Mr. Antulay should not prove a particularly heavy cross for Mrs. Gandhi to bear. But it is a cross she could well have avoided wearing if she had kept herself properly informed and if she had been willing to act in time. She was perhaps inhibited by considerations of loyalty. Despite her reputation for ruthlessness, such considerations do weigh with her. Increasingly, however, it also looks as if she was not properly informed, indeed, that she was deliberately taken for a ride not only by Mr. Antulay and obvious beneficiaries of his style of government and fund collection; but also by some others on whom she depended for advice. By all accounts, Mr. Antulay has had a powerful lobby working for him in New Delhi. This lobby pursued a multi-track approach. It made out that the criticism of Mr. Antulay was an attack on Mrs. Gandhi herself; it played on her legitimate concern regarding the possible impact on Muslim opinion of his removal from office, and it made light of his total disregard for all established norms and procedures. Clearly, the tactics worked remarkably well.
All this raises a number of issues, the most important being that in her capacity both as Prime Minister and president of the ruling party, Mrs. Gandhi is poorly served by the existing machinery at her disposal and that she must organize a far more efficient monitoring system if she is to function effectively. These are, however, long-term issues which need not detain us at present. We shall also have to wait for details before we can fully assess the damage Mr. Antulay has done to the state of Maharashtra and to the entire system. Meanwhile, it is necessary to draw attention to certain other important points.
Mr. Antulay remains unrepentant despite the judgment of the Bombay high court, the severest in independent India against a political figure in office. This is understandable because he is that kind of man. Similarly, it speaks for his success in a destroying the old Congress culture that most of the Maharashtra ministers and legislators should still have wanted him to continue in office. In the event, he had to resign under instructions from New Delhi. But this, too, did not clinch the issue for him and for many of those who have been swearing loyalty to Mrs. Gandhi and owe their power and position to her. They tried to circumvent her. On Thursday they had the cheek to demand that they be allowed to re-elect Mr. Antulay as leader of the Congress (I) legislature party. And while Mrs. Gandhi’s representatives were on the way to Bombay, Mr. NM Tidke, one of Mr. Antulay senior ministers, had the audacity to fix a meeting of the legislature party for the purpose of electing Mr. Antulay’s successor in disregard of the Congress tradition in such matters. Clearly, he had acted under orders from his mentor and boss, Mr. Antulay, who wanted to present the party high command with a fait accompli.
That was not all. Mr. Antulay promoted a campaign suggesting that if Mrs. Gandhi did not resign following an adverse court judgment in 1975, there was no reason why he should be made to do so. The important point here is not that the organizers of the campaign disregarded the nature of the two offences, so minor in Mrs. Gandhi’s case as to persuade The Times, London, to compare it with a parking offence, but that they equated Mr. Antulay with Mrs. Gandhi. This was unexpected, though on careful examination not altogether surprising. Mr. Antulay had been equating himself with her for quite some time in a variety of ways which for reasons of space cannot be detailed here. Forgetting his undistinguished record and rather unsavoury reputation as a minister in Maharashtra earlier, he had been claiming for himself popularity next only to hers. Finally, on Thursday he proposed two names, one of whom could be elected as his successor, taking it for granted that he was entitled to do so. Some courage this, in view of the circumstances in which he had to quit. That apart, Mr. Antulay’s recommendation should be a disqualification for the two individuals who as it happens, have little to recommend them.