Sanjay Gandhi: India's rising political phenomenon

He is at best a symbol of the new emerging youth power of the Indian sub-continent - 65 per cent of the country's 610 million today are between the ages of 16-24 - at the helm of a generation born and raised in an independent sovereign republic. At the same time he combines with his youthful zest, a sharp political insight and a basic awareness of the problems and challenges that face the country.

D. R. Rajagopal, a foreign correspondent based in Hong Kong, has had the particular privilege of observing and writing about Sanjay Gandhi for some years. In this special article he contributes some interesting insights on Sanjay Gandhi in all his multi-facted roles.

Significantly and happily, Sanjay Gandhi today has leapt out of his wings - his natural habitat, the automobile workshop/assembly line plant - and raced to the centre-stage of the Indian political theatre. He has won this prize-race within a span of 12 months, or, even less. Characteristically, he has run fast to reach the front-lines. And after a triumphant sprint, he has maintained his position in the forefront.

Sanjay Gandhi, at 29, is a young man in a hurry.

He doesn't - although he justifiably could - look back in anger at the political morass which had begun to pockmark India just over a year ago. If at all he does look back, it is only with relief and pride at the swift political turn-around in the Indian subcontinent. But then, he is a born optimist. He exudes hope and supreme self-confidence about the shape of things to come.

As the national emergency, which honey-combs the nation, has assumed political, legal, economic, administrative and judicial clout, Sanjay Gandhi has come far away from the obscurity of a political neophyte. He is esconced today in a position of political leadership which comes naturally to him. He is in the key-slot of authority: both political and organizational.

Sanjay Gandhi shuns power; at least he shies away from all seats of power or positions vested with power. Nor has he stormed the hustings as a candidate. Yet he has been incredibly active, politically. His involvement has been deep, sustained and inextricable in the political stockades of India. Hardly glib-tongued or didactic or blase, he has shown both grit and political intrepidity - characteristic of the Nehrus - in meeting head-on the harsh and distressing economic and social realities of India today. He is certainly no political ostrich in the sand.

Practical and endowed with a puritan seriousness of purpose, he has both the initiative and hard-headedness to toil for immediate results in his assault on poverty. He is actually aware and extremely sensitive to the galling contrast between arrogant wealth and grinding poverty, which bedevils the country today, even three decades after independence.

With accurate perception, Sanjay Gandhi has realized that the problems, challenges, and prospects of the future of India lie significantly with the millions of young men and women. Is, then, Sanjay Gandhi an ideologue ? An idealist ? An intellectual ?

Sanjay Gandhi is an idealist, but he is no ideologue. He does not believe in or subscribe to any ideology. He skirts all isms of the right, left or centre. His only "ideology" which he firmly believes in, is to work for the "greatest good of the largest number of people possible." He is a non-intellectual, unlike his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, whose academic background was marked by Eton, Harrow and Cambridge.

But he is a visionary in his own right. He is down-to-earth, introspective, and hard-as-nails in his approach to life. He comes down to brasstacks instantly. And he has the talent and temperament that is vital and right for the hard and overwhelming task he has volunteered for.

Sanjay Gandhi's paramount passion is to mould and lead the youth of India. As a catalyst he is a vital and necessary political bromide to organize Indian youth. Appropriately, large numbers of Indian young men and women have increasingly gravitated towards Sanjay Gandhi. They have all gravitated for a reason. And they remain with him for a reason.

So what does this extraordinarily energetic and highly self-driven young person need most now? Perhaps only a well-organized and closely integrated, though small, battery of disciplined and dedicated young men and women, who too, are endowed with the same degree of vision, passion and compassion that he has. For, these attributes have to be dovetailed to other essentials: talent, competence and diligence, which the leaders of the Youth Congress possess.

Significantly, the political stockades - where most of rural India lives and struggles - have enabled Sanjay Gandhi to grow politically. His proselytization has been quick because he is equally quick to learn. His grasp of any subject, which either interests or fascinates him, is thorough. He is eager, anxious, and above all sharp. His pace is mercurial. Today the cardinal element responsible for the political growth of this new young political star, are undoubtedly the grass-root masses, whom he has pledged to serve. At 29, Sanjay Gandhi's capacity of efficient organization, comes to him naturally. Therefore, he has been able to outline his own multiple-point programme of action.

His programme has proved so very unexceptionable, that the Prime Minister, during the last AICC session in New Delhi, suggested that the 20-point national economic programme could even borrow a few points from it. The two programmes almost complement each other. The two programmes constitute two vital pillars of the national, political, economic, social and psychological platform. Sanjay Gandhi's campaign style has been direct - persuasion is the key word. His programme is based on the sturdy commonsense of the hardy and self-sacrificing Indian peasant.

