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But the verdict stung. The very next day, Mrs. Gandhi's Congress Party lost the Gujarat state elections. The Prime Minister had stumped the state with a vengeance, and had put her personal prestige on the line. At that point, she reportedly wanted to hand over power to Defense Minister Swaran Singh until the Supreme Court could hear her appeal of the Allahabad ruling. But a majority of Congress leaders insisted on Agriculture Minister Jagjivan Ram as Interim Prime Minister. Rather than risk a party quarrel, Mrs. Gandhi decided to stay on. Last week she was again rebuffed when a Supreme Court vacation judge issued a conditional rather than an unconditional stay pending her appeal. The ruling stipulated that Mrs. Gandhi could perform her duties as Prime Minister but denied her the right to vote in Parliament or draw her salary for her seat.
In the wake of that Solomon-like ruling, a number of India's leading newspapers editorially suggested that Mrs. Gandhi step down. The independent Indian Express put the matter bluntly: "The course for the Prime Minister, until the Supreme Court pronounces its final verdict, admits of no ambiguity. She must resign forthwith in the nation's and her own interest." That cry was echoed by Narayan and other opposition leaders, who promptly laid plans for the civil disobedience campaign that forced Mrs. Gandhi to act.
Preemptive Strike. Mrs. Gandhi still commands a popular following unequaled by any Indian leader since her father, the late Jawaharlal Nehru. But there is no doubt that she is confronted with an increasingly restive populace that is angered by pervasive bureaucratic and governmental corruption and failing economic conditions. Since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war, when Mrs. Gandhi's esteem was at its highest, India has been plagued by widespread drought and famine, coupled with the enormous blow its economy has suffered since oil prices were hiked in 1974. As a result, the price of food and other essential commodities has soared.
If Mrs. Gandhi keeps her promise to lift the emergency soon, her "preemptive strike" against her opponents may be rather quickly forgotten—if not forgiven. Theoretically, she will need parliamentary approval to extend her extraordinary powers beyond two months—something that would not be difficult since her Congress Party holds 355 of the 516 seats in Parliament. The question, though, is whether the people of India, who have considerable pride in their nation's democratic traditions, would accept a new political system that would allow her to keep so much power in her own hands.