NEW DELHI India: By now Rajiv Gandhi may feel that India is ungovernable. After almost two years as prime minister and with his relatively peaceful first months in power fading into memory he confronts violent array of seemingly insoluble issues in the world’s most populous and most fractious democracy.

Sikhs are demanding autonomy in Punjab. In Assam Hindus fight Muslims. Hindus in remote areas quarrel among themselves lower caste vs. upper caste. Christians angrily confront Hindus in southern Kerala state. The economy as ever defies coherence “It seems that when trouble in one area gets tamed down problems break out somewhere else” says an American who has lived here 18 years have never seen it as bad”.

The inexperienced Gandhi 42 retains a large measure of popularity. What has changed for him is that the long post electoral honeymoon that raised so many hopes has turned into the frustrating reality of grappling day by day with a mountain of inherited problems that threaten Indian stability.

By far the most acute threat is the relentless pressure from Sikh freedom fighters. When Gandhi first sought compromise prominent Hindus scoffed him as a political innocent when he used to force others berated him as ruthless tyrant. Neither course has worked. The sectarian strife is spreading; deepening the abysmal poverty that still afflicts half of India’s 755 million.

Gandhi’s efforts to modernize India now in its 40th year of independence from Britain have yet to yield results This has created tensions in his own party Congress (I) which is divided over how India ought to be governed and the peace of reform. Gandhi so far has indeed off threats to his rule by purging from the party influential dissidents who accuse him of ignoring the masses in favor of India’s small middle class the economy too seems nearly impossible to mend. “The government gives the impression of haying run out of steam “sums up a bluntly worded report by the British High Commission. But the economic malaise should not be blamed wholly on Gandhi He confronts the same set of problems that have retarded India since nationhood: poverty overpopulation caste Illiteracy and a uniquely institutionalized labyrinth of bureaucracy inefficiency special interest and corruption that weaves through government and society.

Of late critics have focused on Gandhi’s lack of dramatic economic accomplishment charging that he is sacrificing commitment to the poor to bring greater prosperity to business interests. “What have we to show so far?” asks a hostile Pranab Mukherjee sacked as finance minister after he dissented from Gandhi’s policies. “There are 31000 villages without potable water and this government is concerned about having more television centers and more computers for our research institutions Is that where priorities should be”.

How much Mukherjees sentiments are shared by the masses is difficult to gauge Concern in most places focuses more on how to fill a hungry child’s stomach than on technology? But an unscientific sampling suggests that in politics as in most aspects of life Indians remain highly fatalistic.

In the Hamlet of Charan was Kalipahari 150 miles south of New Delhi a father of seven reflects on being asked whether Gandhi has made India a better place? After a long pause the old man’s mouth forms a sly smile under his heavy mustache. “No” he says “Was it supposed to be? He’s a Politician isn’t he?”

Article extracted from this publication >> October 3, 1986