Politics after freedom

Madhu Limaye discusses in this book some of the major ideological, political, constitu tional, economic and social questions. He traces the development of socialist policy in the con tex of our freedom movement. He compares special features of Indian socialist thought with socialist doctrine in the West and East Eur opean countries. He expresses his profound distrust of the blind imitation of western inspir ed development models, and stresses the need for a distinctive Indian outlook and appropriate solutions to our problems. He pleads for accord ing priority to agriculture and cottage and decentralised industries. He wants the people to steer clear of both violence and sterile consti tutionalism. He examines Mahatma Gandhi's creative doctrine of non-violent resistence to injustice, and brings out the significance of political devolution and economic decentralisa tion as a basis of our polity and economy.

Limaye had early warned against the trend towards authoritarianism. He held that the proper role of judiciary was not defence of entrenched property but preservation of demo cratic freedoms. Only a couple of months before the Emergency he had cautioned the nation against the abuse of emergency powers, attacks on popular liberties, and anti-democratic exten sions of Lok Sabha term. He resigned his Lok Sabha seat as a protest against this extension in 1976.

The author offers an incisive analysis of Mrs. Gandhi's authoritarian politics and her attachment for dynastic rule. He had predicted immediately after Sanjay Gandhi's death that despite his personal inclinations, Rajiv Gandhi, ultimately, would be drafted into politics in the name of Nehru family's "burden". His evalua tion of Jayprakash Narayan and Rammanohar Lohia is balanced, and his portrait of Indira Gandhi insightful.