Sanjay Gandhi (14 December 1946 – 23 June 1980) Gandhi did not attend university, but he took up automotive engineering as a career and underwent an apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce in Crewe, England for three years. He was very interested in sports cars. In 1976, he obtained a pilot's licence and won several prizes in aerobatics.
Maruti Motors Limited
In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's cabinet proposed producing an affordable, locally made car for India's middle class. In June 1971, a company known as Maruti Motors Limited (now Maruti Suzuki) was incorporated under the Companies Act, and Sanjay Gandhi became its managing director despite having no previous experience, design proposals, or links with any corporation. Indira Gandhi faced criticism, but the victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War shifted public focus. A commission was set up by the new government headed by Justice Alak Chandra Gupta which gave a very critical report of the Maruti affair. A year after his death in 1980, and at the behest of Indira, the Union government salvaged Maruti Limited and started looking for an active collaborator for a new company. Maruti Udyog Ltd. was incorporated in the same year through the efforts of Nehru Gandhi family friend and industrial doyen V. Krishnamurthy. The Japanese company Suzuki was also contacted to present the design and feasibility of their car to be manufactured in India. When Suzuki learned that the Government of India had contacted Volkswagen as well, it did everything to pip the German company in the race to produce India's first People's Car (Maruti 800). It provided the government a feasible design of their 'Model 796', which was also successful in Japan and East Asian countries.
Role during the Emergency
In 1974, the opposition-led protests and strikes had caused a widespread disturbance in many parts of the country and badly affected the government and the economy. On 25 June 1975 following an adverse court decision against her, Indira Gandhi declared a national emergency, suspended elections, censored the press and suspended some constitutional freedoms for national security purposes. Non-Congress governments throughout the country were dismissed. Thousands of people, including several Indian independence activists like Jaya Prakash Narayan and Jivatram Kripalani, who were against the Emergency were arrested.
In the extremely hostile political environment just before and soon after the Emergency, Gandhi rose in importance as Indira's adviser. With the defections of former loyalists, Gandhi's influence with Indira and the government increased dramatically, although he was never in an official or elected position. According to Mark Tully, "His inexperience did not stop him from using the power his mother, Indira, had taken to terrorise the administration, setting up what was in effect a police state."
It was said that during the Emergency, he virtually ran India along with his friends, especially Bansi Lal. It was also quipped that Gandhi had total control over his mother and that the government was run by the PMH (Prime Minister House) rather than the PMO (Prime Minister Office). He "recruited into the party thousands of younger people, who used threats and force to intimidate rivals and those who opposed Mrs Gandhi's authority or his own."
During the emergency, Indira declared a 20-point economic programme for development. Sanjay also declared his own much shorter five points programme promoting:
- Literacy
- Family planning
- Tree Planting
- Eradication of Casteism
- Abolition of dowry
Later during the emergency Sanjay's programme was merged with Indira's 20-point programme to make a combined twenty-five point programme.
Out of the five points, Sanjay is now chiefly remembered for the family planning initiative that attracted much notoriety and caused longterm harm to population control in India.
Involvement in politics and government
Although he had not been elected and held no office, Sanjay began exercising his newfound influence with Cabinet ministers, high-level government officials and police officers. While many Cabinet ministers and officials resigned in protest, Sanjay reportedly appointed their successors.
In one famous example, Inder Kumar Gujral resigned from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting when Sanjay attempted to direct the affairs of his ministry and give him orders. Gujral is reported to have angrily rebuked Sanjay and refused to take orders from an unelected person.
Sanjay stood for his first election to the Indian parliament following the lifting of the Emergency in March 1977. This election saw the crushing defeat of not only Sanjay in his constituency of Amethi but also the wiping out of Indira's Congress party throughout Northern India. However, Sanjay won Amethi for the Congress(I) in the next general election held in January 1980.
Just one month before his death, he was appointed secretary general of the Congress Party in May 1980.
