Nervousness as Mrs Gandhi moves to left of centre
KULDIP NAYAR
New Delhi
When in the wake of the Congress party's split a year ago Mrs Indira Gandhi talked more and more in radical terms, many people thought that she had to adopt such a posture to placate the Communists who sustained her minority government in power. Today when even after winning 350 seats in a 524-member Loh Sabha (Lower House) in the March mid-term poll she has not diluted her left stance, very few doubt that she had meant business. There was no ripple of attention when she nationalised General Assurance a few months ago because the bigger segment dealing with life insurance was taken over a decade earlier. Nor was there much criticism when her government presented this June a soak-the-rich budget. After all, her election plank was: Garibi Hatao (Remove Poverty).
Indeed, only a few eyebrows have been raised over the proposed 24th amendment to the Indian Constitution. Many agree that the bill, awaiting the States' ratification, rightly restores to Parliament the authority to amend the Constitution — a prerogative of the elected representatives that an Indian Supreme Court judgement had challenged by holding that the fundamental rights •enshrined in the Constitution were beyond the pale of Parliament.
So far so good. But what has disturbed many people is the indication of steps that Mrs Gandhi intends taking after Parliament becomes supreme. Two bills are already on the anvil. One is the 25th Constitutional Amendment which empowers Parliament to declare that a particular measure will subserve the common good" or lessen "the concentration of wealth " and so make it unchallengeable in any law court. The Government says that the bill is meant only to remove impediments in the way of "accelerated economic progress" and cites in support last year's Supreme Court judgement which declared as unconstitutional the withdrawal of privy purses from former Indian rulers.
People are not so worried about the former rulers, whom they regard as relics of the subjugated days, as about their fundamental rights — like private property and freedom of speech and expression which the 25th amendment will authorise the Government both at the centre and in in the States to supersede in the interest of the "common good." Mrs Gandhi's repeated assurances have not pacified many.
The other bill that has aroused fears relates to the ' diffusion ' of ownership of the press. During the mid-term poll, when most newspapers stood against Mrs Gandhi and when they more or less predicted her defeat, they annoyed her. Since then she has repeatedly said that the Indian press does not reflect the "aspirations of the people" and needs to be released from the "clutches of big business." The bill provides for the appointment of half of the directors on a newspaper board from among journalist and non-journalist staff members. Many suspect that it amounts to nationalisation of the press through the back door. And on top of everything, the Indo-USSR treaty has made even some ardent supporters of Mrs Gandhi wonder whether her promise to stay only left of centre still holds good.
It is true that the treaty has considerably cleared the air which was once thick with rumours of attack by the Chinesebacked Pakistan. It is also true that India feels strengthened after having been shaky and panicky in the wake of Mr Kissinger's visit to China from Pakistan to arrange a meeting of President Nixon with Prime Minister Chou En-lai. But it is equally true that many in their heart of hearts believe that Nehru's policy of non-alignment has more or less come to an end. Mrs Gandhi still maintains that what she is doing is aimed at taking the wind out of the sails of the Communists who have already got a foothold in India. If she does not do even this much, people would seek desperate remedies through violence, the foretaste of which is available in Calcutta where about a dozen persons are murdered daily.
The record food production of 108 million tons has no doubt given some hope. But with the refugees from East Bengal nearing the eight million figure and with half of India's budget spent on defence to protect itself against China and Pakistan, there is probably no other way except to put more burdens on the relatively better off. After all, the per oapita income of an Indian is only half a rupee (three quarters of a shilling) a day. But there is general fear that in the process of moving the country to left of centre Mrs Gandhi may unleash such forces as have no faith in private property, freedom of speech or expression or even the ballot box.
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