Indira Gandhi to Manmohan Singh: How Prime Ministers Decided for India

Veteran journalist Neerja Chowdhury is one of India’s finest political reporters and commentators. An award-winning journalist, she has been covering political developments in the country for nearly five decades. She has provided eye-opening accounts of how some of the most important political decisions in independent India were taken by various prime ministers. Her first and latest book, How Prime Ministers Decide, is based on her first-hand information or straight from the horse’s mouth. She covered the tenures of six prime ministers, namely Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, V. P. Singh, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh from 1975 to 2014.

A prolific writer, she meticulously tells the story of the functioning of the country’s prime ministers in a lucid way through the prism of six decisions of historic significance.

These are as follows: the strategy that Indira Gandhi adopted in breaking the Janata Party in 1979 and returning to power in 1980, after her humiliating defeat in 1977; the error of judgement on the part of Rajiv Gandhi to undo the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Shah Bano case, and his parleys with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders eventually paving the way for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to come to power; V.P. Singh’s implementation of the Mandal Commission report to save his government which changed the face of contemporary politics; P.V. Narasimha Rao’s decision that resulted in the demolition of the Babri Masjid; the rapidly changing political scenarios that turned the avowed pacifist Atal Bihari Vajpayee into a nuclear hawk who greenlighted the testing of nuclear devices; and the mild professor Manmohan Singh, widely regarded as one of the country’s weakest prime ministers, who defied interest groups and foes within the political establishment to seal a historic nuclear deal with the United States.

Indira Gandhi and underhand dealings with the RSS  

The book’s first chapter starts with Indira Gandhi with the title, “The Secular Prime Minister Who Undermined Secularism”. Chowdhury writes, “Indira Gandhi was a Hindu first and a Hindu last.” She writes that the RSS had made overtures to Gandhi all through the Emergency. RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had written to her several times. Some RSS leaders had reached out to Sanjay Gandhi through Kapil Mohan. Now, in 1977, she would have to see how to respond. “But she would have to play this one very carefully,” Chowdhury writes.”Just as the RSS brass had reached out to her for help, she too used the RSS for her purposes – but carefully kept a distance between the organisation and herself. For all her opposition to the RSS, she had managed to get it to support the Emergency.”

Gandhi was also described as a great usurper and a true proponent of Machiavellian politics who used not only her left-socialist friends in her own party to fight with the old syndicate in 1969, but opposition parties and RSS as well. The RSS was full of praise for her during the Bangladesh war, which resulted in the division of Pakistan in 1971, and fully supported her on her comeback to power in 1980. The RSS also supported her during the 1983 Jammu & Kashmir state assembly elections and after her death in 1984 to the Congress party, led by her son Rajiv Gandhi. In that election, the BJP was almost wiped out and got only two Lok Sabha seats. Even the tallest leader of the BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost badly in Gwalior.

Also read: With the Creation of Bangladesh, a Longstanding Dream of the RSS Was Achieved

Neerja Chowdhury provides insights into how Gandhi benefitted from the infighting within the Janata Party during 1977-79, and how she used her non-political contacts like Kapil Mohan of Mohan Mekins beverages (makers of Old Monk Rum and Golden Eagle Beer) and his nephew Anil Bali to woo rebel Raj Narain to break the Janata Party. She also writes about how Sanjay Gandhi used to meet Raj Narain at Kapil Mohan’s Pusa Road house in New Delhi. According to her, Gandhi’s close aide Anil Bali – whom she quoted in her book extensively – “The RSS helped Indira Gandhi come to power in 1980.”

“She knew the RSS had supported her but she never acknowledged it publicly. She used to admit privately that had it not been for the support by the RSS, she could not have won 353 seats, one more than she had won in her heyday in 1971,” Bali claims. He adds that “increased temple going was not lost” on the RSS leadership.

“RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras had once remarked during the course of a conversation, ‘Indira Gandhi bahut badi Hindu hai’ (Indira Gandhi is a staunch Hindu). Balasaheb Deoras and his brother saw in Indira Gandhi a potential leader of the Hindus,” Bali is quoted as saying.

The soon-to-be-launched book, published by Aleph Book Company, also says the RSS in 1971 praised Indira Gandhi for hiving off Bangladesh and weakening Pakistan. But the book also claims that in 1980, BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was trying to secularise his image while Indira Gandhi was trying to Hinduise the face of the Congress.