Jama Masjid beautification and slum demolition
Sanjay Gandhi and Brij Vardhan, accompanied by Jagmohan the vice-chairman of Delhi Development Authority (DDA), was reportedly irked during his visit to Turkman Gate in old Delhi area that he couldn't see the grand old Jama Masjid because of the maze of tenements. On 13 April 1976, the DDA team bulldozed the tenements. Police resorted to firing to quell the demonstrations opposing the destruction. The firing resulted in at least 150 deaths. Over 70,000 people were displaced during this episode. The displaced inhabitants were moved to a new undeveloped housing site across the Yamuna river.
Compulsory sterilisation programme
In September 1976, Sanjay Gandhi initiated a widespread compulsory sterilisation programme to limit population growth. The exact extent of Sanjay Gandhi's role in the implementation of the programme is somewhat disputed, with some writers holding Gandhi directly responsible for his authoritarianism, and other writers blaming the officials who implemented the programme rather than Gandhi himself. Most notable was Uttawar forced sterilisations on November 6, 1976, when mass vasectomy of nearly 800 men of Uttawar village, Palwal district, Haryana was carried out.
David Frum and Vinod Mehta state that the sterilisation programmes were initiated at the behest of the IMF and the World Bank:
Attempted assassination
Sanjay Gandhi escaped an assassination attempt in March 1977. Unknown gunmen fired at his car about 300 metres south-east of New Delhi during his election campaign. However, the Janata government's Home Minister, Charan Singh, ordered her and Sanjay arrested on several charges, none of which would be easy to prove in an Indian court. The arrest meant that Indira Gandhi was automatically expelled from Parliament. However, this strategy backfired disastrously. Her arrest and long-running trial gained her great sympathy from many people.
"Kissa Kursi Ka" Case
Kissa Kursi Ka is a satirical film directed by Amrit Nahata that lampooned Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. The film was submitted to the Censor Board for certification in April 1975. The film had lampooned Sanjay Gandhi's car manufacturing plans, besides Congress supporters like Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, private secretary to Indira Gandhi R.K. Dhawan, and Rukhsana Sultana. The board sent the film to a seven-member revising committee, which further sent it to the Government. Subsequently, a show-cause notice raising 51 objections was sent to the producer by the Information and Broadcasting ministry. In his reply submitted on 11 July 1975, Nahata stated that the characters were "imaginary and do not refer to any political party or persons". By the time, the Emergency had already been declared. The legal case ran for 11 months, and the court gave its judgment on 27 February 1979. Both Sanjay Gandhi and Shukla were sentenced to a two-year plus a month prison sentence. Sanjay Gandhi was denied bail. In his judgment, District Judge, O. N. Vohra at Tis Hazari in Delhi, found the accused guilty of "criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, mischief by fire, dishonestly receiving criminal property, concealing stolen property and disappearance of evidence". The verdict was later overturned. The conditions included dropping all charges against Indira and Sanjay. Since Charan Singh refused to drop the charges, Congress withdrew its support and President Reddy dissolved Parliament in August 1979.
Before the 1980 elections Gandhi approached the then Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Abdullah Bukhari and entered into an agreement with him on the basis of 10-point programme to secure the support of the Muslim votes. In the elections held in January, Congress returned to power with a landslide majority.
1980 Indian elections
The Congress(I) under Gandhi swept to power in January 1980. Elections soon after to legislative assemblies in States ruled by opposition parties brought back Congress ministries to those states. Sanjay Gandhi at that time selected his own loyalists to head the governments in these states.
Personal life
Gandhi married Maneka Anand, who was 10 years his junior, in New Delhi on 24 September 1974. Their son, Varun, was born shortly before Gandhi's death.
Death
At 8:10 a.m. on 23 June 1980, Gandhi lost control of his aeroplane while performing an aerobatic manoeuvre and crashed in the Diplomatic Enclave of New Delhi. Captain Subhash Saxena, the only other passenger, also died. Gandhi's body was recovered and cremated as per Hindu rituals.