Sanjay Gandhi: A controversial tribute

Maneka and Rajiv Gandhi: Paying homageA battery of 20 news cameramen crowded around Maneka Gandhi as she sat demurely beside her brother-in-law Rajiv in the front row of the brightly-lit auditorium of the capital's Vigyan Bhavan. On the dais, behind a long narrow table, sat a galaxy of VIPs: Mrs Gandhi, Zail Singh, Narasimha Rao, Pranab Mukherjee, Abdul Ghani Khan Chowdhury, N.D. Tewari, Madan Bhatia and Arun Nehru. Indira Gandhi, in a jet black, full-sleeved woollen pull-over and white silk sari, was speaking into the microphone: "Mr Roshan Seth, will you please come forward?"From the wings emerged Seth, the prominent stage actor who is playing Jawaharlal Nehru in Richard Attenborough's super-budget screen production, Gandhi. An off-white shawl draped casually over his kurta-clad shoulders and his clean-shaven head glistening in the sea of light, his voice rose and fell dramatically as he recited a poem in English titled In Flight, the work of a 19-year-old Canadian martyr to aerial adventure. The poem was meant as both a literal and figurative symbol of the soaring heights attained by the late Sanjay Gandhi in the months before his death. The special function organised by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust to officially release a pictorial volume on Sanjay, had finally begun.But, as India's most talked-about daughter-in-law sat through the succession of eloquent eulogies on her late husband, an undercurrent of doubt persisted. It was December 21, a full week after Sanjay's birthday, when the book's release had been scheduled. During that week, the capital's army of professional rumor-mongers had been in great form. In the absence of any clear explanation for the postponement, they presumed that where there is smoke, there must be fire. And, where the Gandhi family was concerned, such a fire could only be caused by friction between Maneka and her mother-in-law. The propounders of this theory insisted that the delay in the book's publication had been the result of a last-minute objection by the prime minister to certain portions of the introductory text written by Maneka. Indeed though details were lacking, persons who had read earlier versions confirmed that hasty changes had been made in some sections, including the vividly descriptive photo captions.Explanations: Those involved in the production of the volume, however, flatly deny this. Though Maneka herself remained unavailable for comment, veteran photographer T.S. Nagarajan who has edited the book told India Today: "All this is complete fabrication. There has been no change in the text." G.U. Mehta, managing director of Vakils, Feffer and Simons, who printed the book, echoed the denial: "The function at Vigyan Bhavan had to be postponed only because the Railways did not get the consignment of books to Delhi on time. Although the books were despatched on December 9, they did not reach Delhi and Calcutta despite pressure from the highest sources."Even so, intriguing questions remained unanswered. The publicity brochure sent along with invitations to the abortive December 14 function promised that "the book, priced at Rs 165", would "tell you all you want to know about Sanjay Gandhi and his family". But Maneka's 5,000-word text is only a generalised, impressionistic portrayal of Sanjay's personality as seen by his young widow. It is nowhere near the all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask treatment that had been promised. Nor does the text touch on such aspects as the Turkman Gate incident or Nehru's influence on Sanjay.Intriguing: The brochure in fact clearly specifies that such subjects would be discussed and laid bare: "Where was Sanjay on the day of the Turkman Gate incident? What was his relationship with his mother Indira Gandhi and his brother Rajiv? What influence did his grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru have on him? How did he enter politics? Were his crowds bought? What was his reaction to being jailed? What part did he play in the fall of the Janata government?" There are. admittedly, cursory references in the photographic captions to some of these issues but these are by no means cogent answers to the questions raised.Ironically, similar questions were being asked about Maneka Gandhi soon after invitees to the first Vigyan Bhavan function had been telephonically informed of the postponement: What is Maneka's relationship with her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and her brother-in-law Rajiv? What influence does her mother Amteshwar Anand, the publisher of Surya India, have on her? Will she enter politics? What were her reactions to the petering out of the campaign launched by many of Sanjay's men to persuade her to assume her husband's political mantle? What part will she play in the future of the Congress(I)?Revealing Interview: Some of these questions were answered by Maneka in an intriguing interview published on December 14' in Hindustan Times, of which Khushwant Singh is editor (Singh, incidentally, spearheaded the ill-fated 'draft Maneka' campaign soon after the Pitts tragedy and is said to have assisted Sanjay's widow in writing the now-controversial introductory article for the jinxed picture book). A number of charming domestic vignettes emerge from the interview: Mrs Gandhi's love for her grandchild Feroze Varun, who sleeps in her room and not with his mother Maneka; the baby's fascination for car rides and his noisy protests when it is time to go home.However captivating might be the thought of India's prime minister changing a baby's nappy in the middle of the night, the significance of the interview lies in glimpses it provides of Maneka's own personality: there is evidence enough that she still retains her girlish impetuosity, her reckless courage, her reliance on impulse rather than on a mature sense of direction. Yet, side by side, there would appear to be a new Maneka emerging: a woman who realises that "you cannot expect other people to heal your wounds for you; you have to wait for the wounds to heal themselves", a young widow who understands that "death does not bring one closer to anyone else". Gandhi-family watchers took this remark as some indication of Maneka's strained relations with her in-laws. Undoubtedly, the interview provided further grist to the capital's rumour mills and the word was out that 1 Safdarjang Road did not approve of Maneka's splash in the press.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 29, 2013 11:04 IST--- ENDS ---

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Sanjay Gandhi: A controversial tribute

The special function organised by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust to officially release a pictorial volume on Sanjay, had finally begun.

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