We are very close to the death Anniversary of a Gandhi. I am sure many, especially from the new generation will ask, who is this odd man out in the Gandhi clan ?
He is Sanjay Gandhi. There was hardly any media coverage of this day 36 years ago, when the then scion of India's first family and now the forgotton Gandhi crashed himself to death.
True to the sycophantic culture in their party, some Congressmen (and women) who owe their rise due to the younger son of Indira Gandhi, ignore the later, lest they earn the wrath of Signora Gandhi, who was no fan of her DEVAR, brother of her husband.
Khushwant Singh, who once upon a time was very close to the Gandhi family, ascribed Sanjay Gandhi as a "Lovable Goonda". He was an impatient young man, who had no patience for the sluggish government, with a penchant for ruthlessly implementing his agenda.
Sanjay Gandhi died at the peak of power. Indira Gandhi swept back to power in January, 1980 with a massive majority at center. Sanjay Gandhi had a free hand in ticket distribution in multiple Assembly elections held in several states across India in the following month of May. Congress won all hands down and all Sanjay's handpicked men were made the CMs of those states. Congress was in power in all major states except Kerala and Bengal.
Death can be unforgiving and choses a time of its own. The kiss of death doesn't care for a prince or pauper, a mundane commoner or a person at pinnacle of power. As the day dawned on a typically hot, summer Delhi morning in late June, Sanjay Gandhi somersaulted his twin Engine plane, maneuvering with his flying toy above Delhi sky. This time, he could never complete his acrobatics, as he lost his balance, his plane nose dived, killing him on spot in the bushes of Safdarjung.
The news of his death stunned all. Per India Today Anniversary edition - First thing Indira Gandhi did after reaching the wreckage, was to salvage his watch from the badly dismangled body - of someone who minutes ago was on top of Lutyen's Delhi, literally and figuratively.
The maverick, younger son of Indira and her chosen political heir, was the only politician who seriously ever tried to control the menace called population growth, which was already at epidemic proportion. Another agenda of his was to keep our cities clean, free from dirty slums which were perennial eyesore and often resembled giant toilets.
Not many are aware of this fact - unlike her grandpa (a left liberal socialist) and mother (though socialist, never hesitated to hobnob with Industrialists and RSS if it suited her), Sanjay despised the Communists to core, comparing them to vermins, and wanted to get rid of them from India.
During the emergency, his plan was to dissolve the Parliament and declare her mother as The Head of the State with a subjugated Constituent Assembly. He wasn't very happy when her mom lifted Emergency, announcing fresh elections, only to lose.
Hypothetically speaking - what would've happened if Sanjay Gandhi survived that fateful day ? Under a dictatorial Sanjay, India would have gone either the Chinese way or Ferdinand Marcos's Phillipines way - we don't know. But what we know, his vision of population control and keeping India clean, as well as getting work accomplish by bypassing the red tape, was well ahead of time.
He is Sanjay Gandhi. There was hardly any media coverage of this day 36 years ago, when the then scion of India's first family and now the forgotton Gandhi crashed himself to death.
True to the sycophantic culture in their party, some Congressmen (and women) who owe their rise due to the younger son of Indira Gandhi, ignore the later, lest they earn the wrath of Signora Gandhi, who was no fan of her DEVAR, brother of her husband.
Khushwant Singh, who once upon a time was very close to the Gandhi family, ascribed Sanjay Gandhi as a "Lovable Goonda". He was an impatient young man, who had no patience for the sluggish government, with a penchant for ruthlessly implementing his agenda.
Sanjay Gandhi died at the peak of power. Indira Gandhi swept back to power in January, 1980 with a massive majority at center. Sanjay Gandhi had a free hand in ticket distribution in multiple Assembly elections held in several states across India in the following month of May. Congress won all hands down and all Sanjay's handpicked men were made the CMs of those states. Congress was in power in all major states except Kerala and Bengal.
Death can be unforgiving and choses a time of its own. The kiss of death doesn't care for a prince or pauper, a mundane commoner or a person at pinnacle of power. As the day dawned on a typically hot, summer Delhi morning in late June, Sanjay Gandhi somersaulted his twin Engine plane, maneuvering with his flying toy above Delhi sky. This time, he could never complete his acrobatics, as he lost his balance, his plane nose dived, killing him on spot in the bushes of Safdarjung.
The news of his death stunned all. Per India Today Anniversary edition - First thing Indira Gandhi did after reaching the wreckage, was to salvage his watch from the badly dismangled body - of someone who minutes ago was on top of Lutyen's Delhi, literally and figuratively.
The maverick, younger son of Indira and her chosen political heir, was the only politician who seriously ever tried to control the menace called population growth, which was already at epidemic proportion. Another agenda of his was to keep our cities clean, free from dirty slums which were perennial eyesore and often resembled giant toilets.
Not many are aware of this fact - unlike her grandpa (a left liberal socialist) and mother (though socialist, never hesitated to hobnob with Industrialists and RSS if it suited her), Sanjay despised the Communists to core, comparing them to vermins, and wanted to get rid of them from India.
During the emergency, his plan was to dissolve the Parliament and declare her mother as The Head of the State with a subjugated Constituent Assembly. He wasn't very happy when her mom lifted Emergency, announcing fresh elections, only to lose.
Hypothetically speaking - what would've happened if Sanjay Gandhi survived that fateful day ? Under a dictatorial Sanjay, India would have gone either the Chinese way or Ferdinand Marcos's Phillipines way - we don't know. But what we know, his vision of population control and keeping India clean, as well as getting work accomplish by bypassing the red tape, was well ahead of time.
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