INDIA: A Constitutional Crisis

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Indira Gandhi bids for a comeback

Across the Indian subcontinent, the people whom Mohandas Gandhi once lovingly called harijans (children of God) began to find their voices. The 85 million harijans, or Untouchables, who are the lowest in the rigid Hindu caste system, had thought for a brief moment last week that durable Jagjivan Ram, 71, the widely acknowledged leader of India's politically potent harijans, was soon to be Prime Minister. It was not to be. Their hopes were dashed by a bitter impasse in India's parliamentary system that culminated in an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

The turmoil began with the resignation of Prime Minister Charan Singh, 76, only 15 minutes before a vote of confidence in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, that would have sent his 24-day-old coalition government down to certain defeat. In line for the job, or so he thought, was Ram, also official leader of the opposition. But India's President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy bypassed Ram and heeded the advice of outgoing Charan Singh to dissolve the Lok Sabha and call new national elections. He appointed Charan Singh as head of a caretaker government until elections can be held in mid-December.

Reddy's decision was furiously challenged on the constitutional ground that as Prime Minister, Charan Singh had never faced a vote in Parliament. For that reason, Charan Singh's opponents assert, the President was not bound, in the British tradition, to accept his advice. A disappointed Ram declared, "The country will not excuse the President for his undemocratic dissolution of the Lok Sabha." Certainly there was the danger that the Untouchables would not. In ignoring Ram, the President had offended millions of harijans, who suffer the humiliation of daily discrimination and harassment.

Reddy justified his move on the basis that it was the only way to bring in a government with a popular mandate. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had already informed him that she would not support Ram, and without the backing of her 71-member Congress Party branch, Ram would not have been able to form a government. Rarely before had India's parliamentary system been in such disarray.

The re-emergence of Indira Gandhi as a pivotal political force marked an astonishing change in political fortunes. Earlier this summer Mrs. Gandhi was still confined to political oblivion, a disgraced leader with no seat in Parliament and still under investigation for alleged illegal acts committed during the emergency rule she imposed in 1975-77 as Prime Minister. After the Janata Party disintegrated last month, and in the absence of any party with a clear-cut majority, her faction, Congress (I) (for Indira), had become essential for the survival of any government. Suddenly Mrs. Gandhi was once again at the commanding heights of Indian politics.