In all probability Mrs. Gandhi has already made her choice of UP’s next chief minister and decided what responsibilities she is going to assign to Mr. Sanjay Gandhi. In that case the plea of several UP legislators that he be made chief minister of the state is infructuous and so will be our endorsement of it. But if the issue is not finally closed, we would urge Mrs. Gandhi to consider seriously the case for acceding to the request of the legislators. UP is India’s most populous state and it is also one of the most backward. Indeed, along with Bihar and Madhya Pradesh it has for years been a big drag on the progress of the country as a whole. As in the case of other retrogressive states in the Hindi-speaking belt, it has one of the highest rates of population growth in the land. Education at all levels is in a shambles. Hardly anything works there, certainly not the administration. Since independence it has not had a dynamic chief minister, though it had a highly respected one in the late Mr. Govind Ballabh Pant. Only a very, very determined and powerful chief minister can push the state out of the rut in which it has been stuck all years. It is no use pretending that the gentle approach can work there. The harsh approach may involve a certain amount of deviation from established procedures and even norms. It must without doubt mean at least a temporary suspension of the endless jockeying for ministerial and other office which has become the most flourishing activity in Lucknow. As far as we can see, Mr. Sanjay Gandhi alone can possibly fill the bill. He may not be able to measure up to the heart-breaking task. But no one else in view holds even the promise of trying to do so.
There is another aspect of the problem which should not be evaded any longer. Mr. Sanjay Gandhi is an important factor in decision-making in the Congress (I) and, indeed, the government. In the present context it is not at all pertinent to debate the question whether he wields this influence by virtue of being Mrs. Gandhi’s son or in his own right on the strength of his political acumen and the support he commands in the youth Congress (I). This issue will become relevant if and when he makes a bid to succeed her. Right now the pertinent point is that he wields authority and must, therefore, shoulder some specific responsibility. It is sheer naivety to believe that there have not existed and do not exist in other democracies “extraconstitutional centres of authority” in one form or the other. The secretary to Mr. Wilson in Britain wielded influence which his ministers and permanent civil servants deeply resented. In America as national security adviser to President Nixon, Mr. Kissinger bypassed the secretary of state and the state department. Yet it is important that as far as possible, power and responsibility should go together. That contributes to the evolution of healthy conventions. Finally, Mr. Sanjay Gandhi must be exposed to the gruelling test of high office. Either he makes it or he does not make it. Either way it will settle his future.