Sri Lanka to support their army against the LTTE. The LTTE had planned and executed the assassination, as the later investigations revealed. This again was a turning point in our history for had he been alive, what would have transpired in the forthcoming elections was anyone’s guess. It was a tragic and untimely death.

With Rajiv’s death, the sympathy wave worked in favour of the Congress and they were the single largest party in Lok Sabha. Mr. P V Narasimha Rao was chosen as the PM of the country – a sort of first outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to rule for a full term of five years. This was perhaps a watershed moment in our history for he was the architect of liberalisation of our economy. He had a bureaucrat Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister. He even appointed an opposition leader Mr. Subramaniam Swamy to a cabinet rank post in his ministry. He was erudite, a Sanskrit scholar and was fluent in 14-15 languages including French, Arabic, Spanish, German & Persian! One of the blots on his tenure was the demolition of Babri Masjid leading to animosity between communities which lasts till today. The dispute still persists with courts unable to decide on this contentious issue. The saddest part about Mr. Rao, was the ill treatment given to him by his own party after his death!  

  

In 1996, Congress lost its majority in Lok Sabha and BJP emerged as the single largest party with considerably less seats than the halfway mark. As per convention, the President invited BJP to form the government and Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as PM. However, he knew that he could not prove majority on the floor of the house and resigned after a couple of weeks. United front that was formed with coming together of non-BJP, non-congress parties staked a claim to form the Government. Mr. Deve Gowda was their choice of PM for about 11 months, followed by Mr. I K Gujral for about a year till March 1998. But this United Front Government could not survive for obvious reasons and fresh elections were held in 1998. The less we talk about this period, the better! 

In the 1998 elections, BJP was the single largest party but the NDA alliance had seats close the halfway mark. A NDA Govt was sworn in with Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the PM in mid-1998. However, AIADMK pulled out of the alliance leading to the defeat of the Government by one vote in mid-1999. During this short tenure, Mr. Vajpayee initiated the nuclear bomb blast, Lahore visit which was followed by the Kargil war! The aggressors were shown their place after an initial surprise. 

In the 1999 general elections that followed, NDA won a decisive victory and Mr. Vajpayee was sworn in as the PM for the third time and this time he had a full run of 5 years. It was during this tenure that India got a boost to Infrastructure like the golden quadrilateral etc., The tenure was also marked by some unsavoury incidents like the attack on Parliament by militants, the Gujarat riots, Kargil Coffin scandal etc. The performance of the Government from a common man’s perspective was fairly satisfactory and the slogan “India Shining” was doing the rounds! But in the 2004 General elections, the NDA could only muster 181 seats against the UPA which got 218 seats. The BJP and Congress got 138 and 145 seats respectively.

With the UPA being invited to form Government after much speculation and controversy, it was announced that the UPA chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi had graciously stepped down from the leadership position and nominated Mr. Manmohan Singh as the PM. Mr. Singh went on to win the 2009 elections as well and was the PM for 2 terms spanning 10 years called UPA-1 and UPA-2. They brought in reforms like introduction of Aadhar, NREGA, RTI act, civil nuclear agreement, right to education, reservation for OBC in institutes of higher learning like IIT etc., However, it was also marked by a number of scams like the 2G spectrum, CWG, Coal block allocation etc., His tenure was also marked by policy paralysis with accusations that decisions were being taken by a coterie of the Congress chief. The coalition partners did not make things easier for him as well. Hence despite being a learned economist, one who was perceived as clean, he was termed as an “accidental PM”. He was subservient to his Congress chief who was driving the country by proxy without any accountability. Obviously, in such a setup, a number of beneficiaries enjoyed the patronage of the ruling class, especially the Press and the likes in Lutyens Delhi. The only time Mr. Singh asserted himself was during the civil nuclear deal with US. When the communists threatened to withdraw support, Mr. Singh put them in their place and went ahead with the deal. Mr. Singh was a good man but was not a politician! His career as a bureaucrat was marked by some achievements in the field of economics and is held in high esteem even today. But, unfortunately as a politician and a leader, he was not someone who could inspire you. He once said that history will be kinder to him than media. It remains to be seen but personally I cannot fathom why he accepted the role of the PM despite knowing what is in store for him. I feel very sad for such a scholar and upright man.

