The 1971 Lok Sabha elections were fought against the backdrop of a split in the Congress party, which had been the dominant political party in the country since Independence. The rift had already been brewing with Indira Gandhi’s increasingly authoritarian hold over the party, and widened when it came to backing candidates for the 1969 presidential election.
Background
The 1969 presidential election was arguably the most bitterly contested since India gained independence in 1947. Neelam Sanjiva Reddi was the official Congress candidate for the post, while V. V. Giri became the non-official nominee of the Congress Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi.
At the heart of the power struggle within the Congress party were Morarji Desai and his supporters, pitted against Mrs. Gandhi. After Jawaharlal Nehru’s decline and death, a group of regional leaders which consolidated power within the party, also called the Syndicate, moved swiftly to install Lal Bahadur Shastri as the new prime minister. This was to hinder the influence of Mr. Desai, who was touted to be the next prime minister on account of his popularity and influence.
The Syndicate expected a similar result when they favoured Mrs. Gandhi as the prime minister after Mr. Shastri’s unexpected death in January 1966. She led Congress to victory in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, but the rift was soon evident.
Economic reforms and the 1969 presidential election
The first decisive conflict between the two power blocs within the party happened in July 1969 when Mrs. Gandhi introduced her ‘Note on Economic Policy and Programme’ at an All-India Congress Committee meeting in Bengaluru, which served as a precursor to the nationalisation of banks a year later. This also marked a distinct socialist turn in Congress politics.
The ideologically incohesive Syndicate was divided in its opinion on Mrs. Gandhi’s economic reforms, but Home Minister Y.B. Chavan secured a unanimous resolution in support of it. According to research published by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. of the University of Texas at Austin, his main motive for this was to avoid conflict in the presidential nomination, but things didn’t go as the Syndicate planned.
While the Congress officially supported Mr. Reddi, Mr. Giri entered the presidential race as an independent candidate. Meanwhile, in a sudden move, Mrs. Gandhi relieved Mr. Desai of his finance portfolio in her Cabinet, saying that she wished to assume responsibility for the implementation of the economic policy resolution adopted in Bengaluru. Mrs. Gandhi ignored repeated appeals by Mr. Chavan, Congress President S. Nijalingappa, and K. Kamaraj to return the finance portfolio to Mr. Desai. In turn, Mr. Desai also resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister.
On July 19, 1969, Indira Gandhi’s government announced the nationalisation of 14 banks through an ordinance which would later become the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act. Mr. Chavan called it a “historic step in India’s march towards socialism.” Other Congress leaders, like former Finance Minister Mr. C.D. Deshmukh, and regional leaders like M. Karunanidhi also supported the move.
According to Mrs. Gandhi, the move was aimed at providing more equitable access to bank credit, especially for small farmers and artisans. Backing her socialist aspirations for the country, she announced that action was “only the beginning of a bitter struggle between the common people and the vested interests in the country.” At the time, around 70% of the country’s total bank assets were largely in the hands of a few business families.
Although Mrs. Gandhi signed Mr. Reddi’s nomination papers for the presidential election, she did not make a statement in his support. Her followers even called for a “free vote of conscience,” and Mr. Giri won the election, much to the embarrassment of the Syndicate. Determined to take disciplinary action against Mrs. Gandhi and her increasingly socialist policies, the Congress Working Committee expelled her from the party on November 12, 1969.
However, the Congress Parliamentary Party, which operates on its own Constitution, reaffirmed their faith in the leadership of Mrs. Gandhi a day later with the support of the majority of its 432 members. Two days later, 111 Congress MPs elected Mr. Desai as the Chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Party in Opposition. With sufficient numbers to gain official recognition, Dr. Ram Subhag Singh became India’s first Leader of Opposition, thus formalising the split in the party.
The Congress split
The split was institutionalised in December 1969. Mrs. Gandhi led the Requisitionists faction, while the Syndicate faction, now called the Indian National Congress (Organisation), was led by Mr. Desai.
