Challenges to and Restoration of Congress System Class 12 Political Science

The Congress System, established in the aftermath of India's independence, faced challenges due to regional and ideological diversity, leading to fragmentation within the Indian National Congress. This fragmentation led to the emergence of alternative political parties, challenging Congress dominance. The restoration of the Congress System was attempted through strategies such as the Congress party's reorganization, alliances with regional parties, and ideological adaptation, aimed at maintaining its political hegemony.

Overview to the Challenge of Political Succession

• Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964 due to a heart attack.
• After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, the discussion of political successor started, that is, who will lead the Congress after Nehru and who will take over the post of Prime Minister.
• But this problem was solved very easily.
• All the big leaders of the party after consultation decided to make Lal Bahadur Shastri the Prime Minister.

From Nehru to Shastri

• Nehru’s death in 1964 generated a lot of speculation about the question of succession. The 1960s were labelled as the ‘dangerous decade’ due to many challenges and unsolved problems.
• Once taking the responsibility of a railway accident, Shastri had resigned from his railway minister’s post, which showed his loyalty and responsibility towards his post.
• For this reason, the proposal to make Lal Bahadur Shastri the Prime Minister was accepted. In this way Lal Bahadur Shastri came after Nehru.
• During Shastri tenure from 1964 to 1966 the country faced two major challenges serious food crisis and a war with Pakistan in 1965. Shastri’s famous slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ symbolised the country’s resolve to face both these challenges.

From Shastri to Indira Gandhi

• After sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 there was an intense competition between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi for succession. Indira Gandhi was backed by senior party leaders.
• At that time the group of big leaders present inside the Congress were called Syndicate.
• At the time of the election of the Prime Minister, the Syndicate decided to support Indira Gandhi thinking that Indira Gandhi does not have much experience, therefore she will depend on the Syndicate.

Fourth General Elections, 1967

• This time due to competition between two people, secret ballot was conducted.
• Indira Gandhi very comfortably defeated Morarji Desai and was elected to the post of Prime Minister.
• Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of the country after Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Fourth General Elections

Context of the Elections

• The year 1967 is considered as a landmark year in India’s political and electoral history.
• In prevailing political environment the economic situation triggered off price rise. People started protesting against the increase in prices of essential commodities, food scarcity etc.
• The communist and socialist parties launched struggles for great equality.
• 1960s also witnessed some of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots since Independence.

Non-Congressism

• Opposition parties were in the forefront of organising public protests and pressurising the government.
• These opposition parties felt that the inexperience of Indira Gandhi and the internal factionalism within the Congress provided them an opportunity to topple the Congress.
• The socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia gave this strategy the name of Tion-congressism.

Electoral Verdict

• The fourth general elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies were held in February 1967.
• The results jolted the Congress at both the national and state levels, and it was termed as ‘political earthquake’.

Coalitions

• The elections of 1967 brought into picture the phenomenon of coalitions.
• Since no single party had got majority, various non-congress parties came together to form joint legislative parties (called Samyukt Vidhayak Dal in Hindi) that supported non-congress governments.

Defection

• Defection means an elected representative leaves the party on whose symbol he/she got elected and joins another party. 
• The constant realignments and shifting political loyalties in this period gave rise to the expression ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’.

Split in the Congress

After 1967 elections Congress saw split due to various differences:

What was Indira vs the ‘Syndicate’?

• Syndicate was a group of powerful and influential leaders from within the Congress.
• Indira Gandhi faced two challenges from syndicate to build her independence from the syndicate and to work towards regaining the ground that the Congress had lost in the 1967 elections.

Presidential Election, 1969

• The factional rivalry between the Syndicate and Indira Gandhi was clearly visibe when the post of President of India was vacated in 1969 after the death of Zakir Hussain.
• Syndicate supported official candidate of the Congress N.Sanjeeva Reddy while Indira Gandhi supported W Giri as the candidate for the President of India.
• Indira Gandhi announced the nationalisation of fourteen leading private banks and the abolition of the ‘privy purse’ which removed differences between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi.
• The defeat of official Congress candidate formalised the split in the party.

The 1971 Election and Restoration of Congress

The Indira Gandhi’s Government recommended the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in December 1970 and the fifth general elections to the Lok Sabha were held in February 1971.

The Contest

• In 1971 election, all the major non-communist, non-congress opposition parties formed an electoral alliance known as the Grand Alliance.
• Indira Gandhi said that the opposition alliance had only one common programme Indira Hatao, in contrast she put forward a positive programme captured in the famous slogan Garibi Hatao.
• This Slogan and the programmes that followed it were part of Indira Gandhi’s political strategy of building an independent nationwide political support base.

The Outcome and After Effect

• The results of the 1971 Lok Sabha elections were dramatic as the Congress (R) – CPI alliance won more seats and votes than the Congress had ever won in the first four general elections.
• They combine won 375 seats in Lok Sabha and secured 48.4 percent votes. Indira Gandhi’s Congress (R) won 352 seats with about 44 per cent of the popular votes on its own.
• The Grand Alliance of the opposition proved a grand failure. Their combined tally of seats was less than 40.

Restoration

• Indira Gandhi in many ways had re-invented the party. Now, it was a new Congress that had emerged.
• While the Congress consolidated its position and Indira Gandhi assumed a position of unprecedented political authority, the spaces for democratic expression of people’s aspirations actually shrank.
• The popular unrest and mobilisation around issues of development and economic deprivation continued to grow.