Tuesday Briefs

Friends, today again I am going back to history, and going to brief you all about 2 Congress Rebels, who had the guts to defy the High Command of Congress party ie Nehru/Gandhi family. Both were highly respected Congressmen with their own convictions and principles

1.Feroze Gandhi

His original name was Feroze Gandhy, a born Parsi, but no body knows actually how the spelling of Gandhy was changed to Gandhi, may be after joining freedom movement in 1930s he got influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. There are some rumours that it was Mahatama Gandhi himself asked him to change his surname from Gandhy to Gandhi  after his marriage to Indira. He got married to Indira Priyadarshini Nehru(Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) in March 1942. Initially Nehru was opposing the marriage and even requested Gandhiji to dissuade the young couple from getting married, but of no avail. Their sons Rajiv and Sanjay were born in 1944 & 1946 respectively. After independence Feroze with Indira and their 2 sons settled down in Allahabad, and Feroze became Managing Director of National Herald, a newspaper founded by his father in law Nehru. He was member of provisional parliament(1950-52). He fought 1952 General Election & won from Rae Bareli, and was re elected from the same constituency in 1957. He soon became prominent force in his own right and started criticising the govt of his father in law and he also became a crusader against corruption in politics. In a case exposed by him in 1955, he revealed how Ramkrishna Dalmia, as Chairman of Bank and Insurance Co., used these companies to fund his take over of Bennett & Coleman. He also exposed the scandal known as Mundhra Scandal which even led Finance Minister TTK Krishnamachari  to resign. But his marriage to Indira was not doing well, as Indira was more committed to her father rather then her husband.  By this time his rift with Indira was in public domain. He was instrumental in nationalising insurance companies and starting of Life Insurance Corporation(LIC). He suffered a heart attack in 1958 and started leading a semi retired life. He suffered a second heart attack in 1960, which led to his death. In those days when Nehru was whole and sole Congress leader recognized everywhere, Feroze Gandhi had to guts to oppose him openly in public domain and even in Parliament

2.VP Singh

He belonged to royal family of Manda. He was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1971, and was Deputy Minister of Commerce in Indira Gandhi Ministry. When Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980, he was asked by her to become CM of Uttar Pradesh. Indira Gandhi again called him back to Centre and he became Minister Of Commerce.

In Dec 1984, he became Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Govt, where he was responsible for gradual relaxation of procedures of License Raj.During his term as Finance Minister, he oversaw the reduction of gold smuggling by reducing gold taxes and giving the police a portion of the confiscated gold. He also gave extraordinary powers to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of the Finance Ministry, the wing of the ministry charged with tracking down tax evaders.

ED conducted raids on high profile businessmen including Dhirubhai Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan and many others. Rajiv Gandhi was forced  to sack him as Finance Minister, as the raid were also conducted on those Businessmen, who had contributed funds and supported Congress Party. He was shifted sideways  to Defence Ministry.

In the Defence Ministry also he started investigating  dubious Arm Deals, and he was responsible for unearthing Bofors Scandal. He was then dismissed from the cabinet and he, in response resigned from Parliament & his Congress membership.

After coming out from the Congress, he formed Jan Morcha with his associates Arun Nehru & Arif Mohd. Khan. He was re elected to parliament from Allahabad. Some time later Janata Dal was formed with amalgamation of Jan Morcha, Lok Dal, Janata Party & Congress (S), and he also collaborated with other Regional parties like DMK,TDP, Asom Gana Parishad and this front came to be known as National Front. He became Convenor , NT Ramarao became President and P Upendra as General Secretary of National Front.

Before 1989 Elections, National Front made electrol understanding with BJP and left parties to unify the anti Congress votes.This gave the clear majority to the group and VP Singh formed the Govt  with outside support of BJP and Left parties.

Before VP Singh became PM, there was big hungama, as Chandra Shekhar (Janata Dal) was not agreeing for VP Singh as PM.

VP Singh’s Govt faced its first crisis, when terrorist kidnapped daughter  of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed (then Home Minister). Govt agreed for militants demands of releasing some terrorists for exchange. This move was widely criticized.

In 1990, the government-owned financial institutions like the LIC of India and the GIC stonewalled attempts by the Reliance group to acquire managerial control over Larsen & Toubro. Sensing defeat, the Ambanis resigned from the board of the company. Dhirubhai, who had become Larsen & Toubro’s chairman in April 1989, had to quit his post to make way for D. N. Ghosh, former chairman of the State bank of India.

VP Singh himself made a much-publicised visit to the Golden Temple to ask forgiveness for Operation Bluestar and the combination of events caused the long rebellion in Punjab to die down markedly in a few months.

As many low caste & OBC community had supported  National Front, He decided to to implement the recommendation of Mandal Commission Report, which suggested that a fixed quota of the jobs in Public Sector to be reserved for OBC. This  decision led to widespread  wild protests among upper class youth in urban areas in North India.

In the mean while BJP was going ahead with its agenda of Ram Mandir. To garner the support for their movement LK Advani started Rath yatra with his trusted aide Pramod Mahajan. Before the Rath Yatra could reach Ayodhya, LK Advani was stopped at Samastipur in Bihar, on VP Singh’s oreder by Lallu Prasad’s govt.

Mandal Commission episode and stopping the Rath Yatra , were the instrument in bringing down his govt , as BJP decided to withdraw the support to his govt on the issue of stopping the Rath Yatra and wide spread resentment in the upper caste  due to Mandal Commission recommendations.

Afterwards Chandra Shekhar  with his group, and outside support of Congress formed the Govt., which lasted few months.

Like Morarji Desai he was also man of principle, and was more of a crusader than a politician.

Awaiting your views/comments/feed backs.