He has a natural ability to be drawn almost involuntarily to what is genuine and real, amidst situations he faces or people he encounters, or aides or colleagues he deals with, daily. It is easy for him, therefore, to detect anything spurious or meretricious or dishonest among his colleagues or his chosen aides or advisers. Basically, however, he tends to keep his own counsel.

Even for those who have seen him only through his photographs-always dressed in his informal though immaculate style: open-necked long white kurta and white pyjamas - Sanjay Gandhi unconsciously presents a definite image.

In his ceaseless campaign for the success of his multiple-point programme, Sanjay Gandhi presents a profound ethical sense with regard to its implementation. The Youth Congress is abounding in promise, at its source. At its source is Sanjay Gandhi. And, he spearheads its multi-faceted battle in winning over the hearts and minds of the younger generation of India. His stewardship and political ballast to the Youth Congress have enabled the young to believe in and practise self-reliance.

Of course, Sanjay Gandhi is a young and a new politician in a land saddled for long with many aged and ageing leaders, political stalwarts, veterans of many political parties. But he is absolutely conscious of the awesome responsibility he shoulders as the unchallenged leader of Indian youth.

Nonetheless, Sanjay Gandhi might possibly face a hard choice in the future: the lack of efficiency and speed in the effective nationwide implementation of his multiple-point programme, if the Youth Congress - its elite and its lower echelons - were to drag its feet even slightly, and thereby procrastinate in the task of grappling with reality.

And that reality, as he knows better than any other leader of the Youth Congress is that 40 per cent of Indians, 610 million people still exist today beneath the poverty belt. Therefore, the twin programmes - the Prime Minister's and his - should prove triumphant, within the time-scale assigned.

Perhaps the best and the greatest inheritance Sanjay Gandhi could have from his mother, the Prime Minister, and his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, is their motto: "Consciousness of duty performed conscientiously."

EXCERPTS FROM A RECENT INTERVIEW

What strikes me as most significant is that young people everywhere in India are anxious to do something. But I have also felt that they are not quite clear in their mind as to what they should do. Now obviously this is not the first time when young people have felt this enthusiasm. On many occasions our youth has displayed this fervour - this willingness to do things.

But unfortunately nobody came forth to suggest to them what they should do and, naturally, after some time, the enthusiasm flagged and the young people busied themselves in sundry tasks. Today again one sees a new movement, a new desire and it appears that the young people of the country wish to achieve something - if only someone would tell them what that something should be, I am sure our youth would accomplish the task assigned willingly and happily.

On youth participation in the affairs of the country in the last two decades.

For the last 20 years, political parties had a one-way relationship with the youth - of exploiting them for political gains but denying them their due. I think it would be difficult to imagine such callous exploitation of the youth by the aged in any other region in the world.

One expects that the older generation would guide the younger one to constructive activities but most of the so-called stalwarts in our country vied with each other in misleading the youth. Indian youth became the most exploited section of our society. But now the atmosphere and the circumstances have changed.

One can discern rays of hope on the changed horizon. If things go on developing the way they are, Indian youth would be more and more drawn towards constructive programmes and plans. I understand that many young men and women are coming forward to join Youth Congress.

I am not surprised. It is only natural. The vast majority of our youth is sober and idealistic. It looks forward to an era of disciplined, planned, constructive activity. One can now begin to look forward to an era of nation-building and consolidation.

On how the energies of Indian youth should be harnessed in the task of rational construction?

I am afraid that we in India worry too much about the 'how' of things. What interests me is the problem of availability of enough and suitable work for as many young men and women as possible. We have to convince our youth that the nation does not need the white-collared class only. We have to find work for the rural young people in the village itself and stop the exodus to the cities. And what is most important, we have to persuade our youth that no job is lowly if it is done honestly and efficiently.

On the role of young industrialists, lawyers, teachers, intellectuals, and other professional young men in the country's progress.

Almost all professional people and intellectuals have got concentrated in cities. In fact rural India and urban India have become two civilizations mutually alien and, perhaps, hostile to each other. The villager is suspicious and afraid of the city babu and the latter looks down upon the former as an inconvenient reminder of what he could have been.

One can see the professionals and intellectuals talking to their rural brethren with an amused and condescending smile. They forget that but for the toiling rural masses all their professional training and erudition would collapse like a castle of cards.

Young professional people and intellectuals, I am happy to say, are much more broad-minded than their older counterparts. They should visit the villages periodically and examine the seemingly small and insignificant things. A beginning can be made by assisting rural masses in their small problems. Little things combine to make great accomplishments.

-Courtesy Young March