India: Opposition Maneuvers

The election of the President of India usually has about as much political significance as the choice of a beauty queen—and is even less of a contest. Yet last week for the first time a race was on for the largely ceremonial post. It was between Zakir Husain, 70, backed by the ruling Congress Party, and Chief Justice Subba Rao, 59, of the Indian Supreme Court, the candidate of the seven opposition parties in Parliament. The Congress Party's choice of Husain, who is currently India's Vice President, was noteworthy because he would be the first Moslem ever to hold the post in a country that is 84% Hindu. As for the opposition, their aim was to give the government of Indira Gandhi, which is already reeling from a series of defeats, another serious jolt.

Ever since the elections in February, when the Congress Party lost 96 seats in the Lower House of Parliament, the opposition has been maneuvering to overcome the government's tenuous 17 vote majority. It has relentlessly picked at Indira, accused her of using official gifts from visiting heads of state for her own enjoyment and of heartlessly denying permission to Svetlana Stalina to stay in India. If it can show strength in the contest for the presidency, which will be decided by an electoral college of state and national legislators on May 6, the opposition might lure more Congress members of Parliament over to its side and perhaps even threaten the tenure of Mrs. Gandhi's Cabinet.

Up to now, efforts to promote a coalition among the opposition parties in Parliament have been unavailing except for the choice of Candidate Rao. Mrs. Gandhi's principal rival for power, Finance Minister Morarji Desai, has chosen to remain outwardly loyal to her. But on the state level, the opposition has had much better success. It has won control of nine of the 17 Indian states as a result of defections from the Congress Party and alliances among themselves. In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, the Congress government was toppled last month when a minister and 17 other Congress leaders walked out on the party.