Indira’s coup against herself

While I still share the pain B N Tandon felt over the events that led to the Emergency, I maintain that the mistakes were not unilateral,
says H Y Sharada Prasad

Autobiographies and diaries provide valuable source materials for historians. But the busiest actors on the political scene rarely have the time to note down, before they go to bed, what they did and thought during the day. The two most famous political autobiographies of our own country, those of Gandhi and Nehru, were written much before they fought their greatest battles. The British provided them enforced rest to do the job by locking them up in jail. As for diaries, it is significant that the best ones, which are full of facts and insights—Campbell Johnson's Mission with Mountbatten and N K Bose's Noakhali Diary—are the work of aides, not protagonists.

Autobiographies, by their very nature, cannot be objective. But a diary has to stand published as it is recorded, with minimal editing and rewriting. Many judgments might prove wrong, many fears might prove unfounded, and many important developments may go unanticipated.

An important addition to this category of participant-observer accounts is B N Tandon's PMO Diaries. Bishan Narain Tandon was a senior official in Indira Gandhi's Secretariat. He was greatly disturbed at the growing estrangement between Indira Gandhi and Jayaprakash Narayan. With the foreboding that a head-on collision would occur , Tandon decided to maintain a diary. He did this from November 1, 1974, till July 24, 1976, when he left the Prime Minister's Secretariat.

Tandon's diaries add up to 1,000 pages. The first volume, which came out four years ago, brings the story up to August 15, 1975, and gives a detailed account of the proclamation of the Emergency. The second volume has just appeared (PMO Diary–II: The Emergency, by B N Tandon, Konark Publishers, pp 452).

Surprisingly, when the first volume appeared, it did not create the expected sensation. The reason is not hard to understand. It came out too late, long after the image of Indira Gandhi had changed from that of malefactor to that of martyr. Several polls have shown that she was among the most admired Indians; quite a few have rated her even ahead of her father.

But that is not the impression she left on one of her own aides who enjoyed a high reputation for integrity. The first time I saw B N Tandon was when he, as the deputy commissioner, registered the marriage of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi. I had the privilege of working with him and I retain a high regard for his integrity and intellect. I have been referred to at several places in the book. I shared, and still share, the pain he felt at the series of missed chances that led to the Emergency.

But even today I maintain that the mistakes were not unilateral. The opposition parties cannot be exculpated. The trouble is with the unresolved issue of the place of satyagraha in a Parliamentary democracy. All governments, whether colonial or autonomous, react the same way when their existence or legitimacy is questioned. Second, we have to examine the appropriateness of the judgment of J M L Sinha. Would it be right to say that Mrs Gandhi's election was a result of corrupt practices, just because her election agent, Yashpal Kapoor, had not resigned in time? Did it materially alter Mrs Gandhi's electoral chances? Could she not have won on her own?
Events moved fast. Emergency was declared. It can perhaps be described as a ‘Coup Against Her Own Prime Ministership’!! Her secretariat, the home ministry, the cabinet, and indeed her government as a whole, were deprived of their effective power, and the prime minister herself was made a prisoner of the ‘Palace Guard’. Tandon's diaries throw light on the chain reaction of misjudgment. Yet, it comes as a surprise how little this man knew who knew so much. Who drew up the lists of those who were to be arrested? Who issued these orders? The cabinet secretary, the home secretary, the PM's principal secretary, and the joint secretary in her office (Tandon himself) were all in the dark.

The one substantial gain from the Emergency is that Mrs Gandhi has ensured that it cannot be imposed again. But I am not sure that the defences against this happening have been built up in the past 25 years. It sometimes strikes me that one reason why the electorate, in the post-Rajiv Gandhi era, will not give a clear majority to any one party, and prefers coalition governments, is precisely to avoid such a contingency.

One final comment: B N Tandon worked in the ‘Prime Minister's Secretariat’ and not the ‘Prime Minister's Office’. PMS was changed to PMO by the Janata government. Shouldn't a person known for his accuracy have taken care of this in the title?