Mrs. Gandhi retained her position as the prime minister of the country but had to depend on smaller parties for support. Uninterested in leading a minority government, she advised the President in December 1970 to dissolve the Lok Sabha and call for fresh elections.
1971 Lok Sabha election
The fifth Lok Sabha elections were held in March 1971. Mrs. Gandhi’s Congress (R) won with an overwhelming majority. The election not only demonstrated renewed faith in her leadership but also in the supremacy of Congress. Regional parties like the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal were ruthlessly demolished by voters. Only DMK and Telangana Praja Samiti emerged as exceptions.
Mrs. Gandhi based her campaign on “garibi hatao,” which translates to “remove poverty.” The slogan, according to historical records from the Congress party, was actually a retort to “Indira Hatao” (remove Indira), a slogan coined by Congress (O)’s grand alliance. The other parties in this alliance were Jan Sangh, the Swatantra Party and Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP).
The 1971 election will be remembered for many things, but it will also be remembered for a baby elephant turning up at a polling booth in the Saidapet constituency of Chennai (then called Madras), along with a mahout. It was turned away by the police for distracting other voters, but the mahout returned to vote, after leaving the elephant at a nearby temple.
Not all polling booths saw amusing or cheerful scenes. . In Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, four suspected Naxalites reportedly raided the polling station in a village, locked up the presiding officer in a room and took ballot papers. In Gotara-Thaglan village in Sikar constituency, also in Rajasthan,not one of 775 registered voters turned up. This was reportedly to protest the government’s failure to provide drinking water supply to the village. On the other hand, three polling stations in Sambhar town of Jaipur constituency recorded 100% polling.
A dutiful poll officer in Coimbatore offended his wife when she skipped the queue and walked into the booth but was told by him to join the line.
Interestingly, V.V Giri, the President of India at the time, did not cast his vote in the election, neither in the South Madras constituency where he was registered to vote, nor by post. He had not participated in voting even during his previous tenures as a Governor. Similarly, the Governors of Haryana and Punjab too did not participate in the 1971 Lok Sabha election, citing neutrality as heads of State.
Congress and socialism
Mrs. Gandhi continued with her socialist economic policies after being re-elected the Prime Minister. Another move that cemented the Congress party’s shift in this direction was the abolition of privy purses.
Privy purses were fixed, tax-free payments made to former rulers of princely States after they joined India post the 1947 partition. These payments were guaranteed under Article 291 of the Indian Constitution, till the 26th Amendment abolished them. This Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on December 2, 1971, and by Rajya Sabha a week later. Mrs. Gandhi told the Lok Sabha that it was “another step towards the creation of an egalitarian society.”
The aim to abolish privy purses had also found mention in the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha election earlier that year, which according to Mrs. Gandhi, was an overwhelming endorsement from the people and the country.
Despite the decision, Mrs. Gandhi clarified that she had no animosity against the erstwhile royals benefitting from the practice of privy purses. However, the people of the country were against the “inherited special status and privileges unrelated to functions and responsibilities,” she said in her speech in Lok Sabha. She also added that she would have been happy if the problem had been solved through discussion. “Our quarrel, if at all so, is against the system that no longer has relevance in our society or for that matter any society,” she said.
The Bangladesh Liberation War
Mrs. Gandhi battled many challenges within the Congress in her early years as prime minister, but perhaps her biggest challenge and victory was the liberation of Dhaka and India’s support towards the formation of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Liberation War was fought between West Pakistan and erstwhile East Pakistan supported by the Indian Armed Forces. Although the war officially started in April 1971, the Indian government had been monitoring discontent brewing in Bangladesh for months.
In November 1970, East Pakistan was hit by a massive cyclone named Bhola. Lakhs of people were reportedly swept away into the sea. Homes and properties were destroyed. The Bengalis of East Pakistan suffered without much help from Islamabad, adding to their woes. Dejected, they decided to form a government of their choice. In December, they voted to elect the Awami League in the National Assembly, but President Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party refused to allow the League to form the government.
