Many contemporary Indians, bar fans of modern political history, would not have much idea about this legendary political rivalry. But the one between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi was truly legendary. And it was perhaps also for the first time that political rivalry led to personal animosity and name calling. In January 1966, the diminutive but iron willed Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri died suddenly at Tashkent in Soviet Union. A full fledged war of succession broke out in the Congress.
The two strong contenders for the top post were Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. Desai had “contested” even against Shastri in 1964 after the death of Nehru. Though the credentials of Desai appeared stronger, the Congress old guard called The Syndicate put its weight behind “Gungi Gudiya” Indira Gandhi. A bitter and resentful Desai had no choice but to accept and was finance minister in the Indira cabinet. By 1969, Indira fought a scorched earth battle with The Syndicate for control of the Congress and won after splitting the party. She humiliated The Syndicate and her then main political rival Morarji Desai in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections.
In the previous
piece, we wrote about how Indira was hit by the Two Year Itch in 1973. She declared an Emergency and was pummeled and punished by Indian voters in 1977. The Janata Party, an unlikely combination of former Congress leaders, socialists and the erstwhile Jan Sangh which represented the Hindu right.
Morarji got his revenge against Indira and became Prime Minister. There was jubilation and euphoria of the kind you saw in May 2014 when it became clear that Narendra Modi would be the Prime Minister. Morarji Desai and other Janata Party leaders vowed to punish Indira and her son Sanjay Gandhi for excesses committed during the Emergency. But Indira quietly planned and plotted her come back. There were too many internal contradictions and centrifugal forces anyway in the new party. The Jan Sangh backed private business while the “hardline” socialist George Fernandes reveled in throwing Coke and IBM out of India. A master strategist, Indira took full advantage of this and seemed to have quietly fanned the ambitions of the socialist farmer leader from Uttar Pradesh Charan Singh who made no bones about his ambitions to become PM.
Governance suffered as a result of these contradictions and clashing ambitions. Just as Morarji Desai completed two years as Prime Minister, the socialist faction of the party declared war on the Jan Sangh faction. A maverick politician called Raj Narain who had defeated Indira from her constituency Rae Bareilly in 1977 became the public face of the socialists. It appeared to be an ideological war; but was a battle of egos and ambitions. By this time, Indians had started relishing that the Janata Party was more busy fighting internal battles rather than govern. The ham handed manner in which the cases against Indira were handled helped her regain some public sympathy.
It was at this juncture that Indira struck with a vengeance and yet again defeated Morarji Desai. His government was reduced to a minority as the faction led by Charan Singh declared open revolt. Desai had no choice but to resign and Charan Singh became Prime Minister with the support and blessings and Indira and her Congress. Of course, her support lasted just a few weeks and Indira pulled the plug when she was fairly certain that she would win at the hustings. She did storm back to power in 1980.
As for Morarji Desai, he never recovered from the Two Year Itch and went into polite political wilderness till his death.
