Word: desai
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With these words, Morarji Desai, 81, assured a jubilant throng in New Delhi that he would "drive fear out of society." Two months earlier he had been a prisoner without trial under the repressive state of emergency; last week, as he became the fourth Prime Minister of India, he promised to restore civil liberties, adhere to the principles of local development idealized by Mahatma Gandhi and maintain a scrupulously nonaligned foreign policy. A lifelong politician in the Gandhian mold, Desai is as eccentric as he is ascetic, and he leads a fractious coalition party that could fall apart under...
Aside from Narayan, the opposition's most influential figures are two veteran politicians, each of whom has long aspired to be Prime Minister: Morarji Desai, 81, and Jagjivan Ram, 68. Desai left the ruling party in 1969 after Mrs. Gandhi fired him as Finance Minister. A teetotaling vegetarian who rises at 3 or 4 a.m. and works at his spinning wheel as a Gandhian duty, Desai has been barnstorming the country with a simple message: Mrs. Gandhi's emergency has introduced a "climate of fear," and if she wins again, she will reimpose the full force...
...hand were 70,000 people who sat crosslegged, on the ground or on jute mats, to hear a succession of speakers denounce the government for its harsh curtailment of the nation's freedom. "You have found out what kind of people rule this country," declared Opposition Leader Morarji Desai, 80, who had been released from prison a fortnight earlier. "It is as important to keep our freedom secure from this type of government as to keep it in the face of a foreign threat." Desai drew a roar of approval when he accused the government of "vasectomizing" democracy...
Instead, immediately after Desai's release, he joined forces with the leaders of three other opposition parties in a coalition called the Janata (People's) Party. In the previous Parliament, members of the newly-formed party held only 50 seats, compared to 350 seats controlled by Gandhi's Congress Party. Nevertheless, Desai declared upon leaving prison, "We hope to win a thumping majority, not just a small majority...
...after independence in 1947. Such sentiments are particularly noteworthy. existing despite an Indian economy that is healthier than it has beer in years. Still, Janata has little chance of gaining enough seats to sway government policies or insure against a re-enactment of the events since June 1975. With Desai, Narayan, Ram and others united in firm opposition to the current government Gandhi faces the most serious challenge to her rule since the election scandal that prompted the "emergency," but the grooming of her son Sanjay as a clear successor to her is indication enough that the aging. Indian ruler...