The Empty Chair

It had been obvious for months that Jawaharlal Nehru was in failing health.

He walked unsteadily, had difficulty getting in and out of automobiles, often dozed off while talking to visitors. His voice was frail, his skin puffy and loose.

More and more, Nehru was forced to take to his bed with internal disorders.

Last week, at 74, he suffered the most serious illness of all, a stroke that left him bedridden and partially paralyzed.

Suddenly India was faced with its most pressing leadership crisis since independence in 1947.

Quiet & Subdued. The blow fell in the ancient Hindu temple town of Bhubaneswar, 220 miles southwest of Calcutta, where 10,000 delegates, officials, newsmen and hangers-on were gathered for the Congress Party's 68th annual convention. Bhubaneswar had worn a festive air. Green, white and saffron party flags fluttered from hundreds of flagpoles, and pictures of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi adorned shop windows. On his arrival, Nehru was so weak that aides had to lift him from a helicopter, and when he finally was able to walk, he shuffled away with back bent and head bowed. At a flag-raising ceremony, his words were almost inaudible. At the first party sessions, Nehru was quiet and subdued. Then he collapsed.

From Delhi, four doctors, including a heart specialist, were flown to his bedside. The first medical bulletins were evasive, referred to overwork and his need for rest. At last the doctors let it be known that Nehru had lost the feeling in his "left limbs," finally admitted that his whole left side was affected. It was, friends admitted, paralysis.

Fearing the political consequences of the Prime Minister's disability, Nehru's closest aides seemed bent on minimizing its seriousness. Indira Gandhi showed up at Congress meetings, announced airily that her father was already sitting up in bed and reading, remarked that he had even disobeyed doctors' orders by taking a bath.

Internal Dissension. As a result, while world headlines talked of India's leadership crisis, the delegates at Bhubaneswar went about their business almost as if nothing had happened. As was expected in advance, the party overwhelmingly reaffirmed its faith in liquor abstinence, the wearing of simple, homespun clothing, and its belief in socialism (though left-wing amendments calling for nationalization of banks and the rice industry were firmly rejected).

On the dais in the main conference hall, the single empty easy chair set aside for Nehru's use symbolized the big problem that now faced India: Who will succeed its stricken leader? The

Congress Party has been racked with internal dissension ever since Nehru last fall asked a number of top Cabinet officers--including Food Minister S. K. Patil, Home Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri, and Finance Minister Morarji Desai --to resign, ostensibly to reorganize the party and revitalize its strength among the masses. But it is generally felt that Nehru actually intended the move as a ruse to shake out of the Cabinet all potential contenders for his post. Wise to the scheme, the ousted ministers set about building up personal followings for a succession fight.

None of the top contenders has the following and the mass appeal to rule alone as Nehru has done; instead, they must build a coalition from among the various factions within the party. Once a top favorite, the ascetic, blunt-spoken Morarji Desai, 67, has strong backing among the party's right wing. But he suffered a serious loss of popular support last year when his budget raised taxes to almost prohibitive levels in order to finance the defense effort against Red China.

Mrs. Wilson. Smartest politician in the succession sweepstakes is Patil, 63, the political boss of Bombay and a favorite of conservative business elements. Patil has little love for Nehru, personally favors a more pragmatic brand of socialism more concerned with practical accomplishments than with abstract ideological arguments. Closest personally to Nehru is Shastri, 59, whose primary advantage is that he has fewer enemies than any other candidate. But over the long haul, Shastri is a lackluster personality and a colorless campaigner.

Top Indian government officials feel that as long as Nehru stays alive, he will cling stubbornly to the prime-ministership. With Nehru bedridden, the political position of his daughter Indira has become greatly enhanced. Long a Congress Party troubleshooter and her father's top political confidante, Indira has been privy to more top-level decisions than any of Nehru's subordinates. Since ex-Defense Minister Krishna Menon's fall from grace, she has also spread the extreme left-wing views that Nehru wanted publicized but for political reasons did not want to articulate himself. Indira will be her father's main link to the world outside his sickroom and by screening all his visitors will exert, as did Mrs. Woodrow Wilson during her disabled husband's final months in office, an enormous amount of influence. Congress Party left-wingers are hopeful that an extended convalescence will help promote Indira's candidacy and enable her to broaden her political base.

Speak, Mother India. Yet the question remains as to whether India's domestic problems, which defeated a healthy Nehru, are not too pressing for an invalid Prime Minister. Population increases still outstrip the rise in national income, and more than 75% of the country's 450 million people are illiterate. Government machinery is so cumbersome that for a tragic length of time a cholera epidemic in West Bengal went virtually unattended. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than 20-c- a day, food is short, prices are rising, and the third Five-Year Plan is foundering. Land reform is only partially implemented, and many basic industries are half idle.

At week's end, the decision was made to keep Nehru in warm, semitropical Bhubaneswar for a few more days rather than risk moving him to New Delhi. When he returns to the capital, declared aides, the airport will be closed and photographers barred, for India's revered leader would probably return on a stretcher. Meanwhile, Nehru surrendered control of government administration to two of his Cabinet Ministers--Home Minister Gulzari Lal Nanda and Finance Minister T. T. Krishnamachari.

Having known no other leader since Gandhi, the Indian people were reluctant to speculate about the eventual succession. Newspapers at first played down the illness story, dutifully printed only the official medical bulletins. But a Calcutta paper dared do more than wish Nehru well. "Please retire," the paper pleaded. "For a full 50 years, India's millions have accepted your directives. Now you must listen to their fervent appeal. If Mother India could speak, she would urge you affectionately, 'My restless son, don't tire yourself any more.' "

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.