Indira Gandhi Indira Gandhi, thrice Prime Minister of India. The first serious challenge to Congress hegemony came in 1967 when a new coalition, under the banner of the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal, won control over several states in the Hindi belt. Indira Gandhi (not related to Mahatma Gandhi), the daughter of Nehru, and Congress president, was then challenged by the majority of the party leadership. The conflict led to a split, and Indira launched a separate INC. Initially this party was known as Congress (R), but it soon came to be generally known as the New Congress. The official party became the Indian National Congress (Organisation) (INC(O)) led by Kamaraj. It was informally called the Old Congress and retained the party symbol of a pair of bullocks carrying a yoke. Mrs. Gandhis breakaway faction were given a new symbol of a cow with suckling calf by the Election Commission as the party election symbol.[20] The split in the congress was result of growing differences between syndicate/old guard of the party and Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi took control of the finance portfolio and passed bank nationalisation ordinance. After the death of President Zakir Hussain in May 1969, the Syndicate faction chose Sanjiva Reddy as the Congress candidate. The vice President of India at that time, V.V. Giri, also filed his nomination as an independent candidate for the post of President. Mrs Gandhi openly supported Mr. Giri against Mr. Reddy. After the victory of Mr. Giri, Mrs. Gandhi was served with a show-cause notice for her indiscipline. She did not reply which led to the party split in late 1969. Indiras faction was called INC (R). This faction retained maximum number of MPs and Mrs. Gandhi remained in control of government.[21] The split can in some ways be seen as a left-wing/right-wing division. Indira Gandhi wanted to use a populist agenda to gather support for the party. She raised slogans such as Garibi Hatao (Remove Poverty), and wanted to develop closer ties with the Soviet Union, for strategic purposes.[22] The regional party elites, who formed the INC(O), stood for a more conservative agenda, and distrusted Soviet help. INC(O) later merged into the Janata Party. Gradually, Indira Gandhi grew more authoritarian and autocratic in her policies and outlook. Following allegations of electoral malpractice in the general elections, a court overturned Gandhis victory in her parliamentary constituency in the 1971 General Elections. Facing growing criticism and widespread demonstrations by opposition in the country, she proclaimed a state of National Emergency in 1975, imprisoned most of her partys opposition, and unleashed a police state. After she lifted the emergency in 1977, more Congress factions were formed, the one remaining loyal to Indira Gandhi being popularly known as Congress(I) with an I for Indira. Congress(I) was routed in the general elections by the Janata Party, but the resulting coalition government lasted only two years. The Congress party returned to power in the ensuing 1980 elections. In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, in revenge for the disastrous Operation Blue Star. In the following days anti-Sikh riots broke out in Delhi and elsewhere in which more than six thousand Sikhs were killed, purportedly by activists and leaders of the Congress Party.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 11:52:56 +0000
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