The King of Swatcmtra

In the dusty heat of Agra, not far from the Taj Mahal, the afternoon sun beat down last week on a crowded courtyard in the heart of the business district. Underneath a gaudy orange canopy, a gaunt, hawk-nosed old man in a homespun dhoti and sandals talked, beamed when children rushed up to get his autograph. At 81, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, India's best-known elder statesman, onetime governor general and close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, had come out of political retirement to lead a national crusade to "release the people" from the burdensome statism of his old freedom-fighting colleague, Jawaharlal Nehru.

For the last month, Rajagopalachari--known to India's millions simply as "C.R." --has been stumping through the North Indian cities and villages for his cause. His platform is modern: less government planning, more scope for free enterprise, a firmer stand against Communism and Chinese aggression. But his language is often reminiscent of the parables of the New Testament.

P:On Nehru's passion for central planning and controls: "The blood must circulate all over the body, though the brain may regulate."

P: On taxation: "The ancient kings took taxes from the people as bees take honey --without harming the flowers. Indeed, the flowers multiplied. The new rajahs take honey from the people in such a way that they cause pain. The flowers droop in sorrow."

P:On the low ethics of many Indian businessmen, which he blames on excessive economic controls: "The chained watchdog grows ever more ferocious. Remove the chains and he becomes a child."

At week's end, Rajagopalachari hove into New Delhi for a final grand rally, well pleased with the results of his campaign.

For months after its founding last summer, C.R.'s Swatantra (Freedom) Party had little influence and no prospects. But Rajagopalachari's tour had had an impact which startled and impressed even India's most cynical observers. At one meeting, at which party officials prepared for 15,000, more than 100,000 turned up. In the last two months, Swatantra has grown so fast that some party leaders now talk expansively of capturing two or three state governments in 1962, increasing their ten seats in the Lower House in New Delhi to 50 or 100.

Swatantra's chief asset is clearly the growing dissatisfaction of India's masses with Congress Party maladministration and corruption, and the growing disenchantment of India's intellectuals with Nehru. The party's chief liability was shrewdly emphasized by Nehru himself, who during a 20-minute courtesy call on C.R. last week ironically remarked: "I've come to see how young you are looking." So frail that he moves about leaning on stout young lieutenants, for all the world like a resurrected Gandhi, C.R. admittedly has a limited political future.

But to C.R. himself this is a matter of no consequence. Last week, when a reverent follower told an audience that they had come to "obtain Rajaji's blessing" and to see "India's next Prime Minister," the old leader snatched the mike and testily disavowed the compliment. Said he: "This movement is not to put me into power. It is to put you into power. The people want a change."

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