Mrs. Gandhi: Relief but Few Regrets

Her younger son Sanjay faces a number of court cases arising from influence peddling in his freewheeling business activities. Some of her closest Cabinet-level associates have been arrested in scandals involving misappropriation of Congress Party funds. Last week, without mentioning any names, Home Minister Charan Singh said that "maybe" persons even higher would be arrested--and that left few short of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself. A few days later, her successor, Morarji Desai, was asked whether Mrs. Gandhi would be allowed a passport to travel abroad. "It is not easy to give a passport when investigations are going on," he answered. "Therefore, the passport may not be given."

Despite such pressures building around her, Mrs. Gandhi was cool and composed when she spoke with New Delhi Bureau Chief Lawrence Malkin and Stringer K.K. Sharma last week in the first interview she has granted to a foreign publication since her dramatic defeat six months ago. But she refused to answer any questions about specific cases before the courts and government commissions of inquiry on the ground that she might be held in contempt of court. Excerpts from the hour-long interview:

On the Desai government It seems to me they are without direction, which is very dangerous. Also, they contradict each other quite often. They are so preoccupied with finding the guilty that they have no time to do what has to be done. Everything that has happened during the emergency is happening now without the legal sanction of a constitutional emergency--arrests, press controls, everything. I would not use the word dictatorship because it has been bandied about far too much. But if my rule was a dictatorship, then this is a dictatorship.

On the investigations Certainly the government [is going on a witch hunt]. And it is directed not only at me personally, but I think the main aim is to crush the Congress [Party]--that is, to crush anything that might be in opposition. Congress is the only opposition, and I come in personally because they think I might be able to mobilize the Congress. The government has been geared to doing only one thing for six months, with no governance at all of the whole country, and it does seem that they have come out with a mouse, haven't they?

On the emergency After the central government [declared the emergency], it was the states that [enforced it], and maybe they did some things that weren't right. They did arrest people whom maybe they shouldn't have. It was an exceptional situation. People did suffer, and we've said we're sorry that they suffered. Maybe it could have been better managed. But something had to be done to stop this kind of agitation at the time of very great economic crisis and shortages. It was like a wartime situation. Maybe it went on too long, but during that time we pulled the nation up so that India was never stronger politically or economically than it was in these last few years, whether it's foreign exchange, production, exports, food or general discipline. And this government wouldn't have lasted a month if we hadn't left the country in such a good situation. Out of 30 years [of independence], for only a year and a half we didn't have open debate. And we had more of it than necessary all the other years.

On her future I have been a public person always, and I continue to be a public person, unfortunately, except that I don't go to the office, and I don't have the same sort of feeling of responsibility. I had looked forward to not being Prime Minister, but I didn't realize I would feel this relief, as if a stone had been removed. I don't have any [political] plans, none at all. I can't have an anticipation of the future, because I just don't know what the government's going to do. When you're doing something, there is a sense of momentum, but now it is just a feeling of tiredness.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.