Indira, the most successful Opposition leader

It was the year 1978. There were incessant rains for days together in the monsoon season. Soon floods started. The entire north and eastern India were submerged in waters. I was still based in my home town Allahabad. Fresh after completing my masters, I was waiting for a job opening and spending too much time at the Coffee House. One of those Coffee House sessions, one of our friends dropped in and told us that the Ganga’s water has already entered his locality. We rushed to his place for help.

The next morning, many parts of the city and most of the villages were submerged. We decided to start relief operations. Many groups soon sprang up doing the same relief work. The city was, in fact, flooded with such teams. Our group decided to move over to villages where still no help had reached.

We discovered a village close to the city which was cut off from all land routes. It was very difficult to reach there. But we made it a point to go there because the village had run out of food supplies. There was slush all around. We had to literally wad through stinking mud and dirt. But we managed and distributed some food stuff much to the relief of literally starving people.

As we began our journey back home; were in the middle of a dirty puddle, we heard meek slogans. Someone was shouting: Indira Gandhi zindabad. As I looked up, I noticed I was face to face with Indira Gandhi who like us had wadded through the mud and slush and reached the people who desperately needed help. Lo and behold, Indira was there, talking to them, giving them solace and distributing relief stuff to the poor.

We left. So did Indira Gandhi. But this one gesture of Indira Gandhi transformed our entire group into Indira fan though we had worked hard against her party in 1977 elections as we were angry with the Emergency. Suddenly, Indira Gandhi was all over the country. She was moving across the flooded towns and villages. Belchi was one of the spots where she reached riding an elephant.

India now had a new opposition star called Indira Gandhi who till almost a year ago was the Prime Minister of the country. Indira functioned as the opposition leader less than three years but proved herself the most successful opposition leader India ever had. Between 1978 and 1980, she formed a new party, won a parliamentary seat for herself from Chikmangloor (Karnataka), managed a coup against rival Morarji Desai, split Janata Party, brought in Charan Singh as the prime minister, toppled Singh within four months and was back in power in 1980. Won’t you call it a unmatched feat by an opposition leader!

Imagine, her party the Congress was routed in 1977 elections. She herself lost her seat in Amethi. The entire Hindi belt was up in arms against Indira. But the same Indira Gandhi was the darling of the masses in less than three years since 1978 when she went back to the people after her defeat.

But how could Indira manage the role of the most successful opposition leader all by herself? The secret of her success was her decision not to sit in Delhi even for a day when in opposition. She was constantly and incessantly out of the national capital and amidst the people. I still remember that after winning Chikmagloor seat she visited parliament only once to take oath and sign the register as it was not necessary those days for MPs to be present in the house.

Indira instinctively understood that the job of an opposition leader is to connect to the people and not waste time in Delhi which is the nerve centre of power politics and not opposition politics. She was so tirelessly involved travelling across the country that she used to spend 10-12 hours in road travel. I still remember reading a news item in Allahabad Northern India Patrika reporting that Indira Gandhi campaigned 22 hours out of 24 hours during the 1980 parliamentary elections. It was feasible then as there was no time limit imposed by the Election Commission for election campaigning and election meetings were held even during the wee hours till morning.

Indira Gandhi was back in power in 1980 stepping out of the opposition shoes and once again donning the mantle of the prime minister of the country. But in this short interregnum she proved that there was no match to Indira even as the opposition leader.