The Opposition Strikes Back

India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, 59, is a shrewd tactician who gambles only on sure things. Last month, to the astonishment of her 620 million countrymen, she suddenly relaxed the emergency regulations under which Indians had been living for 18 months, released dozens of leading political prisoners from detention and announced that the country's long-postponed elections would be held in mid-March. By last week Mrs. Gandhi could wish that she had left bad enough alone. Within a span of three days, the opposition staged a vigorous reincarnation and one of her most respected political partners defected.

The week began with a giant political rally in Delhi, called by the four opposition groups that had quickly united as the Janata (People's) Party. On hand were 70,000 people who sat crosslegged, on the ground or on jute mats, to hear a succession of speakers denounce the government for its harsh curtailment of the nation's freedom. "You have found out what kind of people rule this country," declared Opposition Leader Morarji Desai, 80, who had been released from prison a fortnight earlier. "It is as important to keep our freedom secure from this type of government as to keep it in the face of a foreign threat." Desai drew a roar of approval when he accused the government of "vasectomizing" democracy--a reference to the strenuous program of birth control by sterilization that has caused riots and resentment throughout much of North India.

Fear Psychosis. The ease with which the opposition could stage such a large rally, the first since June 1975, may have surprised Mrs. Gandhi. But what really shocked her was the unexpected resignation of her Food and Agriculture Minister, Jagjivan Ram, 68, from both the Cabinet and the Congress Party. As the acknowledged leader of India's 85 million Untouchables, or harijans (children of God), and a Cabinet member since 1947, Ram was one of Mrs. Gandhi's most powerful colleagues. Though he had remained loyal to her throughout the emergency, Ram declared last week that Indians were being "deprived of all their freedoms" and that "a fear psychosis has overtaken the whole nation." He would, declared Ram, establish a new party, to be known as the Congress for Democracy. Half a dozen leading members of the ruling party immediately joined him.

In an icy letter to "My dear Babuji" (the Hindi honorific for a respected elder), Mrs. Gandhi retorted: "It is strange that you should have remained silent all these months," especially when "you were actively and directly associated with every decision." Then, rising from a sickbed, she summoned her Cabinet and other party leaders and extracted from each of them a signed statement of loyalty to herself and a condemnation of Ram. Later, as her anger grew, she denounced Ram as an opportunist and a turncoat, and charged that he was to blame for a recent rise in food prices. "Now that I am not in government," replied Ram sarcastically, "I suppose prices will start going down."

Why had Ram broken with Mrs. Gandhi so tardily? Some observers noted that Indira's ambitious son Sanjay, 30, had been demanding that a number of party nominations for parliamentary seats be reserved for younger candidates; Ram and other members of the old guard may have feared that Mrs. Gandhi was on the verge of replacing them with fresh faces. Ram's walkout will impede her efforts to reorganize the party, forcing her to maintain a delicate balance between young and old candidates.

Blessing in Disguise. Whatever the reason, and however severe the blow to Mrs. Gandhi, Ram's departure does not necessarily spell her downfall. The Congress Party, having ruled India since 1947, is well entrenched, and Indira remains the country's most powerful--and popular--political figure Moreover, she benefits from the fact that the Janata Party, whose elements range from the right-wing Old Congress faction to the Socialists to the Hindu-first Jana Sangh, is united in almost nothing except its opposition to the existing government. Indeed, as one Janata spokesman confided to TIME'S New Delhi bureau chief, Lawrence Malkin, the call for a quick election may have been a blessing in disguise "because now we don't have time to start fighting each other."

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