Political stars and scandals

Rajiv Gandhi fuels Congress’s resurgence and N.T. Rama Rao redefines Andhra’s politics. Communal disharmony, anti-Sikh riots and Bofors scam defined the social climate.

No one could have augured the beginning and end of the eighth Lok Sabha. The Congress won a “historic political mandate”, with Rajiv Gandhi riding an electoral tide that would allow the party to register its best-ever performance in the history of independent India. Mr. Gandhi’s pledges of economic efficiency and political stability found appeal among a discontented Indian electorate. Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the wave of anti-Sikh sentiment, communal disharmony and coalition fragility defined the social climate. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made its debut in the political landscape, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) created stunning popular waves with N.T. Rama Rao in the lead.

The session, which convened in December 1984, ended in November 1989 on a note of disarray, with the Bofors scandal sullying Mr. Gandhi’s promising mandate.

The polls

The elections were conducted for 549 constituencies, 24 States and six Union Territories in two instalments; once between December 24 and 28, 1984, then held separately in Punjab and Assam on 25th 25 and 16th December 1985. Both the number of voters and voter turnout increased this year. 46 Muslim candidates were elected during this election.

INC won a record 414 seats, followed by the TDP (30) and CPM (22 seats).

The house of the people

Congress’s “landslide victory” was “the most powerful, the most sweeping and one-sided”, a kind of outcome “that goes beyond anything that [Mr. Gandhi’s] mother or even his grandfather was able to turn out…and that is not going to be repeated for a while”, 

In 1971, after the first split, Congress won 352 seats with 43.7% of the vote; in 1977, its tally slumped to 154 out of 542 seats; in 1980, it got 353 seats (42.7%). In 1984, there was a “larger-than-life margin of Mr. Gandhi’s victory”. The party made a clean sweep of the Hindi-speaking belt – winning 82 out of the 84 seats in Uttar Pradesh. It made a comeback in Karnataka, retrieved old ground in Andhra Pradesh and re-established itself in Tamil Nadu. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, who would hold the distinction of being India’s first youngest Prime Minister, contested from Amethi.

The BJP secured two seats, one in Gujarat and one in Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana). The National Conference led by Farooq Abdullah performed well in Kashmir; Left Front headed by the Community party of India (Marxist) witnessed “a severe erosion in its political position” in West Bengal.

H.N. Bahuguna of Indian National Congress (U) was the Leader of the House during this time. Politician Balram Jakhar continued his tenure as the Speaker of the House, the longest-serving politician to hold the title.

The politics

The assassination of Indira Gandhi and the sympathy wave that followed, along with the anti-Sikh riots, set the stage for Congress’s resounding victory.

The party also strengthened its position in Souther States: it obtained 48.12% vote from regions in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu noted that Mr. Gandhi campaigned on a message of holding India strong and united in the face of internal threats such as riots and violence in Punjab and beyond. That, along with a “sympathy factor” which countered criticism of dynastic politics. Mr. Gandhi presented a “new” political style in contrast to old, more rigid ways. Mr. Gandhi’s victory brought India’s elected national political system “very close to a one-party model”.

The Opposition parties, on the other hand, failed to “inspire voters” with their policies.

An exception was the popular appeal of TDP — led by the filmmaker and politician N.T. Rama Rao — which won a massive 201 out of total 294 seats. The debutant party presented themselves as an alternative to the “corrupt” Congress, pitting Mrs. Gandhi’s centralism to NTR’s appeal to regional aspirations, The Hindu noted in an analysis. Unlike the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or Shiromani Akali Dal, TDP emerged not from a sustained social movement but with the sole agenda of “the political, economic, social, and cultural foundations of Telugu-speaking people”, scholars have noted. The politician and filmmaker N.T. Rama Rao campaigned across 75,000 km for almost eight months in his Chaithanya Ratham (chariot of consciousness). The Hindu called Mr. Rao’s success as a “major political event”.Congress lost 37 seats to regional parties like AIADMK BKP, CPI(M), with the bulk of it going to the Telugu Desam Party.

The agenda

The tenure focused on autonomy for public enterprises, and initiatives in technology and communication. Mr. Gandhi carried forth the Nehruvian legacy of developing science institutions. The Union Finance Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh (V.P. Singh) initiated economic reforms, including high-profile tax raids into industrialists such as the Ambanis and allowed foreign investment into India. Mr. Singh resigned from the government in 1987 amid political rifts. He would take oath as the seventh Prime Minister in 1989.

At the time, the U.S. and Soviet Union had signed the historical Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty for eliminating hundreds of medium and shorter-range nuclear missiles and back-up weapons from Europe. Mr. Gandhi’s Government also signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in anticipation of resolving the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Closer to home, the government struggled to resolve conflicts in Punjab and Assam. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in the riots that followed Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination. The Hindu’s editorial on September 3, 1987, noted that the government struggled to keep militancy in check, and has failed to take a “comprehensive review of the Punjab problem”.

The government saw its first no-trust vote on December 11, 1987, with the Opposition charging “the Government with failure to deal with the present economic crisis, tackle unemployment and bring about electoral reforms, and…. abandoning the goals of self-reliance and socialism and creating confrontation between the Centre and non-Congress(l) ruled States”, an article noted.

The Bofors scandal coloured the last two years of Mr. Gandhi’s tenure. The Hindu reported widely on the kickbacks received by Mr. Gandhi and other Congress members from Bofors AB.

Evidence collected by The Hindu journalists N. Ram and Chitra Subramaniam further “exploded the credibility of the findings of the Joint Parliamentary Commission and the stand of the Rajiv Gandhi Government”. In 1989, the Thakkar Commission’s report on Indira Gandhi’s assassination was tabled in the Lok Sabha, stirring parliamentary unrest. 63 MPs were suspended, a new record at the time.

The Lok Sabha was dissolved, and General Elections were held in November 1989.

References

1. Election Commission of India
2. Election Atlas of India: Parliamentary elections 1952 – 2014, edited by Dr. R. K. Thukral
3. Suri, K. C. (2004). Telugu Desam Party: Rise and Prospects for Future. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(14/15), 1481-1490. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4414865
4. The video was taken from Indian National Congress’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx-eQk1Otp8&t=49s
5. The Hindu Archives