Word: gandhis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Despite New Delhi's undeniable lurch toward totalitarian rule and its suspension of certain civil liberties, India remains, strictly speaking, a democracy. Mrs. Gandhi's harsh effort to suppress political opposition shocked observers outside India, but she did act within the bounds of India's rather pliable constitution. Even though some 30 opposition members are in jail or under house arrest, Parliament continues to function. Moreover, an unfettered Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on Mrs. Gandhi's conviction in June for illegal campaign practices, as well as on a constitutional amendment abrogating the charges...
...have become dull and predictable, and people seem reticent about discussing controversial matters in public. From the beginning of the emergency, much of the government's anger has been directed at the press. The other day, in discussing the BBC (which has withdrawn its correspondent from India), Mrs. Gandhi told an interviewer, "They seem to think that anything is fair if it's anti-Indian." Both the domestic and foreign press are still subject to stringent controls. Three weeks ago, the government abruptly expelled Jacques Leslie of the Los Angeles Times, for allegedly violating the censorship guidelines, thereby...
...million people, who are more concerned about the fact that the government has completely halted inflation (down from 31% in September 1974) and that India's three-year-old drought has ended (experts now project a bumper grain crop this fall). Indians will long debate whether Mrs. Gandhi was justified in proclaiming the emergency, but the Prime Minister has won widespread support for seizing a rare opportunity to ram through a score of social reforms...
These days India is engrossed in a frenzied campaign to encourage discipline, punctuality, cleanliness, courtesy. Placards appear everywhere, some of whose messages of inspiration are attributed to Mrs. Gandhi but most not. On a street corner in New Delhi: ECONOMIC OFFENSES BRING STERN PUNISHMENT. Another, quoting Mohandas Gandhi: A BORN DEMOCRAT IS A BORN DISCIPLINARIAN...
...ministers are arriving at their offices at the hitherto unheard-of hour of 9:30 in the morning. Police claim crime is down 10%, largely because they no longer have to spend so much of their energies controlling political demonstrations. One veteran foreign observer of Indian affairs believes Mrs. Gandhi "administered to the country a massive punch in the jaw, which it probably needed." He adds that if the government can bring the emergency to an end within six months, "the retrospective view will be that it has benefited the country and given a badly needed shock to a society...