Job Name:2102087 Date:14-12-30 PDF Page:2102087pbc.p1.pdf Color: Cyan Magenta Yellow Black The American Enterprise Institute f,or Public Policy Research, established in 1943, is a publicly supported, nonpartisan, research and educational organization. Its purpose is to assist policy makers, scholars, businessmen, fhe press, and the public by providing objective analysis of national and international issues. Views expressed in the institute's publications are those of the authors and do not neces­ sarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AE!. Council of Academic Advisers Paul W. McCracken, Chainnan, Edmund Ezra Day University Professor of Busi­ ness Ad111inistration, University of Michigan Kenneth W. Dam, Harold 7. and Marion F. Green Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School Milton Friedman, Paul Snowden Russell Distinguished Service Professor of Eco­ nOlnics, University of Chicago; Nobel Laureate in Economic Science Donald C. 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Pranger, Bruce Palmer, Jr., Co-Editors Robert B. Helms, Health Policy Studies AEI Economist, Herbert Stein, Thomas F. Johnson, Econ0111ic Policy Studies Editor Marvin H. Kosters/James C. Miller III, Public Opinion, Seymour Martin Govennnent Regulation Studies Lipset, Ben J. Wattenberg, Co­ W. S. Moore, Legal Policy Studies Editors; David R. Gergen, Rudolph G. Penner, Tax Policy Studies Managing Editor Howard R. Penniman/Austin Ranney, Regulation, Anne Brunsdale, Political and Social Processes Editor Robert J. Pranger, Foreign and Defense William J. Baroody, Sr., Policy Studies Counsellor and Chairman, Laurence H. Silberman, Special Projects Development Conzmittee INDIA AT THE POLLS INDIA AT THE POL~ The Parliamentary Elections of19n Myron Weiner American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Washington, D.C. Distributed to the Trade by National Book Network, 15200 NBN Way, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214. To order call toll free 1-800-462-6420 or 1-717-794-3800. For all other inquiries please contact the AEI Press, 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 or call 1-800-862-5801. Myron Weiner is Ford Professor of Political Science and a senior staff member of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All photographs in this book were taken by the author. library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Weiner, Myron. India at the polls. (AEI studies; 202) Includes bibliogaphical references and index. 1. Elections-India. 2. India-Politics and government-1947- 1. Title. II. Series: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. AEI studies ; 202. JQ292.W44 329'.023'5405 78-15030 ISBN 0-8447-3304-0 AEI studies 202 © 1978 by American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. Permission to quote from or to reproduce materials in this publication is granted when due acknowledgment is made. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. Printed in the United States of America To Ajit and Lakshmi CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Background to the Emergency 4 The Decision to Hold Parliamentary Elections 7 The Nation Reacts 12 PART ONE: THE CAMPAIGN 2 THE CAMPAIGN GETS UNDER WAY 21 Meetings and Media 21 Janata Mobilizes 28 3 THE GOVERNMENT'S EXCESSES 35 The Sterilization Issue 35 Slum Clearance and the Muslim Reaction 39 IIActs of Highhandedness" 41 Last-Minute Attempts to Recoup 47 4 REGIONAL PATTERNS 49 Close-up on Tamil Nadu 49 The Communists and the Campaign in West Bengal 51 Other Regional Parties 54 5 NEW DELHI: THE RETURNS COME IN 57 PART TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS 6 THE ELECTION RETURNS 67 Regional Variations 69 Urban/Rural Voting Patterns 74 Reserved Constituencies 82 Turnout 85 7 THE ELECTIONS AND THE PARTY SYSTEM 89 A Two-Party System? 89 The Emergence of a New National Party 95 8 EPILOGUE 99 A Restoration Government 99 Political Consolidation 100 The Two Faces of Congress 103 New Directions 107 APPENDIXES A. Proclamation of Emergency 115 B. The Twenty-Point Economic Program 117 C. Sanjay Gandhi's Five-Point Program 119 D. A Letter from Jail 120 E. Reaffirming the Power of the People 122 F. Revolt from Within 125 G. The Congress Party Manifesto 129 H. The Janata Party Manifesto 134 I. A Call for Total Revolution 141 INDEX 145 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to the Center for International Studies at the Massa­ chusetts Institute of Technology for funding my trip to India, espe­ cially on such short notice; to the officials of the Indian government who granted me a visa though they were aware of my hostility to the emergency; to numerous friends in Bombay, Hyderabad, Madras, Calcutta, and Delhi who made local arrangements for me; to my research assistants, Nikhil Desai and Robert Berrier, who helped prepare materials for the statistical analyses; to Professor Paul Brass for his editorial suggestions; and to the American Enterprise Institute for inviting me to write this small but I hope useful account of an event that was important not only for India but for the contemporary world. ANDAMAN ISLANDS .'