Shriveling of the Congress Party meant that Gandhi had to use other means to get re-elected: crushing political opposition, pandering to special inter

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She moved very far to replace federalism with her own centralised rule. The cumulative effect of Gandhi’s actions is that the Indian political system

Patronage became her electoral strategy, as she undermined a vital institution in a functioning democracy – the party system. Gandhi weakened the Congress Party by sidestepping many of its well-established procedures, reducing its grass-roots reach in the states, and appointing party officials rather than allowing rank-and-file members to elect them. Shriveling of the Congress Party meant that Gandhi had to use other means to get re-elected: crushing political opposition, pandering to special interests, or offering political handouts or cancellations of elections altogether. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule in June 1975 and cancelled the general election scheduled for the following year. And as early as 1970, she postponed or cancelled Congress Party elections. She moved very far to replace federalism with her own centralised rule. The cumulative effect of Gandhi’s actions is that the Indian political system, though still retaining some essential features of a democracy, became unaccountable, corrupt, and unhinged from the normal benchmarks voters use to assess their leaders. In a functioning democracy, voters punish those politicians who fail to deliver at the ballot box. Not in India. Both the 1967 & 1971 reelections of the Congress Party followed a decline of per capita GDP the year before. It was not democracy that failed India; it was India that failed democracy.

The economic consequences of this period of illiberalism were long lasting. Because Gandhi’s political fortunes depended on patronage, she felt no compulsion to invest in real drivers of economic growth – education and health. The ratio of teachers to primary-school students throughout the long Gandhi years stubbornly hovered around 2%. After her rule, in 1985, only 18% of Indian children were immunised against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT), and only 1% were immunised against measles. Even today, India is still paying for her neglect. The low level of human capital remains the single largest obstacle to India’s developmental prospects.


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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).


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