The Hindu Business Line : Of courage and caprice

Remembering Indira Gandhi on the occasion of her 90th birth anniversary, which was yesterday (November 19), what comes to mind is her extraordinary courage. The courage that helped her take on the then US President, Richard Nixon, at the height of the Cold War during the early 1970s; the courage that helped her challenge the Old Guard in the Congress Party and emerge as the undisputed leader in1969; and that helped her win a decisive victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war t hat saw the birth of Bangladesh and, finally, the courage that made her face the bullets from her own security guards to fall a martyr in the cause of India’s unity in October 1984.

If Indira Gandhi had courage, strangely, she also possessed caprice, a quality that is associated with a sense of insecurity. It was caprice that drove her to declare the Emergency in 1975. But it was courage that made her relax the Emergency and call for General Elections in March 1977.

Indira Gandhi’s life was tumultuous. She missed parental love in her childhood as her mother died early and her father Pandit Nehru was always away, being in the thick of India’s freedom movement and frequently in and out of jail for long periods. As Congress party worker, later its president and then the Prime Minister of the country, peace and private life became a precious commodity for Indira Gandhi.

Ironically, her brief period of peace and private life came when she was out of power, from March 1977 to January 1980.

The writer, one afternoon in 1979, found Indira Gandhi in the company of her younger son Sanjay and his wife Maneka at Archana Cinema in New Delhi, enjoying a Peter Seller’s comedy The Return of Pink Panther.

Seated several rows behind me, Indira Gandhi obviously enjoyed the film as any other movie-goer did. After the show, she exchanged pleasantries with total strangers.

As the family waited outside the Cinema, a humble Ambassador pulled up before them and carried them home with no fuss or hint of security whatsoever. Come to think of it, even in her days as Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi never had obtrusive security.

I have seen her come out of inner Door No. 4, Parliament House, on many an afternoon during session, accompanied only by a couple of officials. She would pleasantly accept greetings from onlookers before getting into the ubiquitous white Ambassador!

(The writer, a former deputy editor with PTI, is a New-Delhi based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamanirc@gmail.com)

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