V. P. KASHIN

Candidate of Historical Sciences

The youngest son of Indira Gandhi is rightly considered a " phenomenon of Indian democracy." Without holding any government posts, he removed ministers and shuffled officials at his own discretion, and according to his "recommendations", political figures were sent to prison during the state of emergency. He also led a campaign to reduce the birth rate, which in some places took on a violent character. He was praised and blamed, feared and hated. It was no secret that Sanjay was the first candidate for the post of Prime Minister after his famous mother.

He died at the peak of his political career, leaving unanswered the question of what could have happened to India under his leadership. But every time on the eve of parliamentary elections, as was the case in the spring of 2009, the rivals of the Indian National Congress (INC) party remember Sanjay and his sins, vowing, unlike him, to follow the letter of the law in everything.

THE DARLING OF FATE

On December 14, 1946, Lady Cripps, the wife of a well-known British minister and diplomat, visited the mansion of the Head of the Provisional Government of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. She longed for a Kashmir shawl, and begged the landlord's daughter, Indira, to accompany her to the shop in Connaught Place. That same evening, Indira Gandhi was taken to a military hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy. Jawaharlal named his grandson Sanjay after the charioteer king of Dhritarashtra, the hero of the epic Mahabharata.

Sanjay's carefree childhood was spent in Delhi at the Prime Minister's residence. There he lived with his grandfather, mother and older brother Rajiv. Foreign leaders often visited them and gave their children gifts. Indira did not trust her sons with nannies and tried to raise them herself. She was very fond of animals and put up small tiger cubs, a panda, several ponies and dogs in the garden. Sanjay's favorite animal was a crocodile. Once he almost bit off the boy's hand, and the treacherous reptile had to be handed over to the zoo.

On weekends, the children were visited by their father. He worked as a journalist in Lucknow. Feroz Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi's namesake) brought his sons toy cars and trains, and together they dismantled and assembled them. The children adored their father and did not understand his differences with his grandfather in matters of politics. Feroz Gandhi died in 1960 of a heart attack.

Unlike the quiet and suave Rajiv, Sanjay was a bold, defiant and stubborn boy. The makings of a future public leader were early revealed in him. Sanjay was considered everyone's favorite, talked to adults on equal terms and caused them a lot of trouble with his "non-childish" judgments. At a meeting with Yuri Gagarin, he boldly declared: "He will have to go into space, otherwise he will be eliminated." 1
The representative of the country's most famous political dynasty, Sanjay was the focus of public attention from an early age and was surrounded by flattery and obsequiousness. He never had any doubts and had absolutely no idea what poverty, hunger and human suffering were. India seemed to him like a large family estate.

In 1951, the boys were assigned to the private Gauba School in Delhi. It did not recognize lessons and each pupil was taught on an individual basis. Three years later, they were transferred to an elite school in Dehradun. According to Pupul Jayakar, Indira's long-time friend, Sanjay was a difficult teenager, rude to teachers, and known as a disciplinarian.2 After graduating from high school, Rajiv went to Cambridge University, and Sanjay in 1965 went on an internship at the Rolls-Royce factory in England. He was a car enthusiast, and he didn't want to go to university. After staying in England for 3 years, Sanjay decided that he had learned all the secrets of practical engineering, and returned to his homeland. Indira Gandhi could no longer control her impulsive younger son's actions as before. In January 1966, she assumed the post of Prime Minister of India and devoted herself entirely to her political career. Self-will and ambi-

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Sanjay's virtuosity cast a shadow on her reputation. But she forgave him for all his antics and reacted very painfully to the slightest criticism of him, considering it a manifestation of envy for his growing popularity. The love and devotion of this intelligent and sensible woman to her sons knew no bounds, she turned a blind eye to their "sins".

THE MARUTI PROJECT

In Delhi, Sanjay became interested in the Indian tabla drum, but soon lost interest in music and used it as a nightstand. Then he visited the Roshanar Gardens more often. There, Sanjay rented a garage and built something together with several assistants. He would come out in an apron smeared with engine oil. Six months later, Sanjay himself opened the veil of secrecy and announced that he was ready to produce a mass-produced subcompact car. He gave him the proud name "Maruti", which means"son of the wind".

A few days later, helpful newspapers revealed the details of the sensational project: the car factory will be built in the state of Haryana, its capacity will be 50 thousand cars a year, and all components are planned to be produced in India. Affordable price and reliability "people's car" will conquer the domestic market and will travel to cities and towns throughout the country.

