Of the many laurels that Gayatri Devi acquired, the most unlikely was the entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.
Of the many laurels that Gayatri Devi acquired, the most unlikely was the entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for her 1962 Parliamentary election win from Rajasthan for the then highest-ever victory margin.
The party that hosted the Maharani of Jaipur’s candidature, Swatantra Party, is no longer active. Yet, on Saturday, a group of 60 odd “liberals” gathered at the YB Chavan Centre to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the party — a political experiment that had dared to challenge Nehruvian socialism. Amidst those present were Captain GR Gopinath, the founder of Air Deccan, and Meera Sanyal, who contested the 2009 Lok Sabha poll as an Independent from Mumbai.
Today, the Swatantra Party’s symbol — a white star on a powder-blue background — may not stir political passions. But its free market liberal economy ideology propagated to “counteract the mindless acceptance by the country of socialist rhetoric which in reality was only a camouflage for statism,” is thriving.
The party’s sole surviving unit in the country functions out of a first-floor office at Mumbai’s Sassoon Building at Kalaghoda. Grainy pictures of the party’s conventions showcase its stalwarts — C Rajagopalachari, NG Ranga, Piloo Modi and Minoo Masani. Gayatri Devi, who died on July 29, shunned the Congress for the Swatantra Party and represented “one of the most striking examples of the return of India’s one-time ruling class to national politics,” in all her chiffon-and-pearls elegance.
Today, the party is not even registered with the Election Commission, as its petition challenging the 1989 directive making it mandatory for political parties seeking registration to swear allegiance to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, is still pending in the Bombay High Court. “We had no difficulty is swearing allegiance to secularism and democracy, but not, in good conscience to socialism,” said SV Raju, former executive secretary of the party.
The blame for the party’s downfall in 1974 often falls on the failure to unite discordant elements comprising alienated princes, insecure zamindars, industrialists and career politicians. Yet, people like Manuwant Chowdhary from Patna see relevance in the party’s ideology and would like to revive it “to set an example that it is not impossible to contest elections on a set of values.”
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