.0, LACCADIVE ISLANDS '0· STATE MAP OF INDIA 1 Introduction The Indian parliamentary elections of March 1977 brought to an end thirty years of Congress party rule, eleven years of government under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi, and twenty-one months of an emergency that had set the nation on an authoritarian course. If, instead of elections, a violent upheaval had marked this turning point, we might be writing about India's "democratic revolution./I As it is, we are concerned with an extraordinary, even historic, set of events: An authoritarian government that appeared to be well entrenched called a genuinely free election, permitted political parties to openly seek electoral support, ended press restrictions, released the bulk of political prisoners from jail, and politically neutralized the police and civil administration. Not only that, but when it lost the election, the government quietly stepped down. This is all the more remarkable in that it happened at a time when most observers were sadly concluding that democracy had been premature in the Third World. But then political developments in India have rarely been in step with those in other developing countries. From August 1947, when India became independent, to June 26, 1975, when Prime Minister Gandhi declared the national emergency, India was one of a handful of developing countries where the political process was open and competitive. Freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, competitive parties, honest elections, and a genuine respect for human rights prevailed, and neither the military nor the police played an inde­ pendent political role-a rarity in the Third World. A single party, the Indian National Congress, or Congress party, dominated the polit­ icallife of the country. Founded in 1885, the Congress party was the oldest political party in Asia and one of the oldest and largest non­ Communist political parties in the world. India's great national lead­ ers-Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Surendranath 1 TABLE 1 CONGRESS PARTY RESULTS IN SIX PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS, 1952-1977 Seats Vote Election (in percentages) Number Percentage 1952 45.0 357 73 1957 47.8 359 73 1962 44.7 358 73 1967 40.7 279 54 1971 43.6 352 68 1977 34.5 153 28 SOURCE: Press Information Bureau, General Election 1977, Reference Hand Book, New Delhi, 1977. Banerjea, MotHal Nehru, Mohandas Gandhi, Chitaranjan Das, Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel-were all leading figures in the Indian National Congress. Under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, Congress had become a mass-based movement with popular rural as well as urban support. The Congress organization reached into most of the provinces and districts of British India so that by 1947 it was virtually a parallel authority to the British raj. With Jawaharlal Nehru (Indira Gandhi's father) as the independ­ ent country's first prime minister, Congress leaders took charge of the central and state governments in 1947. The Constituent Assembly, which wrote India's Constitution, was largely made up of Congress­ men (as members of the Congress party are called). In the country's first national elections based on universal adult suffrage in 1952, the Congress party swept to victory both in the national Parliament (Lok Sabha) and in the state assemblies. And in each of the parliamentary elections that followed every five years, the Congress party emerged with a clear majority of seats (see Table 1).1 Opposition parties did flourish and from time to time some of these won control over state governments, municipalities, and other local bodies. Moreover, the Congress party itself embraced a variety 1 For an account of the role of the Congress party since independence, how it won electoral support, and how the party functioned at the local level, see Myron Weiner, Party Building in a New Nation: The Indian National Congress (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967).