NEW DELHI: Describing Sanjay Gandhi as a "man in a hurry", Congress leader Sonia Gandhi says he had a "significant role" in decision-making during the Emergency despite lacking a constitutional locus standi for some of his political interventions.
Deep down, then prime minister Indira Gandhi had never been entirely at ease with the Emergency but felt compelled by the "prevailing havoc of the time", Sonia Gandhi, who had an inside view of the goings-on during the June 1975 to March 1977 period, writes in her memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love.
On the morning of June 26, 1975, India woke up to the Emergency. Over the course of the night, arrests had been made, and by morning most political opposition personalities and dissenters were imprisoned, the top leaders in government guest houses and others in different jails, Gandhi recalls.
Habeas corpus had been suspended and protests and gatherings banned, she says.
"The country found itself in a clampdown. Press censorship was imposed.
Some newspapers fell in line immediately; a few resisted for a while," Gandhi says.
In recounting the Emergency years, the former Congress president also speaks, perhaps for the first time, about her brother-in-law Sanjay who died in a plane crash in 1980 at the age of 33.
"A great deal has been written, true and false, about the Emergency and Sanjay's part in the turbulent events of that time that he was concerned about losing Maruti, or that he feared for his political future. Whatever his faults may have been, Sanjay was no coward. He was in fact without fear to the point of being reckless, and -- as subsequent events showed -- he had enough courage in him to face any situation and to fight his way back to political leadership," she says.
"What is undeniable, however, is that he had a significant role in decision-making during the Emergency period, despite lacking a constitutional locus standi for some of his political interventions," Gandhi says in her book.
Noting that Sanjay launched a "Five Point Programme" which aimed to address social evils like dowry, caste discrimination, and illiteracy, and to support family planning, tree planting, and urban renovation, she says the programmes were being carried out by the Youth Congress. Many of their members, eager to find favour with Sanjay, were rough and aggressive.
"The item on Sanjay's agenda that was to have the weightiest consequences was the one relating to family planning, a programme poorly conceived and callously carried out Government officials were offered incentives to meet sterilisation targets," she says. "Sanjay's removal of slums and urban encroachments in cities, in Delhi in particular, and the manner of their implementation, too, caused bitter resentment and anger," she recounts.
Gandhi also says that Rajiv had felt that his mother was pressured by Sanjay's "strident approach to political issues, and we could see that it came from her feeling politically cornered and alone".
"He used to report to her complaints or feedback from passengers that he'd hear during his journeys as a pilot, but she'd listen quietly, without offering comment. If there were documents to support the complaint, she'd direct them to her office -- but there was never any response. That was the case in numerous instances. Our friends would speak to us freely about what they had come to know and observe, but that too, was ignored when we communicated it."
Noting that Sanjay's name had become synonymous with the Emergency, Sonia Gandhi says he was just 30 years old, "a man in a hurry".
Sanjay was impatient with the slow workings of the bureaucracy and made his views known, even if they could have been construed as being critical of the prime minister, according to the book.
Gandhi also recalled that her husband Rajiv had not hesitated to caution his brother, in many instances at the cost of being rebuffed.
"While earlier the brothers had been almost inseparable, things had begun to change a few months after Sanjay's marriage. When his wife was present, Sanjay was no longer relaxed and affectionate as he'd always been with us.
"A common friend had told Rajiv that Maneka had insinuated in the course of a conversation that he was jealous of Sanjay. That comment had hurt and disturbed him," she says.
Rajiv became more cautious and he no longer asked his brother questions, nor did he report to him what he was hearing, Gandhi says.
"Maneka might misread his intention and further her accusation against him of being jealous or disloyal. But he continued to convey to his mother what he felt she ought to know," she says. "It became apparent to us that Indira Gandhi was now increasingly disturbed by the reports she was receiving."
"... What she had intended as a temporary measure to contain an assault on a legitimate government had gone too far, and its unintended consequences were there for her to see," she says.
Gandhi writes that Indira realised that it had become an imposition on the people, and they had turned against it -- and indeed, against her.
"Sometime after Christmas in 1976 she spoke to Rajiv about her doubts.
Rajiv's presence had a soothing effect on his mother. His effort now was to encourage her to take the path she seemed inclined to follow.
"When one evening we were with her in her study, he felt she wanted perhaps to unburden herself and asked her. 'You look worried, Ma; what's troubling you??' She was tired, she declared. She'd had enough. She had carried the burden for too long things were not good. Pained to see her so dejected, he tried to draw her out. 'I've asked someone to look into the elections,' she said. 'What do you think?' Rajiv answered that elections would have a pacifying effect, even though in all probability they'd go against the party."
Gandhi, however, points out that Sanjay was convinced that the Emergency shouldn't be lifted yet.
On January 18, 1977, Indira Gandhi took the whole country by surprise and announced that political prisoners would be set free and elections would be held a month later.