The most talked about political figure in India today is not, technically speaking, a politician at all. He has never run for public office, and even denies that he has firmly set his sights on a political career. Nonetheless, Sanjay Gandhi, 29, the younger son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi* and the grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, has been hitting the hustings lately as an articulate and outspoken advocate of his mother's policies. Sanjay's political enemies—and even some of his friends—have begun to refer to him as "the crown prince." Veteran Indian politicians are treating him with the deference due a young man who happens to be the likely heir to a political dynasty. "Even a few minutes' talk with him reveals his political acumen," marveled Devaraj Urs, chief minister of the state of Karnataka, last week. "He is as courageous as his mother." Notes one longtime political observer in New Delhi: "At the beginning of 1975, Sanjay's influence was minimal. Today there is a genuine feeling that he has a very good chance of being the third member of the Nehru family to become Prime Minister."
VIP Treatment. Sanjay's enormous advantage is that his name is already known to millions of Indians. Last month he was elected to the executive committee of the youth wing of the ruling Congress Party. He also attended the party's national convention at Chandigarh, where he was given VIP treatment. Arriving unannounced one day at the delegate's dining hall for lunch, he was greeted with shouts of "Sanjay Gandhi zindabad!" (Long live Sanjay Gandhi!)—the sort of accolade usually reserved for national leaders.
Then he was off to Bombay for an off-the-record session with some of India's leading journalists and attended a presidential review of the ships of the Indian fleet. Last week he turned up in Bangalore, where he was greeted by crowds and hailed by local officials as a "symbol of youth and hope." He urged members of the party's youth branch to limit their families to two children, to educate at least one illiterate person and to plant one tree every year. Avoid identification with the political left or right, declared Sanjay, and follow the credo of Mahatma Gandhi (no kin to the Prime Minister) to help "the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak."
Until his recent emergence as a public figure, Sanjay Gandhi was best known to Indians as the designer and builder of a mini-auto called the Maruti, named for the son of the Hindu god of wind. In the past, opposition politicians have charged that Sanjay got preferential treatment in getting a license to manufacture the car, which is now in limited production (cost: $2,800) after eight troubled years of development.