Indira's India—jailed and silent

by Terry Auld

Bitty in the morning on June 26, the Indian Government sent large numbers of troops and police to make many arrests of opposition party leaders throughout India and imposed an overall press censorship. Wave after wave of arrests resulted in more than 10,000 being Jailed within a week, none of whom had the right of appeal to the courts for release. The secret police were everywhere, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Pakistan during the military dictatorship.

A national state of emergency was declared on the pretext that the security of the state was threatened. All civil liberties were suspended. Newspapers were prevented from publishing news of protest demonstrations, 'false' allegations against leaders and any criticism of the office of Prime Minister. In New Delhi orders were issued banning all public meetings, all parades, all carrying of weapons and all shouting of slogans. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later claimed that the Indian right wing and the United States C. I. A. were plotting her overthrow.

On July 4 all' extremist' parties, both of the right and left, were suppressed leaving the ruling Congress Party and its lackey the pro-Moscow 'Communist' Party of India the only parties with genuine legal influence. An official announcement said that anyone helping the banned groups, participating in their meetings or publishing anything about such meetings were liable to prosecution. The press censorship is such that papers cannot publish the white spaces where material has been deleted. When editors from leading papers noted that they had been allowed to leave white spaces to protest censorship under British rule, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, P.V.C. Shukla replied acidly: 'I find the comparison odious.' Even the writings of Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore are to be vetted.

The catalyst for the crisis was Mrs Gandhi's conviction for corrupt practices during the 1971 elections by the Indian High Court in her home city of Allahabad. She was disqualified as a member of parliament. Strong demands for her resignation were immediately raised by Indian opposition parties and large numbers of people demonstrated for her removal from office. With a nationwide struggle to topple her imminent, Mrs Gandhi convened a meeting of her top Cabinet officials and senior army officers at which the decision to declare the state of emergency was taken.

The roots of Mrs Gandhi's assumption of absolute power are not in the events at Allahabad or in any alleged conspiracy against state security or in threats to her leadership from within the Congress Party, any more than the cause of the First World War was the assasination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. A grave economic and political crisis has been maturing in India for many years.

Since she became Prime Minister a decade ago, Mrs Gandhi has pursued a reactionary domestic and foreign policy, stubbornly defending the interests of the big landlord class, the big bourgeoisie of India and Soviet imperialism.

The bourgeois press has called India the 'world's largest democracy' and lamented its passing. But for the Indian masses, the Gandhi government has been dictatorial rule, suppression of revolutionary movements with armed force and ruthless putting down of the toiling masses demanding democratic rights and better living conditions.

Despite Mrs Gandhi's claims that she has acted in the interests of the Indian masses, trade union actions for higher wages have been brutally crushed. The rail strike in May 1974 resulted in 50,000 workers being arrested and 10,000 dismissed from their jobs. Workers were evicted from railway colonies by troops, special police and territorial forces, and their wives and children were beaten by police, some of them being raped. Food shops were closed and drinking water from taps was turned off.

The Defence of India regulations were invoked and the army alerted to break a four day dock strike on January 19 this year. In October 1974 a general strike in Bihar province resulted in several demonstrators being killed by police and more than 1,000 persons arrested.

Prior to the present arrests, political prisoners in India numbered more than 30,000. Many of them are members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The latter are detained without trial and subjected to cruel tortures.

The Indian economy is in a shambles. Production has stagnated, prices are soaring, the grain shortage is acute and the people are threatened with permanent famine. Food prices doubled in 1974, but the incomes of the majority of the people remained constant. Huge quantities of grain have to be imported every year to keep the people at starvation level. A year ago 40 percent of the people were on or below the poverty line; today the figure is 50 percent - or 300 million people.

In a demagogic move to win popular support for the declaration of a state of emergency, Mrs Gandhi suddenly announced a programme of economic reforms. She pledged to act with 'redoubled zeal' to distribute surplus land among the landless and prevent lawsuits against poor peasants for recovery of debts. Income tax exemptions are to be extended to lower middle class Indians and a renewed campaign against hoarders and smugglers will be mounted.

