By Tirthankar Mitra
India has had a number of prime ministers over the past seven decades. They are remembered for their decisions which found expression in their government’s performance.
Age-old social structure in India being what it is, their family members sometimes overtly or covertly participated in the exercise of their seals of office. Relatives by blood or by marriage struck to the governmental head sometimes using him/her as a passport to the corridors of power which in so many words boiled down to a meal ticket and more.
Family connections rather than abilities of an individual often pave the way of a. nondescript relation making his/her way to the seat of a great sire. But Feroze Gandhi who turned 111 on September 12 was an exception.
He had married into the illustrious Nehru clan which needs no introduction. His father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru was a Congress stalwart at the time of his marriage to Indira and was chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to be the nation’s first prime minister.
If Feroze, a MP from Raebareilly walked into the parliament some thought as the prime minister’s son-in-law, they had another think coming. A leader in his own right who had his roots embedded firmly in the hearts of the people, he soon showed that he was his own man.
Speaking compactly though not copiously in the Parliament, Feroze zeroed in on issues which had strong connect to the people, their resources and their assets. He was a cynosure of all eyes, especially the not too populous Opposition benches as the matters he raised and spoke about embarrassed his own party no end.
Feroze’s political and organisational abilities were never in doubt. It was none other than Mahatma Gandhi who had unerring feel for the pulse of his people who felt that with seven activists like Feroze ,he could attain freedom of the country in a week.
But there were not too many takers for the views of the Father of the Nation including Feroze’s father-in-law, Nehru. Indeed the nation’s first prime minister had taken his time to appreciate the worth of his son-in-law.
Realisation dawned on him after Feroze had breathed his last breath. “I never knew he was so popular” the prime minister said taken aback at the size of the crowd of mourners on his son-in-law’s last journey.
Not a man to bask in the popularity of his father-in-law, Feroze never stayed with Nehru at his prime ministerial residence. For he knew it would convey the wrong impression though his wife was the hostess of the prime minister.
The sight of any misdemeanour of a Member of Parliament during the session reaches his/her voters both who voted for and against him/her in no time. For the proceedings of the House are telecast.
But time was when the goings on within the House in session was out of bounds for the scribes. Feroze Gandhi introduced Private Member’s Bill advocating press freedom.
It was later to be known as a law which was Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act 1956. Moving it, he said “For the success of the parliamentary form of government and democracy and so that will of the people shall prevail, it is necessary that our people should know what transpires in this House. This is not your house or my house, it is the House of the people. It is on their behalf that we speak or function in this chamber. These people have a right to know what their representatives say or do. Anything that stands in the way must be removed.”
It was a Private Member’s Bill which was made into a law. The parliamentary proceedings could be reported unhindered owing to it, though Feroze Gandhi was destined to see the day when his widow Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister headed a government which imposed Emergency and imposed Press censorship heralding the darkest day of Indian democracy.
Not resting on his laurels, Feroze Gandhi stood up in Parliament on December 16, 1957 on an issue which was an embarrassment to the government his party was running. He drew the attention of the House about an Rs 1.25 crore investment of Life Insurance Corporation of India in several companies of an industrialist based in what was then called Calcutta.
The matter also involved Haridas Mundhra, a stock broker who was involved in the matter. The LIC had recently been nationalised and public funds were involved in the matter.
Addressing the House on what was inarguably the first financial scam of independent India, Feroze Gandhi said ” Mr Speaker, there is going to be some sharp shooting and hard hitting in the House today, because when I hit, I hit hard and expect to be hit harder. I am conscious that the other side is also equipped with plentiful supply of TNT.”
Continuing in the same vein, he said “When things of such magnitude occur silence becomes a crime. Public expenditure shall be subject to severe public debate is a healthy tradition especially in an era of growing public enterprise ” The endeavour of the MP from Raebareilly led to the formation of a probe committee headed by former Chief Justice, Bombay High Court, Justice M C Chagla.
It’s report after two months pointed to an involvement of the then Union finance minister, T T Krishnamachari. He stepped down on February 18, 1958. One wonders, whether this was arguably Feroze Gandhi’s swan song. On September 8, 1960 he breathed his last at Delhi following a heart attack.
Intolerant of politico-economic dirt, the life and works of Feroze Gandhi emerges as a shining example of uncompromising probity these days when looking the other way has become the praxis when a scam surfaces. He placed public welfare risking to be marked out as a source of public discomfiture to a government which had little opposition to it.
Feroze Gandhi may have been a sore thumb to the powers that be. But he continues to be a crusader against corruption who cut across party lines. His better half apart, Feroze Gandhi’s eldest son Rajiv too became the prime minister though his reputation as “Mr Clean” was besmirched by several allegations. Is it a sign of the times the memorials to Feroze Gandhi are far outnumbered by those of his father-in-law, wife and sons. (IPA Service)