Changes in the Congress

The 1971 elections – the fifth general elections since India became independent – came earlier than the due date, thus dissociating the national elections from the elections for the state assemblies (the two had so far taken place simultaneously). After the triumph in these elections, the Congress led by Indira Gandhi dropped the (R) and adopted the (I) to become Congress (I) and soon after dropped the

(I) as well: the margin of victory for her faction seemed to confirm that it was the ‘real’ Congress. From now on, the inner party democracy within the Congress was to get more and more eroded.

A lasting effect of the Emergency was to be felt in the way the Congress party worked since then. At the 1976

AICC session in Guwahati, the stage was set for sycophancy as an important political need. In fact, sycophancy was institutionalised and prepared the way for dynastic politics. The Guwahati session marked the debut of Sanjay Gandhi in politics, and the Youth Congress reinforced the rise to power by considering Sanjay to be the heir to the throne, so to say. On Sanjay’s death, Rajiv Gandhi was to step into the space created, even if reluctantly.