The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 21 Goenka’s Chanakya like Tactics
(A humble translation of the original article by Sri S.Gurumurthy , as it had appeared in Thuglak Tamil Magazine) —
https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_24_03_2021.php
Intelligence units, Astrologers — 1977 election
The next election after 1971 — March general election should have happened in 1976-Mar. Indra’s govt by virtue of declaring national emergency had usurped all the powers and extended the legislative life of parliament and state assemblies from 5 years to 6 years. Hence, the general elections were postponed by one year until the end of 1977 — March. Though the TN govt was eligible to continue for one more year, the benefit was not given to TN assembly, since Karunanidhi’s govt was dismissed in 1976 — Jan itself. On top of that, corruption charges were levied on Karunanidhi’s govt and brought under the inquiry of Shah commission. Authoritarian rule during the emergency period completed 18 months in the beginning of 1977. Amidst, details about Satyagraha movement against the authoritarian rule, underground movement had started coming out in the foreign newspapers and that had created huge pressure on Indira’s govt. To suppress the internal aggression, national emergency was declared.
Indira govt’s propaganda about clamping emergency rule on the nation to prevent violent organizations like RSS from disturbing the peace in the country was not bought by most of the foreign governments. Only Soviets were supporting Indira’ govt. In these circumstances, an important question came up in front of Indira’s govt in 1977 — Jan. Then Parliament’s tenure that was extended by one year was about to come to an end in Mar 1977. Whether to continue that or conduct the general election in 1977 was the most important question working in the mind of Indira — if the tenure of then Parliament gets extended by one more year, what would be the impact? If the elections are conducted, what would be the impact? Would congress win? If the tenure needs to be increased what would be the justification shown to the world?
Opposition parties’ view
During the election time, all the opposition parties should unite against Indira. Time was not in their favour. Eighteen months of authoritarian rule had suppressed all forms of protests by the opposition parties. Only news that were heaping praise on Indira, her son Sanjay and govt were released in the mainstream media. Govt released advertisements praising Indira and the state of emergency. Thousands of political workers and RSS workers were in the prison. RSS through a secret movement was the only organization that was running a campaign against Indira’s anarchic rule. Since leaders like Morarji Desai, Nanaji Deshmukh, Advani, Chandirasekhar, Charan singh, Raj Narayanan, Ramakrishna Hegde, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scinidia, Acharya Kriplani were imprisoned, all the political activities & party meetings came to a grinding halt.
Due to news blockade, the party worker does not know which leader was arrested and located in which prison. The connection between the leaders and the party workers got lost. There were no meetings happening between opposition leaders. There was a doubt about opposition parties’ participation in the election and their ability to gain victory.
Related to this, I want to share an incident that happened after announcement of the elections. My memory says, it was 234d Jan 1977. After announcing the elections, Indira had started releasing the prisoners. Advani was reaching Chennai from Bangalore and I had gone to railway station to receive him. A small team from RSS — Jana Sangh met him.
Jana Krishnamurthy had posed a question, “Now the elections are announced. Will the opposition parties unite against Indira?”. Advani’s reply was reflecting the opposition parties’ dilemma. Two questions — whether to participate in the elections and if yes, how to do that. Govt has not withdrawn the state of emergency declaration. Therefore, there would not be fair & free elections. Opposition parties have limited opportunities to win. If the opposition loses and congress wins then Indira would propagate that declaration of emergency, arrest of opposition leaders, excesses during emergency were approved by the people. Else, if the elections were avoided by the opposition then the propaganda would be like that whatever was done by the govt was accepted by the opposition. Advani further elaborated that all the opposition parties would meet in Delhi and take a decision. If such points were made by Advani in a situation, where elections were announced and leaders were released; Then, think of the bleaker times when they were all in prison.