Supplies of hard-to-get goods appeared in shops and prices for some commodities (wheat, sugar and vegetable oil) dropped significantly. But few people expect this to last, since Mrs Gandhi's latest programme is almost identical to one she pro-claimed last year - and failed to implement.

The Gandhi regime has thrown itself into the arms of Soviet imperialism. It has been estimated that the Soviet Union controls about 80% of India's electrical appliance industry, 30% of its petroleum cracking industry, 30% of steel production, 20% of power generation and 25% of the aluminium industry.

The Soviet Union uses its Indian factories as places where cheap labour works up raw materials - just like any private transnational corporation. It has bought Sudanese cotton, sent it to India where it is turned into fabric textiles and exported to the Soviet Union. In 1972 India had to purchase 20,000 tons of cotton from the USSR at $325 per bale - the price of cotton in Indian markets was $237 per bale. The cotton products produced from it had to be resold to the Soviet Union below the market price in India. The Soviet Union resold these same goods overseas at high prices, sometimes marking them 'Made in the USSR' over Indian protests. In 1974 the Soviet Union sold nickel to India at twice the price per ton that it charged Europe. A Soviet Mig-21 was being sold for $775,000 in the world market at a time when the same items produced in India were costing $1.3 million, since the components imported from the USSR cost $1 million alone.

Generally, the poor quality machinery and equipment exported by the Soviet Union to India is 20% - 30% above world market prices, while imports from India are 20% - 30% above world market prices.

Servicing Soviet loans costs India more than the new loans received from the Soviet Union. In 1968-69 India borrowed $52.2 million from the USSR and paid back $78.7 million in debt service. In 1971-72 India borrowed $242.5 million and paid back $437.5 million to the Soviet Union. This is typical of neo-colonialism.

With unusual delicacy, following his trip to India with Brezhnev, Nikolai Baibakov, Deputy Premier and Chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee claimed that 'our economic cooperation is mutually advantageous. The Soviet Union in its turn, receives many goods it needs from India! (New Times', No 50, 1973).

Externally, the Indian government has pursued an expansionist policy with the full backing of the Soviet Union. In October 1962 India launched a war against China and suffered a disastrous defeat. This followed years in which the Nehru government had adopted a policy of 'forward defence' in which India steadily encroached on Chinese territory. In 1965 and in 1971 India invaded Pakistan. The latter war, fought with full Soviet backing, resulted in Pakistan's dismemberment and the formation of the puppet state of Bangladesh. In 1974 India formally annexed Sikkim after exercising colonial rule over it for 27 years. Today India threatens the national independence and state sovereignty of Nepal and Bhutan.

Only the Soviet Union and the 'Communist' Party of India (ironically called by Indians the 'Communist Party of Indira') have hailed Gandhi's assumption of absolute power. The Soviet Union alleged that the corrupt election practices were 'fabrications of the opposition' and that 'the declaration of emergency indicates the struggle between democratic forces and reactionaries is becoming sharper! Mrs Gandhi, of course, is the leader of the 'democratic forces.'

The 'Communist' Party waited until Moscow gave Mrs Gandhi the nod before it committed itself. One week after the declaration of the state of emergency, the 'CP' announced its 'full support for the swift and stern measures taken by the Prime Minister.' Later 'CP' leader Rajeshwara Rao pledged that 500,000 members of his party were 'ready to make any sacrifice to put down the dark forces of reaction and imperialism.' (However the 'CP' will continue to slavishly serve Soviet reaction and imperialism).

The Gandhi clique has sold itself to the Soviet Union to get backing for its expansionist course in South Asia. Without Soviet weapons it would not have been able to dismember Pakistan hold onto Kashmir and threaten China.

The Soviet purpose is clear also. The Soviet Union wants to continue its domination of India through the Gandhi clique in the Congress Party so as to contend more effectively with the United States for influence in South Asia. The fierce contention between the two super powers, with the Indian government as the Soviet Union's junior partner, will mean that peace will not return to the Indian sub-continent until the Indian people have been liberated.