Sanjay took up the new business with his usual enthusiasm and perseverance. But to get a license to produce a car for a person without business experience, it was possible only for the son of the head of government, according to the famous Indian historian Ramachandra Guha3. In an effort to please Gandhi, Sanjay's project was supported by Railway Minister Lalit Narayan Mishra, Information and Broadcasting Minister Vidya Charan Shukla, Haryana Chief Minister Baney Lal and other prominent leaders of the INC. Mishra helped him get soft loans from nationalized banks, and Lal helped him acquire 300 acres of land for the construction of a car factory: the site was located in Haryana next to the military base, and it had to be slightly squeezed out.

However, the Maruti project turned out to be a bottomless barrel. Money disappeared from the company's accounts in an unknown direction. They were plundered by a well-established network of shell companies created by large industrial houses and various scammers. The activities of Sanjay Gandhi as the head of the company were sharply criticized.

Its tip was pointed in the direction of the Prime Minister. The parliamentary opposition accused Gandhi of revising the fundamentals of economic policy, abusing his official position, illegally granting a license to an unemployed son, 4 and so on. Newspapers that had recently glorified Maruti began talking about the "Indian Water Gate", a political scandal that led to the shameful resignation of US President R. R. Tolkien. Nixon.

The helplessness of her son in the field of business created great trouble for Indira Gandhi. In her speeches in Parliament, she selflessly defended Sanjay, trying to convince him that he was not involved in the abuse. In the end, she was forced to ask the Finance Minister, K. Subramaniam, to personally investigate the situation at Maruti. The results of the audit were disappointing. When asked by the minister about the report on the implementation of the business plan, Sanjay said that there can be no report until the car plant is operational. When Subramaniam tried to explain the basic business rules to him, Sanjay flared up and said that these rules were outdated and it was time to get rid of them. 5 Sincerely seeking to help the young man, the head of the financial department offered him the services of several professionals, but he arrogantly rejected them. Then the minister was forced through the governor of the Reserve Bank of India to recommend that all banks in the country completely stop financing the Sanjay project.

Not a single car of the Maruti brand has ever appeared on the roads.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL CENTER OF POWER

In September 1974, Sanjay married aspiring model Maneke Anand, the daughter of a retired Sikh colonel. Beautiful, power-hungry and capricious, Maneka wanted a husband who was prime minister and insisted on Sanjay's political career. Her longing coincided with her mother-in-law's far-reaching plans.

In the mid-70s, Indira Gandhi's leadership style became largely authoritarian. This deprived her of the support of many of her colleagues who had joined the united opposition camp. It was led by the socialist Jaiprakash Narayan and the leader of the Congress Organization Morarji Desai, who broke away from the INC in 1969, supported by the conservative Jana Sangh Party. The political turmoil coincided with a prolonged drought, rising grain prices, mass unemployment, corruption scandals, and student unrest. The Prime Minister's circle of confidants narrowed until it was limited to the figure of her youngest son. She was convinced that he was the only one who could be her reliable assistant and continue the work that three generations of the Nehru - Gandhi dynasty had devoted themselves to.

Sanjay's interest in politics began in 1971. Over time, he got a taste for power and, thanks to his name and the authority of his mother, became one of the main political figures.

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countries. Since 1975, almost no important appointments in the Government and administrative apparatus have been made without his participation. The Prime Minister gave him full confidence and support. He became her eyes and ears.

Sanjay's activities primarily covered the Delhi area. The head of the National Capital Territory, B. Rai, who had hindered his efforts, was replaced by K. Chanda, whose candidacy was proposed to Sanjay by his school friend. Then came the turn of Home Minister B. Reddy, who was ordered to hand over the cases to his deputy O. Mehta, who received instructions directly from Sanjay. At the latter's insistence, the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Orissa were also dismissed. Bahugun and N. Satpathi, and a number of central and local leaders whose loyalty he doubted.

Sanjay's orders were sharp and categorical. Although he only gave verbal instructions, government ministers, state chief ministers, and high-ranking officials readily obeyed them. One day, he summoned the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, I. G. Gujral, and harshly reprimanded him. "You should learn to be polite before you talk to me. You are younger than my son, and you demand an explanation from me, " the indignant minister said. On the same day, Gujral was reassigned to another post6.

Thus, an unconstitutional center of power was formed in the depths of Indian democracy. Without holding any government posts, Sanjay effectively established control over its executive branch and party apparatus. The co-existence of two command centers in the Prime Minister's house-one under the leadership of Sanjay and the other under the leadership of Indira Gandhi - lasted for two years. Sometimes they came into conflict, and then as a rule, my mother's favorite won.

