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Instrument of God. Desai rises each morning at 3 or 4 to pray, work at his spinning wheel and practice yoga until about 7. He eats only uncooked food—milk, fruit, cheese, carrot juice—and disdains even cereals. He also rejects alcohol, tobacco and modern medicine, and looks and acts at least 20 years younger than his 81 years. He swore off sex in his early 30s as a way of achieving self-control. In principle he favors national prohibition and regards self-control as the best means of achieving family planning—although, he quickly adds, he realizes that "governments are not run for freaks like me" (see interview).
"I pay more attention to means than ends," Desai says. "I would not give up truth to save the world." Once, when TIME Correspondent James Shepherd asked him why he always seemed so sure of his own infallibility, Desai replied calmly, "Because I'm an instrument of God." Friends say he has considerably mellowed with age and from his recent period in prison, where he passed the time peacefully spinning yarn, memorizing the Bhagavad-Gita, updating his autobiography and writing about natural medicine.
Desai's accession to power was uneventful and low-keyed. On Thursday, he drove to the old Viceroy's residence—now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan —where he was sworn in by Acting President Jatti. The oaths of office and official secrecy were read in Hindi, and in keeping with Desai's wish for austerity, there were no garlands. The new Prime Minister told reporters that he wanted to avoid being "vindictive or vengeful" toward Mrs. Gandhi or her fallen comrades. He announced that she was free to live in her government residence "as long as she wished" (which was only fair, since she had never taken away his official home even during the months he was in prison). In another extraordinary gesture by the victors, J.P. Narayan—despite his poor health—paid a courtesy call on Mrs. Gandhi. The two old adversaries chatted amiably for a half-hour.
While Mrs. Gandhi will not suffer under the new regime, many of her policies will. At his first press conference, the new Prime Minister announced that he would try to repeal her constitutional amendments restricting civil liberties and the powers of the courts. He also said his priority in domestic policy would be to "remove poverty" and end unemployment, a task he concedes might take a long time. Like other Janata leaders he is preoccupied with Mahatma Gandhi's ideal of local development, and will probably stress agriculture and village industry rather than big business and heavy industry.
Desai also changed India's foreign policy at a stroke. He made it clear that while remaining officially nonaligned, India will now be far less partial toward the Soviet Union than it has been in the past. The Indo-Soviet treaty of 1971, he said, would not be allowed to stand in the way of friendship "with any other state." And if it did, he added, the treaty "must be dissolved." He rejected outright any notion of a domestic political alliance with the Moscow-leaning Communist Party of India. "I don't want a Trojan horse," he said.