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Indira Gandhi As I Knew Her

Writer: Pradeep Mathur

Mrs. Indira Gandhi's innings as independent India's third prime minister and my entry into journalism started almost simultaneously in the year 1966. Starting from that time till her assassination in late 1984 there was no day when journalists would not have to think, ,talk, write or edit something or the other related to Mrs Indira Gandhi .It was more true of journalists whose first interest was current affairs and politics or who ever hard the parliamentary beat in their schedule. I had both.

Looking back I must say that to start with Mrs Indira Gandhi was somehow an enigma to all those who had an interest in politics. Senior and powerful Congress satraps thought her to be a person without any clear understanding of politics and even derided her as goongi gudiya or mute doll. It is no secret that they helped her become prime minister in the belief that they would be able to manipulate her to their benefit.

A low estimation of Indira Gandhi's caliber was something also shared by intellectuals and upper-middle-class professionals. However, many young journalists like me were enamored by her progressive credentials. I remember having been reprimanded by seniors like the news editor and the editor for what they thought was a lack of discretion on our part in giving board headlines and page I treatment to what she said or what was being said by other in his favour, especially when her war with Congress party satraps started. They thought that Indira Gandhi's politics was populist and would lead the country to economic disaster.

I was never on a regular beat to cover Mrs. Indira Gandhi I covered her of and on and was parliamentary correspondent during the tenure of the Sixth Lok Sabha. Having replaced the Janata Party whose magnificent victory in 1977 had led many people believe that Indira Gandhi's political career was over, she had risen like a Phoenix from the ashes and was the supreme and undisputed leader of the country.

But soon after her historic comeback to power in 1980, the tragedy struck and she lost her younger son Sanjay in an air crash. Indira Gandhi was greatly attached to him not only as a mother but also as a political associate. He was the strength by her side. She was never the same again

I am one among those who believe that Mrs. Indira Gandhi would perhaps be the greatest ruler ever to rule this old and ancient country had she not committed two mistakes during her two tenures as prime minister. The first one was the imposition of the emergency in the year 1975 during her first tenure (1966-1977) and the other one was the military attack on Swarn Mandir in 1984 during her second tenure (1980-84) which finally led to her brutal killing by her Sikh security guards.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi was great in the sense that she was a visionary as well as a pragmatic leader. She knew grassroots reality by instinct.. In 1967 she was invited to address what perhaps was the first convocation of IIT. Kanpur. I was deputed by my Editor Mr S.N. Ghosh to cover it. In her welcome address chairman of IIT, Mr Padampad Singhania, that time one among the top five industrialists of the country, said that there were already so many engineering colleges in the country and a moratorium should be put on opening more such colleges otherwise there would be unemployment among engineers.

When Indira Gandhi rose to speak she dismissed the suggestion with utter contempt. She said on the other hand there was the need for many more engineering colleges. Mr. Singhania looked quite cut up. We, who were in press enclosure, had no idea as to who was right but despite all my admiration for Mrs Gandhi I felt that she was being very curt.

How correct she was and why she so contemptuously dismissed Singhania's suggestions, I realized as the years passed by . In the year 1967 India needed thousands more engineering colleges to develop as a modern industrialized country. While a top industrialist could not foresee this Indira Gandhi could.

The imposition of ill-conceived emergency in the year 1975 brought all sort of charges against her. She was called a despot and her democratic credentials were questioned. But Indira Gandhi was a true democrat at heart. She will listen to views entirely opposed to her. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is on record on this. I too have a small personal experience of it.

After covering the Seventh Non-aligned Summit( NAM) in New Delhi in 1983 I wrote a book with the help of a friend and fellow journalist late K.M Srivastava .In the book I wrote two things which were not in keeping with Indira Gandhi's known views on the subject and the official line of her government. I had written that the NAM should have a secretariat like the United Nations and that NAM should be a peoples movement and not a mere interactional group of the governments of non-aligned countries. Chairing the 98 – -nation summit, the biggest international conclave ever held in New Delhi, Indira Gandhi had disapproved of the suggestion of a secretariat of non-aligned countries and had emphasized closer inter-governmental contacts.

After the book had gone to the press we thought that the best person to release it would be none other than Mrs. Indira Gandhi. I approached my uncle Dr.K.P.Mathur who was Mrs. Gandhi's personal physician. He spoke to the prime minister's secretary Mr R.K.Dhawan who called me and asked me to submit a copy of the book. He said the book would be read by her staff before she gives her consent to release it.

I never knew how a VVIP decides to release or not release a book. But now I was very sure that she would not release the book as I had written two things clearly opposed to her expressed views. To my pleasant surprise after two-three days I received a call from Mr Dhawan telling me when and at what time should I come with what number of people for release of the book by the Prime Minister. In today's political environment such accommodation of an opposite viewpoint by the super VVIP is impossible to think.

[ I was in Varanasi setting up The Pioneer , Lucknow’s eastern U.P.. edition at the time when Indira Gandhi was gunned down in Delhi. In pre-mobile/internet days the communication was not as quick as to is today. On reaching office in the morning I learnt about Mrs Gandhi's murder. We decided to bring out a special supplement. Since my young editorial team was largely inexperienced I sat on the chief sub's chair with them.Reading agency takes ( short paragraph items) I could not hold my tears. Young colleagues were non- plussed to see me wiping my eyes. It was a little foolish of me but it was something I could not help.

The End

मीडिया मैप न्यूज़ परिवार की ओर से महात्मा गाँधी और लाल बहादुर शास्त्री जी की जयंती पर श्रद्धांजलि

2 Oct 2024

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New Delhi, 20 November 2023

Indira Gandhi As I Knew Her

Writer: Pradeep Mathur