This allowed the journalist I. Malhotra to conclude that "the power of the son exceeded the power of the mother"7. It was later revealed that Sanjay was not even a member of the INC and had never taken the oath of office required for senior government officials.

Sanjay's organizational backbone was the youth wing of Inc. Under him, the number of the Youth Congress (MC) has grown several times and reached 10 million people. In the upcoming elections to the lower house of Parliament, the MK was going to put up to half of its candidates on the general kongressist list. With the connivance of Sanjay, there were many criminal elements in the ranks of the Youth Congress who were engaged in racketeering in the capital's markets.

Sanjay had no political agenda of his own. In his interviews, he advocated the development of private businesses, condemned the nationalization of banks, and called himself a supporter of a "non-Hitler"type of political dictatorship8. He advocated deeper relations with the United States and Britain and considered members of the Communist Party of India "the richest and most corrupt in the country." About himself, he said that he does not drink or smoke, reads comics and works 12-14 hours a day.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

In early June 1975, INC was defeated in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections, and on June 12 of the same year, the Allahabad High Court found Indira Gandhi guilty of violating the electoral law. He stripped her of her parliamentary mandate and banned her from holding elected positions for six years. Encouraged by the success, the opposition parties demanded the resignation of Gandhi. They launched a movement under the slogans of "total revolution" and "democratization of political life", directed against the monopoly rule of the Congress. J. Narayan called on the army and police not to obey the authorities.

In response, the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency in India on June 26, 1975. Sanjay Gandhi, who dreamed of the laurels of the "savior of the fatherland", insisted on making such a tough decision. He also compiled a list of persons to be arrested in the first place. In total, 160,000 protesters were jailed in 1975, including 105,000 members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the most influential Hindu nationalist organization. At Sanjay's request, professors and teachers who were sympathetic to opposition parties and organizations were expelled from universities.

Curtailment of democracy, curtailment of civil rights, harsh censorship, arbitrariness and repression-these are the companions of the state of emergency that has been in force in India for 19 months. To sweeten the pill, the Prime Minister announced

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the "20 points" program. It provided for lower prices for consumer goods, as well as agrarian reforms, the recognition of illegal labor on debt obligations, the abolition of peasant debt, the development of the craft sector, a reduction in income tax for the middle class and an increase in employment. The program contained nothing new and was a collection of populist schemes borrowed from five-year plans.

Almost simultaneously, Sanjay launched the 5-point program. It was primarily aimed at young people. Its main provisions were reduced to the following requirements:: plant one tree, teach one illiterate, fight against the institution of the untouchable caste (Dalits), refuse the bride's dowry and limit the birth rate to two children per family. In case of their implementation, Sanjay guaranteed his compatriots to solve "half of the problems"9. The Congress leadership recognized them as an "important addition" to the first program and began to talk about the "25 points" document.

During the state of emergency, news blocks usually began with the words: "Sanjay Gandhi said ..." In 1976 alone, All India Radio devoted 192 thematic stories to him, and television devoted 265 such stories.10 On the ground, Sanjay was accepted as the head of a world power. In honor of his visit to the state of Rajasthan, 501 festive arches were erected, and after his visit to the state of Andhra Pradesh, a full-length documentary with commentary in three Indian languages was released. As Sanjay was getting off the plane in Lucknow, he tripped on the ramp and dropped his sandal. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh rushed to the sandal, wiped it carefully, and returned it to its owner with an apology.

The state of emergency has cast doubt on the strength of India's democratic traditions and has been negatively received by public opinion at home and abroad. Strengthening the executive branch at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches has undermined confidence in the political system as a whole. The economy was stalling again. Lockouts and wage cuts have become commonplace. While the rich increased their capital, the poor lost the protection and patronage of the state. Parliament postponed general elections twice in 1975 and 1976. It seemed to many that the rule of Sanjay Gandhi and his mercenary entourage would continue indefinitely.

SANJAY'S SPRAWLING HANDWRITING

At the age of 28, Sanjay had no doubts about anything, and his natural arrogance and lack of experience gave him the confidence that he knew everything and was doing it right. Do democratic processes seem burdensome? Speed them up! Do crowds of beggars scare foreign tourists? Drive them away! Are there many slums in the capital? Demolish it! The poor breed like rabbits? Sterilize! Is the press critical and scrupulous? Censor it!

His campaigns to demolish urban slums and sterilize the population were particularly outraged.

Sanjay had a pink dream-to decorate the appearance of Delhi. Its implementation was hindered by the dirty neighborhoods of the poor that flooded the old city. Here were refugees, migrants, sweepers, rickshaws, errand boys and their families. The old houses were piled on top of each other, and the narrow streets were still dark even at noon.

