There was no evidence of any thanksgiving celebration in the Prime Minister’s camp to-day [August 26, New Delhi] over her spectacular victory in the Working Committee last night, since her principal advisers were still gauging the political temperature of the Congress Party to determine whether there was any fight left in the Syndicate to revive the power struggle.
Otherwise the political atmosphere to-day was generally relaxed with comparatively little activity on either side without any undue jubilation or bitter recrimination. But nobody was jumping to any hasty conclusion that last night’s compromise resolution was the end of the story, although the general impression was that the crisis may not erupt in such a dramatic way again. The Prime Minister wanted to give a dinner to-night to the members of the Working Committee to demonstrate the new spirit of conciliation at the top to the rank and file of the party. But unfortunately the Congress President, Mr. Nijalingappa, was confined to bed with low blood pressure after the severe strain of the last fortnight.
And as an act of tactical magnanimity to treat this chapter of bitter discord closed, Mrs. Gandhi went to Mr. Nijalingappa’s house to enquire about his health much to the surprise of the Syndicate, since even normal personal courtesies and communication had broken down between them in the wake of the Presidential election. The Prime Minister and her advisers were looking for ways and means of further de-fusing the situation to make doubly certain that there will be no revival of the confrontation in the near future. They were also assessing the possibilities of isolating the Syndicate by capturing the party machine in progressive stages without precipitating a fresh show-down. The anti-climax last night was so abrupt – and the collapse of the Syndicate so sudden and complete – that many political observers in the Capital were wondering whether there had been any secret deal between the two sides. But it became quite evident to-day that the Syndicate had collapsed under the strain of its own inherent contradictions without the need for any concessions or assurances from Mrs. Gandhi’s side. The Prime Minister’s critics in the Congress Parliamentary Party who rallied behind the Syndicate during this ill-fated confrontation were utterly disgusted and very indignant over the capitulation of the party bossess without even a token fight in the Working Committee. They met in private groups to-day to voice their deep resentment over the behaviour of the Syndicate and explore the possibilities of alternate power alignments inside the Parliamentary Party with an entirely new set of Dramatis personae to carry on their fight against the Prime Minister’s “unfriendly” and “suspicious” attitude towards them.
These hard-core critics of Mrs. Gandhi who number about 50 to 60 were bitterly complaining to-day [August 26] that, while the Prime Minister had openly worked for the defeat of the party candidate in the Presidential election, the party bosses in turn had let down the loyal partymen who voted for him by finally capitulating to the Prime Minister and leaving them in the lurch in an unprecedented display of utter “cowardice.” Though they were no longer in a militant mood, their whole attitude towards the party leadership after the Working Committee meeting last night was one of plague on both houses – the Prime Minister’s group as well as the Syndicate.
