When the emergency was clamped on the nation in June '75, most of the instruments of the state had been debauched. Indira Gandhi had pretty much killed the Congress party, which was one vehicle, especially under her father, Nehru, of ensuring that a vast country like India was ruled by consensus. She destroyed the powers of the chief ministers and damaged the federal structure.She had pressurised the judiciary and sapped its independence by appointing mediocre judges and transferring to inconsequential outposts those judges who dared to assert their independence. She damaged the independence of the bureaucracy by calling for a committed civil service. She even politicised the armed forces by using it for civilian purposes by manipulating promotions. Then the Sanjay mafia took over.
To sustain Indira Gandhi's regime after a plaint President had signed the emergency proclamation, her admirers and courtiers, led by Sanjay, brought crowds; and the roadcrossing in front of her house at Safdarjung Road becamethe scene of round the clock political melas. The crowds' requirements of transport and water were met by pliant governments in Haryana and UP. Aid was also sought from the army. Gen T. N. Raina was also from the `clan' and had become the Army Chief after superseding at least one officer senior to him. He came under tremendous pressure, but it goes to his soldierly credit that he did not succumb.
Sanjay Gandhi's meddling in military affairs in his capacity as an extra-constitutional authority cannot be ignored. For, we need to focus on such bizarre occurrences in the wake of Sonia Gandhi's aggressive rhetoric of the achievements of the Dynasty and why it should be voted back to bring glory to India.
It was January 1976 and the occasion was the fifth review of the Naval Fleet at Bombay by the President and Supreme Commander Fakhruddin All Ahmed. Bansi Lal was the Defence Minister and he had ensured that Sanjay was positioned as a VVIP in INS Vikrant. After the usual tea party held on the lawns of the NavyHouse, a message was delivered from Bansi Lal and Sanjay who wished to interview Vice Admirals Jal Cursetji and K. L. Kulkarni, the then C-in-Cs of the Western and Eastern Naval Commands. The job for which this weird selection board had assembled was to select the next Chief of the Naval Staff to succeed Admiral S. N. Kohli.
A heated discussion took place at Navy House when Kulkarni objected to this interview. Eventually both the `candidates' went. Next morning Kulkarni was livid when he and Jal Cursetji were kept waiting for hours for the two VVIPs at the Shipping Corporation of India Guest House. According to Kulkarni, Bansi Lal told him that Sanjay wished to interview him. He was asked for his views on submarines and all the queries directed to him came from Sanjay himself. Jal Cursetji was eventually selected and served a full tenure as Chief of Naval Staff.
The third candidate in the running, Vice Admiral Krishnan, the seniormost with considerable operational experience and also a DistinguishedService Cross awardee in World War II for outstanding bravery had presumably been eliminated in the preliminary round itself. The method of selection for this top job in the defence services was known to Admiral Kohli and was narrated to me a few days ago by the Western Fleet Commander, with whom Kulkarni stayed. Even otherwise the story is too well known to many old timers in the Navy and is indeed remembered with guilt and shame.
But what is disturbing is the attempted subversion of one of the ultimate instruments of the state by an extra-constitutional authority in collusion with a serving defence minister. Here was a patently illegal order to two senior naval officers, but both thought that disobedience would have been at their personal peril.
Sonia Gandhi has to remember that the dynasty has much to hide and history does not change by turning the faces of portraits to the wall. Sharad Pawar -- the better-late-than-never Sonia courtier -- has described Sonia as a Sanjivini. Sycophancy has devouredemperors. The Romans knew that.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
