Her Father's Daughter

In her four months as Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi has been largely spared the biting public criticism that Indian politicians are accustomed to meting out to their leaders. It is partly a matter of simple courtesy to a woman. It is also partly a matter of respect for her father's memory. But of late there has been a good deal of grumbling inside the ruling Congress Party. And one of the charges is that the child of Jawaharlal Nehru is abandoning her father's nationalist and socialist ideals.

Ironically, she is under fire for two schemes of the kind India needs most: projects to raise production of fertilizer for higher agricultural yields and to improve the nation's low literacy rate. One group of critics protested when the Prime Minister invited foreign investors to share in the construction of the fertilizer plants (TIME, May 27); another complained about an official plan to establish a joint U.S.-Indian educational foundation financed by U.S. aid. The fertilizer deals are said to reverse India's trend toward socialism, while the education plan is alleged to sell India's cultural heritage down the river.

"Nobody Can Shake Me." Last week the lady Prime Minister gave the grumblers an acid piece of her mind. Standing before a large portrait of her father at a meeting of Congress Party leaders in Bombay, she declared: "Don't tell me that I don't know Nehru's ideology. We worked together. I was intimately connected with all his thinking." In any case, she did not see her role as a mere imitator of her father. "If I think it is necessary to depart from these policies in the interests of the country, I shall not hesitate to do so," she snapped. "Foreign aid is necessary to make us independent. I say this with firmness: nobody outside or inside this country can shake me from my chosen path." And if the delegates did not like her approach, challenged Indira, "then remove me."

None dared. Her words were more than mere defiance of party snipers. Most political experts agreed that her fiery speech was the clearest indication yet that she intends to continue as Prime Minister after next February's general election. When she was selected last January to succeed Lai Bahadur Shastri, some members of the Congress Party supported her on the theory that she would be the best national figure to lead the party into the elections. After that, they reckoned, she could be shelved in favor of another candidate.

Radio Chats. But the lady is not for shelving. Warming to her job, she has become far more relaxed with the press, poses endlessly for photographers. She holds monthly press conferences, sends filmed excerpts of them to India's cinemas. Each month she makes a chatty broadcast on All India Radio, explaining India's problems and her plans for coping with them.

She has impressed most Indians with her sensible handling of the country's food shortage. While many have been forecasting millions of deaths this year from starvation, Indira has quietly maintained that the country can escape actual famine. She is making her appraisal come true by lining up 3,500,000 tons of emergency U.S. food.

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