The Mute Observer : Beta

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi or Indira as she is fondly remembered now showed us what female empowerment was all about. She portrayed Durga, Lakshmi and Kali all at once. She was Goddess to some and daughter to others, all in all Indira was a born leader. She brought about the Green Revolution, women empowerment and family planning but the leader that she was didn’t allow her to lose – even if the people’s verdict was different. The avarice got the better of her in the later years as she was accused of note for vote scams, embezzlement of govt.  funds for party use and manipulation of electoral votes.

As I mentioned in the previous part, Emergency was one dark spot in an otherwise clean democracy of our nation. Indira betrayed us all, our faith and trust. Poetic justice, as it is often referred to, she had to pay for that.  On October 31, 1984, two of her bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, killed her to avenge the military attack on the Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple), often referred to as Operation Blue Star. Good or bad but she ever was our ‘Indira’, mistakes do happen but you want your family member to get back on the right track. I was into my later 30s by then and had a flourishing Kirana shop, partly because of my full support to the ruling party. The best thing that this era did was to regularise corruption; by regularising I don’t mean to say that it was brought down to a lower level but that it became a regular practice, the raised voices were extirpated and we became acquainted with terms like ‘hafta ‘, ‘peti’ and ‘khokha’. Mine was a flourishing business because of my regular payment of hafta, and yearly payment of petis for the ‘welfare’ of government.

My son Aakash got thrilled by the slightest sight of an aeroplane tearing the bright blue sky. He wanted to be a pilot, an astronaut or a bird – anything that could fly high, anything that had no limits. In a hero - worshipping country he found his. Rajeev Gandhi it was, an Indian Airlines pilot and the prince of the nation. In a time when the nation needed a real time hero Rajeev came to the helm, harsh to say and hard to believe,  not because of his leadership skills but primarily for his connection with the ‘great’ Nehru-Gandhi family.  Rajeev connected with the youth instantly; he had the charm of simplicity and the exuberance of youth. He brought about a change in the thinking of the nation,’ progress’ was the word. People began to believe that change was indeed possible. Along with Satyendra Nath Pitroda ( now famously known as Sam Pitroda), he brought about the biggest change in the post-independence era – the telecom revolution. All you kids get mobiles as soon as you strike high school; in our times we had to make trunk calls through the operator at charges that would match the prevalent Uranium prices. People who had telephone in their house were considered to be ‘galactically’ rich. Govt. Officers who had a telephone were raided.  Rajeev Gandhi changed it all. The Govt unleashed a hoard of policies for the telecom sector as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd became a big player in the Indian market. It enjoyed monopoly but it was bearable, at least better than the times when you had to wait for years to get a telephone connection. Aakash called me for the first time when I was in Punjab for wheat wholesale, I felt divine.

Rajeev was a role model, a charmer and a visionary. We began to envision of times when India would be a superpower, rather than of times when everyone would have the basic needs fulfilled. Apart from my son and my Dad I became a Rajeev fan too. Then there was news of some tank and some company Bofors, of a middle aged man Qwatrochi and my son asked,” Dad did Rajeev Gandhi actually do all that?” “Nah beta! It’s all opposition’s stunt for they are left with nothing but false allegations”, I said, having sincere faith on Rajeev. Bofors scam, as it is referred to, later, turned out to be one of the greatest scams to hit the country.

My son once asked me, “Dad, if India was so great a country, how come rulers from lesser known nations invaded it from time to time?”  It made me think and realize that no invader ever had won a battle without local help; Alexander did that, Mohammad Ghori plundered Indian temples from time to time, Lord Clive followed suit. We have been the eternal termites that withered away our own great Indian Banyan tree.

The govt did a great deal to ensure that ‘Swaraj’ and ‘Swadeshi’ remained the buzzwords till late 1980s but in this global world it was impossible to remain aloof for long. Rajeev Gandhi was the first man who talked about globalisation and on getting its meaning from the leaders across the nation, I was scared to death. They said that the foreign companies would kill the small businesses while piling money by crores, monopolistic practices would be the order of the day and the nation itself would disintegrate. I was least bothered about the nation to be honest, but the fact that they would take over all kinds of businesses sent a shiver down my spine.

This world is no place for good men; I don’t intend to pass a judgement but Rajeev seemed like a breath of fresh air, he had the spirit for change. Rajeev Feroz Gandhi had to pay for sending troops to Sri-Lanka by losing his life to a human-bomb. The nation mourned for its son, while reformers mourned for the end of it all. After two failed coalitions, the nation again voted for the Congress party and Narsimbha Rao it was who came to the fore. What happened after that is one of the most talked about and crucial phase in the development of our country. It’s time for some sleep for this old man now. Take careJ.

P.S.: I am extremely sorry for such a late post; my age, as you might have wondered has been causing problems and my writer Akshay is such a lazy person! I’ll post the next part soon. Keep reading....Hush-hush!