On an April morning in 1976, Sanjay sent dozens of bulldozers to attack the slums. The first on their way was the area of the Turkmen Gate. Its angry inhabitants met heavy equipment with a hail of stones. In response, the police opened fire. Distraught people fled to their homes and took refuge in alleys. Police beat them with batons, raped women, and robbed their property. And the bulldozers went on, and centuries of history disappeared before our eyes.

Tens of thousands of people were left homeless. Only a few were moved to homes built across the Jumna River; the rest were caught in the monsoon. On that fateful morning, more than a hundred people died at the Turkmen Gate. A similar situation was repeated in Agra and Varanasi. According to official statistics, from July 1975 to the end of 1976, many slum blocks were demolished and 700,000 people were resettled. their permanent inhabitants 11.

But the biggest insult to the Indians was the sterilization campaign. It was an outrage on the religious feelings of Hindus, who see fertilization as a sacrificial act. Due to the fact that a large number of people want to perform vasectomy (bilateral resection of the vas deferens. - V. K.) was not found, but a reward was found - a can of ghee, a hand watch and a radio receiver. Later, they were replaced by a system of quotas for public positions.

Everyone who performed a vasectomy received a certificate. It gave advantages when registering a land plot, opening a shop, getting water from an irrigation canal, etc. Drivers were often refused to renew their license if they did not have such a certificate. During the state of emergency, it was used as a substitute for an identity card.

Vasectomy clinics were opened in cities, and health centers were opened in villages. The campaign's volunteers included tax officials and school teachers. Their salary and promotion directly depended on the number of people they persuaded to be sterilized. The rule of voluntariness was often violated. Everyone was taken to the clinics, including small boys and senile elders. In rural areas, lists of men who had three or more children were compiled. Those who could, paid off, the rest went under the surgeon's scalpel.

Terrified men fled to the jungle and took refuge in the mountains. In some places, there were clashes with the police. On October 18, 1976, a crowd of Zabro residents gathered in Muzaf Farnagar.-

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sala medical points with bottles and stones. More than 50 people were killed. Spontaneous demonstrations also occurred in Sultanpur, Kanpur, Bareilly and other cities in Northern India.

From July 1975 to March 1977, more than 10,750 thous. sterilization operations. More than 2,300 people were killed in clashes with police and in medical clinics.12
The state of emergency and S. Gandhi's campaigns have left a sad memory. Thousands of people were arrested, humiliated, and maimed. Independent India has never known such a thing before.

FROM DEFEAT TO VICTORY

Despite Sanjay's objections, in early 1977 the Prime Minister announced that a general election would be held two months later. Their further postponement threatened the ruling party with complete discredit. In the elections, the Congress was opposed by a motley coalition of the Janata Party, which gathered under its banner the most influential opponents of Indira Gandhi.

The voting results were sensational. INC did not win any seats in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Delhi, which were at the heart of the sterilization campaign. They lost to their rivals I. Gandhi, S. Gandhi and B. Lal. The Congress had 154 seats in the new parliament, compared to 330 for the Janata Party. Thus, for the first time in the history of independent India, INC. lost the trust of the nation. Indira Gandhi resigned, and Morarji Desai became Prime Minister.

In this situation, her greatest fear was for her youngest son. 28 criminal cases were initiated against Sanjay. He was accused of abuse of power, state crimes and even illegal acquisition of a house in Sydney worth $ 100 thousand. USA. In April 1978, he was arrested and placed in the Tihar prison. But in the end, Sanjay was sentenced to two years in prison for banning the film "The Story of the Chair," which denounced his mother's authoritarian rule. He was soon released on bail.

Even before that, Inc. experienced another split. In January 1978, I. Gandhi informed the public about the creation of the Indian National Congress (I) party, where the letter " I "means " Indira". In the February 1978 five-state legislative elections, INC (I) won majorities in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and formed a coalition Government in Maharashtra. This was the beginning of Indira Gandhi's return to the top of Olympus. Its victory was brought closer by the split of the Janata Party in July 1978 due to acute internal ideological differences.

Early parliamentary elections were held in India in January 1980. Gandhi fought simultaneously on two fronts - against her rivals in the Janata Party and against her former ministers, who formed their own party INC(A). And yet, she won, skilfully exploiting the mistakes of her opponents. In the lower house, INC (I) won 353 seats out of 529. Sanjay Gandhi was also elected to Parliament. Indira Gandhi is back as Prime Minister.

