Despite the austerity of his lifestyle, Prime Minister Desai is not one of the sadhu—Indian holy men who believe that it is enough to be and not to do. A shrewd political activist, he argues that "things should be done for their own sake. I accept that I will never understand reality, so I concentrate on action, dharma [duty] and commitment." Last week, at his government bungalow in New Delhi, he outlined his views of India's future in an interview with TIME Correspondents Lawrence Malkin and William Stewart. Excerpts:
ON THE ELECTION RESULTS. I feel more humble than before, because it is a tremendous task which has to be fulfilled and it is only God who can enable us to fulfill it. What has taken place must convince the world that democracy is basic to the culture of this country. It was always thought that democracy was foreign to us and given only by the Britishers. That is wrong; we had democracy in this country before Greece. It is so ingrained that it asserts itself in time of crisis and it has asserted itself now. The peaceful reaction that you are now seeing after this tremendous victory—for that I am very happy.
ON HUMAN RIGHTS. Fundamental rights should never be touched, whether there is an emergency or not. They must be maintained as stated under the constitution. But we want to remove property rights [from the constitution]. When property rights are mixed up with personal liberty and freedom of speech, there is a temptation for government to attack fundamental rights in the name of property rights. We will remove the property right from the fundamental rights, but we will make it a legal right, assessable and judged by the courts. We don't want to carry out land reform in a dictatorial manner. Why should it not see the scrutiny of the courts?
ON BIRTH CONTROL. I don't think it is easy to educate people into self-control. Population control is vital today because we are poor. Now it can be done only by artificial means by the common people. Therefore, we must give them those means, but they must be voluntary and not compulsory. [Mrs. Gandhi] paid the price only because of this—old men have been vasectomized, unmarried people have been vasectomized, young boys have been vasectomized. [The election result] is a revolt against all that. We would not have won otherwise. I agree with incentives because I believe both in the carrot and the rod. But the rod must be very rare, and the carrot must also not make people greedy. It must only be an incentive.