“The then RSS chief Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji, wrote to her, ‘The biggest measure of credit for this achievement goes to you.’ In 1974, she won the RSS’s admiration again for exploding the nuclear device – the RSS had always advocated a militarily strong India,” it says.

After coming back to power in 1980, she did sense unhappiness amongst Muslims about the Congress. However, she still wanted to “Hinduise her politics” fully aware of the fact that a silent nudge from the RSS or even a neutral stand by them towards her might help in her political journey, says Chowdhury in the book. And this was the reason she asked her son Rajiv Gandhi to cultivate contacts and relations with RSS.

The book says, “Although RSS had reached out to Indira, she refused to meet its leaders during the Emergency or in its immediate aftermath. But in 1982, halfway into her term, she asked Rajiv to meet Bhaurao Deoras, the brother of RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras, and open a dialogue with him. The meetings were fixed by Kapil Mohan. Bhaurao was then looking after the political wing of the RSS”.

“Rajiv met Bhaurao thrice between 1982-84, when Indira Gandhi was still PM, and once in early 1991, when he was out of power. The first meeting was held in September 1982 at the 46, Pusa Road residence of Kapil Mohan. The second meeting also took place at Pusa Road, the third one was held at Anil Bali’s residence in Friends Colony. The fourth meeting was held at 10, Janpath,” the book says.

“After he became prime minister, Rajiv did not meet Bhaurao. But they remained in touch. Halfway into his term, the RSS had made a request to Rajiv to facilitate the telecasting of the Ramayana serial by Ramanand Sagar on Doordarshan – it had run into hurdles. Congress leader H K L Bhagat, later to become minister for Information and Broadcasting, was alarmed when Rajiv mentioned the RSS request to him; he warned Rajiv that it would open Pandora’s box – and generate a climate in favour of the BJP-VHP-RSS-led Ram Janmabhoomi movement… Rajiv did not pay heed to Bhagat’s apprehensions.”

Rajiv Gandhi and quid pro quo politics

While the book reveals several previously unknown details about what transpired behind the scenes that led to the Rajiv Gandhi government’s decision to bring a Bill to negate the Supreme Court’s order in the Shah Bano case, one anecdote stands out.

“Rajiv, if you can’t convince me about this Muslim Women’s Bill, how are you going to convince the country?” Sonia asked Rajiv, according to D.P. Tripathi, the late Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader who was then a member of Rajiv’s inner circle. “You must stand by the Supreme Court judgment,” she told him. “This Sonia said in my presence (sic),” the book quotes Tripathi as saying.

In fact, undoing the Shah Bano judgement of the Supreme Court through a constitutional amendment bill by parliament was a quid pro quo for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It was the Rajiv Gandhi government who opened the locks of Babri Masjid through a Faizabad court and televised it on national television Doordarshan on February 1, 1986. In 1989, it was the Rajiv Gandhi government who struck a deal with VHP to do shilanyas (foundation stone) at the disputed site in Ayodhya through his home minister Buta Singh and then Uttar Pradesh chief minister N.D. Tiwari.

V.P. Singh and the new wave of political polarisation 

After Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, the third chapter of the book is about V.P. Singh who became prime minister after the Congress party was routed in the 1989 general elections. Although this chapter begins with how Singh was elected prime minister on December 1, 1989, through the Janata Dal parliamentary party meeting in the Central Hall of Parliament by maneuvers, deceit, and diplomacy of Arun Nehru, it also provides information about Singh’s politics after his exit from the Congress party and the subsequent formation of Janmorcha and Janata Dal, the National Front, and the formation of his short-lived government with the support of right-wing BJP and Left front communist parties.

After eight months of forming his government, Singh sacked deputy prime minister Devi Lal, signalling the beginning of the end for his government. To counter Devi Lal’s politics, he suddenly announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission report, which recommended 27% of reservations in government jobs for the OBC and backward castes. This report was submitted to the President in December 1980 but was in ‘cold storage’ during the Congress governments throughout the 1980s following which VP Singh suddenly announced its implementation. This pandora’s box opened a new chapter in Indian politics – polarisation on the basis of religion and caste, upper castes versus backward castes, Mandal versus Kamandal, and Mandir versus Masjid – paved the way for BJP to emerge as a big political force in the country.