For the family of the head of government, life flowed along the usual rut. Sanjay appointed chief ministers and shuffled officials. As before, his mother wouldn't let anyone touch him. However, now he has become more reserved in his actions and statements. In March 1980, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly approached the Prime Minister with a proposal to appoint Sanjay Gandhi as Chief Minister of the state. 13 He did not seem to object, but Indira Gandhi was against the idea. She was preparing her son to be her successor. Sanjay's son was born in the same month. The boy was named Feroz Varun after his parents ' fathers.

It was then that Sanjay made a mistake that proved fatal for the family dynasty. To weaken the Janata Party's ally, the Punjab Akali Dal Party, he supported the Sikh extremist leader J. Bhindranwale and helped him form his Dal Khalsa party. In the 1980 election, Bhindranwale campaigned for the INC(I) candidates. Subsequently, his supporters seized the main Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar, and turned it into a stronghold of terrorism and separatism in Punjab. This forced Indira Gandhi to take the unprecedented step of storming the Golden Temple. The military operation was codenamed "Blue Star". In retaliation, on October 31, 1984, she was shot dead by Sikh guards who were avenging the deaths of their religious brothers. However, Sanjay did not live to see the tragedy.

DEAD LOOP

June 23, 1980 Sanjay got up earlier than usual. After discussing with ma-

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After losing his plans for the day, he went to the Delhi Flying Club. Like his brother Rajiv, Sanjay loved aviation. He was accompanied on the flight by an experienced instructor, Captain Subhash Saxena. The two-seat S-2A sports plane easily soared into the sky and completed three loops in a row. Then he started the fourth, but lost control and crashed into the ground near the territory of the USSR Embassy.

The Prime Minister was the first to arrive at the crash site. The pile of twisted metal gave up no hope of saving his son. The news of Sanjay's death spread across the country in a matter of minutes. Political figures flocked to the hospital where the remains of the pilots were located. Indira Gandhi was heartbroken, but she pulled herself together. Her composure and courage were admirable.

After the cremation, she walked around the garden alone for a long time. The mournful light of the moon shone on the woman's white hair. She called her eldest son. Rajiv couldn't refuse his mother's support when she needed it most. He himself was tormented by doubts. Perhaps he had a premonition of what the future held for him, but he still agreed to go into politics.

The last 4 years were the most difficult in Gandhi's life. She was tired and lonely. There were constant conflicts between the mother-in-law and the younger daughter-in-law. Regardless of her opinion, Maneka organized a seminar to study her husband's theoretical legacy and hatched plans to rename the University of Delhi to S. Gandhi University.14 She clearly wanted to take his place in politics. Indira Gandhi's patience was overwhelmed by Maneka's decision to sell her magazine Surya to the Hindu chauvinist organization RSS. She kicked Maneka out of her house and made some rude comments about her family.

Indira Gandhi's return to the post of Prime Minister was preceded by a severe drought. Contrary to her campaign promises, prices were skyrocketing. The weakening of the center was taken advantage of by separatists in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam... A "Blue Star" slowly rose above the Golden Temple.

* * *

I couldn't find Sanjay Gandhi's samadhi for a long time, despite the signs. Several times I passed by and simply didn't notice it. It is located near the pond behind Shantivan , the cremation site of Jawaharlal Nehru. S. Gandhi's Samadhi is the only unguarded place in the memorial complex. The paths have long been overgrown with grass - a sure sign of rare visits.

Reflecting on the vicissitudes of life, I stood for a few minutes at the marble pillar and wandered towards the Rajghat. Music could be heard from there, and crowds of people were moving from four directions to the place of Mahatma Gandhi's cremation.

Masani Z. 1 Indira Gandhi. A Biography. Delhi. 1975, p. 84.

Jayakar P. 2 Indira Gandhi. A Biography. New Delhi. 1995, p. 294.

Guha R. 3 India after Gandhi. The History of the World's Largest Democracy. New Delhi. 2007, p. 470.

4 The Times of India. 28.06.1973.

Gill S. S. 5 The Gandhi Dynasty. Rostov-on-Don. 1997, p. 240.

Jayakar P. 6 Op. cit., p. 280.

Malhotra I. 7 Dynasties of India and beyond. New Delhi. 2003, p. 86.

8 The Illustrated Weekly of India. 15.08.1976.

Misra M. 9 Vishnu's Crowded Temple. L., 2007 p. 349.

Guha R. 10 Op. cit., p. 510.

Misra M. 11 Op. cit., p. 350.

Jayakar P. 12 Op. cit., p. 301.

13 Ibid., p. 410.

Tharoor S. 14 India from Midnight to the Millennium. New Delhi. 1998, p. 251.

* Samadhi - the cremation site of a Hindu.

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