Documentary Evidence

Indira Gandhi & Karan Singh

Ed by Jawaid Alam Viking

Pages: 416

Rs 699

Nearly five years ago,Karan Singh published his extensive correspondence with Jawaharlal Nehru in Jammu and Kashmir (1949-1964) that received the welcome it deserved. For it threw light on some hidden and some dark recesses of history of the sensitive state. Singhs credentials to exchange letters with the iconic PM were impeccable. Having been its yuvraj at age 18,he had morphed successively into its regent,sardar-i-riysat and governor. The present book,a companion volume to the first,comprises select correspondence between him and Indira Gandhi. As its title Kashmir & Beyond suggests,it has less to do with Kashmir than with a host of other subjects: political,social,constitutional,administrative,personal and even religious.

The reason for this is that from 1967 until 1977 he was a member of the Indira Gandhi cabinet,and then onwards,through the 1969 Congress split and the 1975-77 Emergency,he was her loyal and well-liked colleague. In 1978,when it was out of power,the Congress split again,and he chose to join her opponents. Even so,the correspondence between them continued until seven days before her assassination. So the new book should be of interest to both the scholar and the lay reader though the historic importance of these 336 missives is a tad less than the Nehru letters.

One significant letter included in this compendium the author had written it by hand but kept a photocopy of it was sent a day after the Allahabad high courts judgment unseating Indira. In it,after praising her remarkable leadership that would ensure for you a place in world history,Singh advised her to resign and send her resignation letter to President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed who should refuse to accept it and ask her to continue until her appeal in the Supreme Court was finally decided.

Even at this distance of time,in the preface,Singh contends that had Indira chosen to take his advice,much of the negative public reaction might have been avoided. This is wishful thinking. In the prevailing atmosphere in the country she could not have continued in office without arresting the leaders of the JP movement and without censoring the press that was almost baying for her blood until June 25,1975.

Curiously,except for a private note on what she should do under the new dispensation,the book contains no letter about the Emergency of which Singh,like other cabinet ministers,heard only at the funereal cabinet meeting on the morning after the night before. According to the books editor Jawaid Alam,who has done a fine job of putting every letter in perspective,this is so because all letters of the 1976-80 period are untraceable. This sounds strange given Singhs reputation as a meticulous preserver of documents. In any case,Alams strenuous efforts to gain access to the Indira Gandhi papers at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library drew a blank,which is no surprise,given the appalling archival policy of the powers that be.

It is necessary to point out that Jammu and Kashmir,so close to the authors heart,gets its due in many of his letters. Particularly noteworthy is his detailed commentary on the draft agreement that Indira and

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah signed in February 1975 under which the Sheikh returned to power in Srinagar.

For the rest,let me draw specific attention to a fascinating letter Indira wrote to Singh exactly 12 days after first becoming prime minister. In it she mentioned the heavy burden of responsibilities placed on my shoulders,worried about the most important problem of drought and food security,described the Tashkent Declaration as Lal Bahadur Shastrijis last great service to the country and added that the declaration itself does not solve any specific problem. It was for India and Pakistan to honour the document they had solemnly agreed to.