Violent lawyers and MLAs, student arrests and vigilante squads who bask in political patronage, somewhat evoke the mid-70s and the heyday of Sanjay Gandhi. At that time as now populist frenzy ratcheted up by party-backed strongmen and violent intimidation of opponents, made a government with a massive mandate and a powerful prime minister look very different from its campaign promises.
In fact, colossal mandates in India seem to be subject to the law of diminishing returns. Indira Gandhi swept to victory in 1971 on garibi hatao, but within two years of her Bangladesh war triumph, the Railway strike of 1974 began the countdown for the Emergency. In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi thundered to power on the sympathy wave after Indira’s assassination, only Read More
