Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress system
The circumstances before the fourth general elections in 1967 were as explained below :
(i) Two Prime Ministers-Nehru and Shastri-had died in succession and new Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was seen as a political novice had been in office for less than a year.
(ii) There was grave economic crisis resulting from successive failure of monsoons, decline in agricultural production, food shortage, depletion of foreign exchange reserves and resources diversion.
(iii) Rupee had to be devalued under pressure from the US.
(iv)Bandhs and hartals were frequently called across the country to protest against the increase in prices of essential commodities.
(v)The communist and socialist parties launched struggles for greater equality, led armed agrarian struggles and organised peasant agitation.
(vi)Period also witnessed some of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots since Independence.
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(a) The absence of a charismatic leader in the Congress party
(b) Split within the Congress party
(c) Increased mobilisation of regional, ethnic and communal groups
(d) Increased unity among non-Congress parties
(e) Internal differences within the Congress party
(a) What according to the author is the difference between the strategies of Nehru and Indira Gandhi ?
(b) Why does the author say that the Congress party ‘died’ in the seventies ?
(c) In what way, did the change in the Congress party affect other political parties also ?
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