Word: jagjivan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Across the Indian subcontinent, the people whom Mohandas Gandhi once lovingly called harijans (children of God) began to find their voices. The 85 million harijans, or Untouchables, who are the lowest in the rigid Hindu caste system, had thought for a brief moment last week that durable Jagjivan Ram, 71, the widely acknowledged leader of India's politically potent harijans, was soon to be Prime Minister. It was not to be. Their hopes were dashed by a bitter impasse in India's parliamentary system that culminated in an unprecedented constitutional crisis...
...week's end, Desai resigned as head of the Janata Party, saying that he was withdrawing from politics. He was replaced by Jagjivan Ram, who served as Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Desai's government...
...Congress Party's evident unpopularity made the situation ripe for government members like Minister of Agriculture Jagjivan Ram to defect and form their own parties. Moreover, for the first time in India's history the Opposition united against the Congress. Four major parties combined to form the Janata (People's) party: the Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD), the opposition 'Old' Congress, and the Socialist party. The Janata campaigned in coalition with Jagjivan Ram's Congress for Democracy party (CFD) and other smaller regional parties. Thus the opposition vote did not split, and the election became a two-party...
...speakers generally echo the line of Jayaprakash Narayan, 74, the respected conscience of the opposition, who notes that this may be India's "last chance to vote for democracy." Opposition campaigners are careful to attack Mrs. Gandhi with ridicule and sarcasm rather than abuse. When supporters of Jagjivan Ram at one rally shouted "Death to Indira!" the leader of India's Untouchables rebuked them by saying, "I wish Mrs. Gandhi a long life so she can see how the next Prime Minister runs the country...
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...