On the evening of April 10, 1971, the Kolkata station of Radio Free Bangladesh, an offshoot of Akashvani, announced that the government of independent Bangladesh had been formed under the presidency of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Syed Nazrul Islam would be the Vice-President. It was an unprecedented moment when the head of a government-in-exile addressed the people of his country via the Indian government’s radio network.
Mrs. Gandhi toured all the bordering states, seeking a quick resolution to the conflict in India’s neighbourhood. U.S. President Richard Nixon’s support to Pakistan, however, proved to be an initial hurdle.
Mrs. Gandhi and her Defence Minister Sardar Swaran Singh travelled to major world capitals to build public opinion in favour of an independent Bangladesh. Countries like Australia, West Germany and France turned against Pakistan, a big achievement for Mrs. Gandhi. She also travelled to Washington to meet President Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Although those meetings were far removed from India’s expectations, Mrs. Gandhi’s interviews led to a rise in anti-Pakistan, pro-Bangladesh public opinion.
Another important move by Mrs. Gandhi was to place Durga Prasad Dhar, a former politician from Kashmir, as India’s ambassador to Moscow. Mr. Dhar’s negotiations with the erstwhile Soviet Union led to the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty, securing emergency military supplies.
The real heroes of the Bangladesh liberation war were the guerilla soldiers of Mukti Bahini. Composed mainly of refugees, the unit was raised by R.N. Kao, the chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India.During the monsoon and autumn seasons that year, the Mukti Bahini was used to soften targets in East Pakistan. Armed with Second World War-era rifles and wearing blue and black lungis and white vests, the soldiers of Mukti Bahini blended with merged among the sympathetic local farmers tending fields in true guerrilla fashion and carried out surprise attacks on the Pakistani military.
All through the war, Mrs. Gandhi was looking for a more permanent solution to the war in East Pakistan. On December 3, 1971, she visited Kolkata to address a rally. While she was chatting with the city’s filmmakers and writers, she received news that the Pakistan Air Force had carried out a bombing raid in the western sector.
The developments led to India’s first all-out tri-service war. Mr. Dhar had established a reliable channel with the Soviets and an air-bridge was set up between Moscow and Delhi flying essential equipment for the Indian Army led by General Sam Manekshaw. Although the Soviets were concerned about pushing the Americans too far, fearful of a chain reaction, they assisted India in its military operation against Pakistan.
The war came to end on December 16 with the surrender of the Pakistan’s military under the command of Gen A.A.K. Niazi to the joint India-Bangladesh forces, and a free Bangladesh was born.
The victory sealed Indira Gandhi’s stature as a powerful leader; she demonstrated strong political leadership by recognising the legitimacy of the Bengali nationalist movement, which was feeling subdued under the rule of West Pakistan. Her government also provided support to refugees pouring into Indian territories.
The war also secured a healthy diplomatic relationship between India and Bangladesh which continues to date. Former President of India Ram Nath Kovind was present at the 50th-year commemoration of the Liberation War in 2021 in Dhaka.
The build-up to the 1975 Emergency
Despite establishing herself as a formidable leader, Indira Gandhi’s troubles only grew after the war. By 1973, there was considerable political turmoil in India. Raj Narain, a socialist leader from Uttar Pradesh, had contested against Mrs. Gandhi in the 1971 election and filed a case alleging fraud and use of State machinery.
On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court ruled that she was guilty of using state machinery for her campaign. . The election was declared null and void, and Mrs. Gandhi lost her parliamentary seat and was barred from contesting elections for six years, but she could continue as the prime minister. In response to this, Jayaprakash Narayan launched an agitation asking government servants to reject the orders of the immoral and unethical government. With massive strikes and political opposition facing her government, Indira Gandhi and her advisors asked President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency due to “an imminent danger to the security of India being threatened by internal disturbances,” leading to one of the darkest periods in the history of India.