Congress’ viewpoint
Indira congress grew confident after seeing the pathetic state of opposition parties. Limitless money power, constitutional amendments gave more power in the hands of Indira, whole nation was afraid of Indira, Sanjay’ junta, authorities including IT, police were terrorizing the people as per the orders given by Indira. The family members of the thousands of the prisoners were thoroughly devastated. How many of them can contest in election was a big question and their patrons shied away from supporting people. The opposition parties were not able to raise donation. Therefore, Congress was assuming vaingloriously that they would go unopposed in the elections.
‘Third Eye’ Viewpoint
On one side, we had power-drunk congress and on the other hand, we had demoralized opposition parties and its workers. RSS was very strong in Northern India and their view could be considered as the ‘view of 3rd eye’. During the emergency period, they were informed people about the govt excesses — mindless arrests, demolition of houses, forced family planning, dirty dance of Indira-sanjay family. RSS continuously updated the opposition and people about the bad happenings during that period.
Secret movement could gauge the mood of the people, who were overtly afraid of Indira’s govt but covertly opposing her moves. If the elections were conducted, it would lead to the fall of congress and rise of opposition. Eventually, that would lead to the end of emergency was the prediction of the ‘3rd eye’. They shared this viewpoint with important people and opposition. It was also shared with Indian express owner, Ramnath Goenka, who was also opposing the imposition of emergency. They felt that the elections should happen at any cost. As far as Goenka was concerned, conduct of the elections would boost the morale of opposition parties at the least and would give them some breathing space too.
Journalists, Intelligence, Astrologers, Puttaparthi Saibaba
Goenka had narrated his role in the declaration of elections and his ploys to make that happen. When I met him in January, he was indirectly hinting that the national emergency would come to an end and also alluding about the impending elections. As per law, either the elections should happen, or the tenure of parliament should be extended. Goenka passed on an info to the intelligence through dependable journalists — if the elections were conducted now, Indira would win, opposition would lose, and Indian express would be shut down. Now and then, the intelligence community was banking on Journalists for info. Since there was a news blockade & filter, the intelligence community was not getting appropriate clues/evidence.
Indira was banking on the Intelligence community and through them, Goenka passed on the info to Indira. He conveyed the same views to his congress friends and made sure that it gets conveyed to her. It was confirmed that the intelligence community was recommending for elections. Next step would be for Indira to consult astrologers. Even in the area, Goenka was very well connected with the astrologers all over India. Many astrologers were his close friends. Again, he asked some of them to recommend for elections with Indira. Once he laughingly said, “Guru, journalists, astrologers, intelligence wing, religious-political brokers like Dhirendra Bhramachari, Chandra Swami, few corporate brokers are the ones who forms Delhi”.
This is how Goenka had ensured that the thought of conducting elections was slowly planted into Indira’s mind. He further mentioned, “Guru, even though I tried, still, I was not sure about the outcome, since she her own independent mind. Until the announcement came, I was kept in tenterhook. That belief was further strengthened by Puttaparthi Saibaba’s prediction of the approaching elections and even the date of announcement too”. Goenka had immense faith in Saibaba.
Comprehensive Chanakyan like Strategy
What was the experience gained by me? During the state of emergency, by choking the press freedom and hiding the truth from the public, Indira got benefitted. Those tactics boomeranged back, since she was not able to get the true picture about the mood of the people. The intelligence units also failed her. Always, the ruling class needs a free press to publish real/true news and not a fake one. Without that, even the intelligence units will fail the ruling class. In our country, even the atheists believe in astrologers and seek their help. Goenka reached out to them. Goenka was very gutsy and had the ability to oppose anyone; but, he had absolute faith in God. That absolute faith in God was the reason for being bold & gutsy.
Finally, though he had faith in God & astrology, still, he never compromised on taking Bhagirathan like efforts. Bhishma advised the Pandavas (Mahabharata), ‘ one should have faith in destiny and more faith in one’s self-efforts. I was able to see this advice being part of Chanakyan-like strategies of Goenka
