TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/85/85capts.1

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                                                                                January 7, 1985

INDIA

A Landslide for Gandhi


The Prime Minister sweeps to an overwhelming victory


They scattered across the length and breadth of India like
figures in a mythic carnival; 5,418 candidates in all, from 27
different political parties. Some wooed voters from the backs
of elephants and camels; some swooped down in private
helicopters; others traveled amid a cacophony of acrobats and
magicians and drums.

In the former princely state of Gwalior, a scion of maharajahs,
Madhavrao Scindia, 39, the local candidate for Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) Party, courted voters after
descending each day from his sumptuous palace amid a swirl of
liveried servants:  just as faithfully every morning, his mother
regally journeyed from the palace to campaign for an-opposition
party. In the southern town of Madhuranthakam, a disgruntled
politician, who had been refused a place on the party ticket by
the Prime Minister, plunged the local election into chaos by
persuading 84 people to join him in running as independent
candidates. Having somehow been appeased, however, the
malcontent withdrew from the race and the 84 others followed
his example. And in the impoverished northern backwater of
Amethi, where Prime Minister Gandhi was pitted against Maneka
Gandhi, the widow of his younger brother Sanjay, sleepy villages
came alive with Rajiv buttons, Rajiv banners, Rajiv posters and
Rajiv hats. YOU LOOK AFTER THE COUNTRY, RAJIV, advised a sign
on a mud-brick wall. WE'LL LOOK AFTER AMETHI.

The promise was kept. At week's end Rajiv, 40, was coasting to
a landslide victory in Amethi and in the country at large. In
an election whose central issue was Gandhi himself, the 379
million voters who converged upon 479,000 polling places during
three days last week gave the new leader an overwhelming vote
of confidence. With 90% of the races decided, Gandhi's Congress
(I) appeared to have carried at least 400 of the 508 contested
seats in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament, while
winning the more than 50% of the popular vote for the first time
in history. Just two months after he was propelled into power
by his mother's assassination at the hands of two Sikh
bodyguards, and less than four years after he entered politics
as Amethi's Member of Parliament, Gandhi had won decisive
control of the world's largest democracy.

The decisive mandate reflected in part a longing in Gandhi's
unsettled country for security and continuity. Constantly
sounding the theme of national unity, the unassuming former
Indian Airlines pilot faithfully hewed to the creed of
democratic socialism propounded by his grandfather Jawaharlal
Nehru and perpetuated by his mother. But while providing a
sense of national stability, he offered the prospect of a modern
new face for his country. "If it's a landslide," he said not
long before the election, "we would have to interpret that as
a mandate for change."  Buoyed by his victory, the businesslike
Gandhi is expected to set about his ambitious goal of liberating
India from the corruption and strong-willed central rule
associated with his mother's reign and ushering in a new era of
efficiency and high technology.

Gandhi has already established a special task force to untangle
the government's mess of red tape. On grounds of inefficiency,
indolence or corruption, he forbade 103 Congress (I) colleagues
to run for re- election. "He is open to new ideas," says K.
Natwar Singh, one of India's senior diplomats and now a Congress
(I) politician. "He will combine tradition with innovation.
He is modern-minded and secular."

Perhaps Gandhi's greatest advantage during the campaign was a
badly divided opposition. Had Indira Gandhi been contesting the
election, her foes could have made capital out of her
increasingly authoritarian ways. Stripped of that rallying
motive, however, Rajiv's opposition could muster no direction,
no unity and no potential leader to set against the familiar
name of Gandhi. In many constituencies, the Congress (I)
candidate won almost by default as three or four opposition
rivals crowded the ballot, taking votes away from one another.
Moreover, while Congress (I) fielded candidates in 492
constituencies, only one party, the Bharatiya Janata, had as
many as 26 contestants; as a result, no opposition party had a
chance of winning a clear majority. The opposition's disarray
tended to undercut the parties' promises of a coalition
government.

By contrast, Gandhi, often accompanied by his Italian-born wife
Sonia, displayed a winning blend of confidence and diffidence
that belied his reputation as an introvert. He did, to be sure,
shy away from the worst excesses of the campaign trail:  when
adoring women fell at his feet, he would lean over, with some
embarrassment, and gently urge them to rise. Nonetheless, while
addressing crowds in more than 200 cities and towns during the
three-week campaign, the man known as Mr. Clean remained
categorical in enunciating his principles. "We will not
tolerate dishonesty in any form," he announced during his final
days on the hustings.

Unlike like his mother, who would sometimes come to decisions
by consulting astrologers, Rajiv is more likely to consider
statistics. The pragmatic new Prime Minister believes in
market-research surveys, business-school theories and computer
read-outs. He did not hesitate to suggest a cleaning-up of the
sacred but polluted Ganges River, and even hired a Bombay
advertising agency to work on his campaign. In marked contrast
with his mother, Rajiv readily listens to experts and chooses
to rule by consensus.

That spirit has been evident in the various programs pursued by
Gandhi and a small inner circle of like-minded young
technocrats. The most trusted of Gandhi's advisers are Anon
Nehru, his third cousin, and Arun Singh, a former classmate at
the exclusive Dojon School. Both have established themselves
as successful businessmen with a gift for marketing. As
Congress (I)'s powerful general secretary in command of the
campaign, the tough-minded Nehru drew up the party's list of
candidates and supervised the spending of around $100 million
in campaign funds. The suave, soft-spoken Singh has effectively
been acting as a Deputy Prime Minister, mediating between the
Prime Minister and his government. Another of Rajiv's close
associates is Movie Star Amitabh Bhachan, known as the Burt
Reynolds of India's booming movie industry. His usefulness to
Gandhi has been as a symbol of someone rich and famous enough
to stand above the temptations of politics.

In foreign policy, Gandhi is expected to remain faithful to his
mother's declarations of nonalignment. But as the first Prime
Minister to have grown up since India's independence 37 years
ago, Rajiv brings to the job fewer memories of a bloody past
than did his predecessors. Some political analysts in India
predict that he may prove more flexible than his mother toward
the U.S., yet firmer toward neighboring Pakistan. "We're happy
about the way Pakistan talks about peace," Gandhi told a group
of reporters last month, "but we're not happy about their
actions, which do not describe peace. They warmly welcomed the
militant Sikhs. They gave shelter and aid to hijackers. They
are arming themselves. These are not actions conducive to
friendly relations."

That is not the only problem Gandhi has inherited. He must
appease the Sikhs whose separatist cause in Punjab has led to
two years of turmoil, culminating in Indira Gandhi's murder.
He must accommodate the Muslims, who represent an 11% minority
and were, in certain states, advised by religious leaders to
vote against Congress (I). Above all, he must confront the task
of bring modern practices to a country that still venerates
ageless traditions.

From the beginning, Rajiv Gandhi has accepted these challenges
with a minimum of fuss. When his mother's death suddenly placed
him in the Prime Minister's office, "he did not wring his hands
and say, 'It's too much for me,'" recalls one of his advisers.
"He did not panic. He simply said 'Let's get down to
business.'"

--By Pico Iyer.  Reported by Dean Brels/New Delhi