Narasimha Rao and temple politics 

The fourth chapter of the book is about P.V. Narasimha Rao and how he presided over the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The book captures, in vivid detail, the sequence of events that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. It mentions a meeting journalist Nikhil Chakravartty had with Rao days after the demolition. The two had been friends.

“I heard you were doing puja after twelve o’clock on December 6,’’ Chakravartty teased Rao. A stung Rao shot back at Chakravartty, “Dada, you think I don’t know politics. I was born in rajniti (politics) and I have only been doing politics till today. Jo hua voh theek hua…. (What happened, happened for good.) Maine is liye hone diya…ki Bharatiya Janata Party ki mandir ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaaye (I allowed it to happen because I wanted the BJP’s temple politics to finish forever).”

Also read: Babri Masjid: The Timeline of a Demolition

Quoting Rao’s then media advisor, P.V.R.K. Prasad, the author says Rao instructed him to create a trust which could build a temple where the mosque had once stood.

“On the Sunday after the demolition (December 13, 1992), Prasad had gone to see Rao. He had found the PM alone and in a reflective mood. ‘We can fight the BJP, but how can we fight Lord Ram?’ he asked Prasad pensively. ‘When we say that the Congress is a secular party, it does not mean we are atheists,’ he went on. ‘How far are they (BJP) justified in hoodwinking people by monopolising Lord Ram under the pretext of constructing a temple in Ayodhya?’

Atal Bihari Vajpayee: Pacifist to nuclear hawk

The fifth chapter of the book is about Atal Bihari Vajpayee and how the once-avowed pacifist turned into a nuclear hawk by greenlighting the testing of nuclear devices in May 1998. According to the book, “In May 1998, India successfully conducted nuclear tests in Pokhran, a crowning glory of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s premiership. But way back in 1979, when he was External Affairs Minister in the Morarji Desai cabinet, Vajpayee had opposed testing.”

Manmohan Singh and the historic nuclear deal 

The sixth and final chapter of the book is about the making of Dr. Manmohan Singh as prime minister in the year 2004 and how the mild professor, widely regarded as one of the country’s weakest prime ministers, defied interest groups and foes within the political establishment to seal a historic nuclear deal with the United States. Remember Singh became prime minister with the support of Left parties, but he betrayed them to strike a nuclear deal with the US.

The book reveals details about a meeting that was held at 10 Janpath in the afternoon on May 17, 2004, paving the way for Manmohan Singh to become PM.

“According to K. Natwar Singh, Sonia, Priyanka Gandhi and Manmohan Singh were present in the room when he reached. She (Sonia) was sitting there on the sofa…. Manmohan Singh and Priyanka (were there as well)… Sonia Gandhi was looking distraught…Then Rahul came in and said in front of all of us, ‘I will not let you become prime minister. My father was assassinated, my Dadi was assassinated. In six months, you will be killed. Rahul threatened to take an extreme step if Sonia did not listen to him. ‘This was no ordinary threat,’ recalled Natwar Singh, ‘Rahul is a strong-willed person. He gave Sonia 24 hours to decide…”

Sonia was in tears after Rahul said he was prepared to “take any possible step to prevent his mother” from taking up the prime ministership. And the rest is history.

On being asked in various interviews why she has not covered Narendra Modi’s tenure and his important decisions which influenced people and politics, Chowdhury says “his term is a work in progress as he works towards a third stint”.

In the epilogue of her book, she explained, “I decided, in the interest of fairness and accuracy, not to include the incumbent prime minister in this book. For one, his term is a work in progress and two, unlike with other prime ministers, what would have been missing with Modi would have been the power of hindsight, the journalist’s sole beacon to illuminate the inner working of a prime minister’s tenure and the PMO.”

But she confessed that “this book will be incomplete without a word about India’s fourteenth and, arguably, its most powerful prime minister seen in the context of his predecessors”.

This book by Chowdhury illustrates how the power of the prime ministers played out under majority rule as well as in a coalition government. According to the author, her book is about power and how it was exercised by those who held the highest public office.

How Prime Ministers Decide is an excellent book about modern Indian politics that views how prime ministers governed the country and how their decisions changed the course of the country’s history.

Qurban Ali is a tri-lingual journalist who has covered some of modern India’s major political, social, and economic developments. He has keenly followed India’s freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country. He can be contacted at qurban100@gmail.com