Remembering Feroze, the forgotten Gandhi

For an article in Swedish on Feroze Gandhi, the Swedish journalist Bertil Falk travelled extensively to interact with those who knew him and painstakingly researched the enigmatic character who lent his surname to the Nehru political dynasty.

This Gandhi wore more than one hat. He was a freedom fighter who shared the most famous name associated with the Indian national movement. As a Congress man, he was a very serious Parliamentarian. Associated with three Prime Ministers, he was an educationist, a whistle-blower, a dissenter who was at home in a peasant’s humble abode in a village and equally at ease with fellow MPs in Parliament, a prankster and a crusader against corruption.

As the subject was being explored, the idea of a simple article was dismissed and what emerged is a biography of a patriot, freedom fighter and Parliamentarian whose contributions to our democracy have not been highlighted even by the grand old party. ‘Ignorance is bliss where knowledge is folly,’ but in this case it may be deliberate as one learns through this riveting biography highlighting a personality who had the potential to dwarf or diminish Nehru and Indira’s stature in the public perception.

To begin with, he was Indira Gandhi’s husband and son-in-law of then PM Nehru, who was often imprisoned with Lal Bahadur Shastri during the freedom struggle. It’s a pity the  Indian media has never honoured him as they should have for his  pioneering role in moving the bill and in passingthe (Protection of Publication) Act 1956 which empowered the media as well as the members of the Indian parliament.

He was born and brought up as a Parsee. Feroze proposed and Indira agreed after his persistent wooing of the latter though Nehru was not in favour of the match and eventually gave in to Indira’s stubbornness. The initial years of the marriage did not pose any hint of serious differences and the cracks started showing up after Independence, around about 1948 when Indira and the two children Rajiv and Sanjay moved into the PM’s official residence at Teen Murti Marg. The Parliamentarian moved into the residence allotted to him as an MP, living on his own, but visited the children whom he loved regularly. Both Rajiv and Sanjay evidently inherited their father’s kinaesthetic intelligence and love for machines.

Nehru who used to favour Feroze during the freedom struggle did not approve of his son-in-law exposing the misdeeds of his favourite’s as Feroze did in supporting the ant-Kairon camp which opposed the candidature of Pratap Singh Kairon as CM  of Punjab. Kairon was known to be corrupt and was notorious for his high-handed behaviour. But Kairon was Nehru’s candidate and the entire party swung in his favour.

Such squabbles were regular but the one defining moment of Feroze Gandhi’s career as a Parliamentarian came as described in Chapter 22 - Maiden Speech and Giant Killer. On December 6, 1955 the famous Life Insurance Bill was to be debated. Such was his homework and his art of putting together the details that he was allowed to speak for an hour and 50 minutes to a mesmerised House waiting with bated breath see the full picture he was painting with his analytical skills and his presentation.

This was Indian Parliament’s finest hour. When he wound up his speech, Feroze had proved that Bharat Insurance Company had misappropriated '22 lakhs, a fraud masterminded by the Dalmia-Jain company.  This galvanised the GOI then to pass the Life Insurance Act 1956. In June 1956, some 250 insurance companies were merged with the state owned LIC. Ramakrishna Dalmia was jailed for two years.

His embarrassing Jagjivan Ram, the leader of the Dalits and the then Minister for Railways, caused great mirth in the House when the Minister refuted the figures quoted by Feroze as incorrect. Feroze had the last laugh to win Ram’s admiration by quoting the source as ‘Indian Railways - 100 years’ published by the Indian Railways itself.

Jagjivan Ram is quoted as saying “Feroze Gandhi was one of those who was wedded to the soil of the country. He wasa great Parliamentarian, a great politician and a fearless champion of the poor of this country.” He further praised him for taking on the PM despite being his son-in-law and even though he himself was criticised in the speech, Jagjivan admired his meticulous home work. Feroze’s observations facilitated the better functioning of the Railways.

If his maiden speech that unearthed a financial conspiracy made his speeches worth waiting for, he only enhanced his reputation with the famous Mundhra case on December 16, 1957 wherein he proved once again in detail how the Finance Minister (another Nehru favourite) TT Krishnamachari had allowed the state owned LIC to invest '1.26 crore in enterprises related to Haridas Mundhra to benefit him and to help him manipulate the stock markets. TTK had to resign.
Feroze earned the title of ‘Giant Killer’. Nehru, for all his talk of being anti-corruption, was helpless as his favourite was decimated. Nothing personal, but Feroze was a committed socialist, a practising socialist in fact. There are reports of Feroze accusing Indira of being a fascist in the PM’s presence at Teen Murti Marg over breakfast. This was in 1959 when Indira, then a member of the Congress Working Committee, was demanding the dismissal of the first democratically elected government in Kerala. Her pressurised father gave in, as did the other members of the CWC.

Given such sharp ideological differences, would the marriage ever be happy?  But by then the relationship was over although his love for his children was unparalleled. Whenever they dropped by, nobody else was allowed in.  His carelessness in not taking care of his diet, his excessive smoking, eating at odd hours etc. even after suffering a heart attack brought about his premature death. Born on September 12, 1912 he breathed his last on September 8, 1960.