Mr. Narendra Damodar Das Modi won the 2014 election convincingly based on the anti-incumbency, the alleged scams of the previous regime and on the development plank. What he has done or not done during the past 5 years is too recent to recount and perhaps each and everyone knows it in great detail. Instead, I will talk about the 2014 election itself. 

2014 was the first election when I was fully involved right from the word go – since announcement of elections. Perhaps I had lot of time on my hands since I had retired. The social media made following the happenings a lot easier and faster. There were constant debates in the 24 hour news channels with their ubiquitous “breaking news”. I felt that the print media’s relevance was gone. By seeing the author of an article, you could predict on whose side he /she was – it was all paid or one sided reporting and writing. Shamelessly they took sides and promoted a particular party. Gone were the days when as young students we used to look up to papers like “The Hindu” for authentic news. Columns by writers like G K Reddy were legendary and we read it just to improve our language skills. And talking of language, prior to the advent of TV, even reading about cricket in “The Hindu” by the likes of Jack Fingleton or Nirmal Shekar was a lesson in itself with a fair amount of literary quotes embellishing the articles!  Alas, those days are gone never to return!

Despite all this, I had a premonition that there might be a change in the political scene in the country. I read a lot about Mr. Modi, the growth of Gujarat, the Gujarat riots and how the establishment hounded him for over a decade, how he was portrayed as the “merchant of death” etc. In him I saw a great orator and a person who could motivate people. He appeared to be having a vision for the country and absolutely fearless. His family background was very humble and he did not have any personal agenda to come to power. The way he campaigned for the party across the length and breadth of the country was amazing. Perhaps, I saw for the first time someone of the stature of Mrs. Gandhi in our political landscape. He was a politician with all boxes ticked. The liberals hated him for he proudly wore his religion on his sleeve and perceived to be a "Hindutva" proponent. He gave a damn to the so called “media” who were hell bent on making disparaging comments about his development model and time and again bringing in the Gujarat riots though the SIT of the Supreme Court had absolved him of any wrongdoing. And honestly there was no single person of that stature who could be even compared to him even though he had no experience leading the country. His victory was momentous for the nation.

The 2019 elections will be fought on achievements of the Modi government. While the parties go about their campaign, there is no single opposition leader of the stature or track record of Mr. Modi to oppose him. The opposition has no vision or any meaningful manifesto. Their only agenda seems to be to defeat Mr. Modi! In a country like India it could still happen – like in 2004 when Vajpayee lost despite the feeling that India was shining. While I would still respect the verdict of the people, the loss will be ours as I don’t see anyone with a similar vision and capability as Mr. Modi on the horizon for now. In my personal view, among the pantheon of PM’s we have had, only Mrs. Gandhi, warts and all, and Mr. Modi are leaders in the true sense of the word.

From the above narration, you can also see what happened when coalition governments came to power in centre. It was utter disaster and it would be the same again should the smaller parties manage to win the numbers this time. It would be a travesty of justice for the millions of people in India who are looking up to leadership at the top for their wellbeing. Appeasement politics, giving doles are all outdated policies. Growth, development and improvement in the wellbeing of people, jobs are the only measures with which people will decide the performance of the Government.

The Indian voters are not stupid and am sure they will vote sensibly. But I also believe that elections are not fought on issues but on emotions. So any leader who captures the imagination of the people wins! And who else other than Mr. Modi at this point who has captured the imagination of the nation! This is the first time I am seeing ordinary citizens campaigning for a leader. That speaks for itself.

May 23^rd is the D-day. Anything can happen in an election, irrespective of what the opinion polls say. Till then, let us watch all the tamasha unfold. Vote for any candidate you think is the best, but vote you must. Jai Hind.