MGR Remembered – Part 77

Learning the Ropes in Governance during Morarji’s Tenure

by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 13, 2024

Comments received from fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan about the contents in Part 76 of this series, were as follows:

“Hearty congratulations on completing seventy-five chapters. I am touched by your most generous thank-you. It wasn’t required, and the sentiments are mutual. This write-up must be the most comprehensive account of Muthu in English. Kudos to you for weaving a story rich in details and pulling the different strands of Muthu’s film career. Muthu was a poor judgement by his dad and cousin Maran.”

My response was as follows:

“Thanks a lot for your appreciative mail. M.K. Muthu’s post-MGR period career decline is pathetic as well. Whatever potential and advantages he had, he self-destructed himself. In the net, I had read items that he married for 2nd time, the servant maid, after separating from his first wife Sivagamasundari (daughter of Chidambaram Jayaraman). Then few years ago, he and his wife Sivagamasundari were threatened by his son. Recently, I had seen Youtube interview clips of Sivagamasundari, in which she comments about Muthu favorably.”

Learning the ropes as the Chief Minister

As a first time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MGR had to tackle emerging issues at four different levels. These are, (1) Intra-state issues, (2) Inter-state issues (neighboring states Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala), (3) Central government (New Delhi) issues, and (4) International issues (with Sri Lanka on Eelam Tamils). Especially, issues (3) and (4) were rather ‘complicated new’ ones for MGR; his predecessor Karunanidhi did not face during his tenure from 1969 to 1976. But Karunanidhi had the guile to combine item 4 (Eelam Tamil issue) with item 1 (Intra-state issue) instantly to embarrass MGR’s regime.

MGR surrounded by his private security men, showing their tattooed hands

During Karunanidhi’s tenure, the Central government by the Congress Party led by Indira Gandhi was a stable one. But, during MGR’s first tenure, the constituents of the Janata Party (dominantly led by blundering ex-Congress Party bigwigs) were united only on anti-Indira policy. The goal of three selfish egoists (Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram) were grabbing the prime minister position that eluded them while they were in the Congress Party. MGR was forced to adopt to the changing political winds accordingly. During Karunanidhi’s tenure of Chief Minister period, Indira Gandhi had a firm hand in dealing with the Sinhalese politicians (especially Sirima Bandaranaike), and Karunanidhi could only play muted second fiddle on two particular issues, whether it was India ceding the rights of ownership of Kachatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974, or in the negotiation of repatriation of Tamil speaking Indian plantation laborers, between Indira Gandhi and Sirima Bandaranaike from Sri Lanka to India, on June 28, 1974.

During Karunanidhi’s tenure of chief minister phase, though there were episodic flare-ups since 1972 in Sri Lanka, serious anti-Tamil riots were absent, between 1958 and 1977,. But, during MGR’s 1^st and 2^nd tenures of Chief Minister period, the 1977 and 1983 anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka created a new situation, where he was forced to take decisive actions to protect the Eelam Tamils (by diplomatic and non-diplomatic routes) AND to blunt the amateurish spoiler attempts made by Karunanidhi to gain political advantage in Tamil Nadu. It took a while (until 1982, when the nominal leadership of Eelam Tamils passed from sedate parliamentarians (Amirthalingam and Co) to Tamil militants focusing on extra-parliamentary activities, for MGR to gain an upper hand on Karunanidhi on Eelam Tamil issue.

Karunanidhi-led Agitation against Tamil Nadu state government

I provide below excerpt from two news reports, describing DMK agitations against MGR rule. The first one is from Economic and Political Weekly, of Nov 26, 1977.

“Karunanidhi was set on a course of embarrassing MGR right from the first day of the new ministry, mainly as a pre-emptive move to counter possible offensives against him on corruption charges. He knew well that unlike with Indira Gandhi, no deals were possible with MGR, the very raison d’etre of MGR’s politics being opposition to Karunanidhi. Whether it was student trouble in Madras and Madurai or the State transport strike or textile dispute in Coimbatore, Karunanidhi was out to make political capital. MGR for his part saw in these very live issues only DMK’s hand and nothing else. The windfall of the Sri Lanka Tamil problem had given Karunanidhi an excellent opportunity to show his strength with mammoth rallies tinged with Tamil jingoism pushing MGR of Malayalee origin to the wall.

The rising conflict was thrown off gear by the arrest. The AIADMK suddenly stopped talking of Karunanidhi’s arrest, while Karunanidhi himself kept a studied silence for three days and on the fourth day came out with the advice to his followers that they should be restrained in their criticism of Indira Gandhi because she was the underdog now. He also hinted that the Janata Party would better serve the people by not bothering too much about former rulers, a loud hint meant more for MGR.”

Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi was arrested in New Delhi on Oct 3, 1977, at the instigation of Charan Singh. But the next day Oct 4, 1977, she was released by the Magistrate within two minutes, unconditionally with a comment ‘There was no grounds for believing…accusation is well founded.’ This was a loss of face to Janata Party’s rulers, and Indira made her next move of visiting Tamil Nadu later that month.

To continue the Economic and Political Weekly, (Nov 26, 1977) report further,

“Even when Indira’s tour of the state was announced and the Dravida Kazhagam [DK] announced its decision to hold black flag demonstrations Karunanidhi did not react. Intense confabulations were, however, going on inside the party and two days before her arrival, DMK announced its decision to join the black flag demonstration; one day later, the CPI(M) decided likewise. Knowing that his hand was being forced, MGR allowed the demonstration, justifiably taking credit for this decision and contrasting it with the Karunanidhi government’s attitude of banning black flag demonstrations at all times. DMK made vigorous preparations and it was obvious from the word go that the party intended to make of this a major issue challenging MGR at every stage. This was also an occasion, at long last, for the DMK rank and file to express their pent-up anger at the way their party had been treated during the Emergency.

The die was cast. The first stone was thrown at Madurai; and it was a barrage. Partly responsible for sparking the incident was the police who tactlessly – or by design – allotted space for the Congress counter-demonstrators across the road from the black flag group. Indira Gandhi escaped unhurt and DMK’s aim of stopping her was not yet achieved. From Madurai, Indira Gandhi spoke to MGR and MGR ordered the banning of further black flag demonstrations, again a provocative move since people had already gathered all along the way and at Tiruchi, where she was to address a meeting in the evening. Pitched battles ensued everywhere. Indira Gandhi’s visit to Tiruchi was cancelled as she was unable to proceed by road, as planned, addressing meetings en route. She entrained for Madras and in a surprise move got off at Tiruchi to speak to a few people at 11 pm. Thus was saved her ‘face’, as also that of MGR. For, by this time through MGR’s own making, Indira Gandhi’s tour had become a prestige issue between AIADMK and DMK.

While most observers thought the state government would advise cancellation of Indira’s programme in the state capital the next day in view of the violent incidents, MGR decided otherwise. For Karunanidhi the answer was simple. He had earlier detailed a few local leaders to lead the demonstration. He now announced that his party would defy the ban and if the leaders were arrested before hand, he himself will lead the group into custody. Violence followed Karunanidhi’s arrest and then followed the firing in which two persons were killed straightaway and a third died a week later. Later that morning, in a saner move than those of MGR, the local district collector barred Indira Gandhi’s entry into Kancheepuram to avoid a major conflagration.”

The 2^nd news report on MGR-Karunanidhi conflict appeared in the India Today magazine of Jan 1-15, 1978. To quote,

“Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran had better not taken to politics. The ‘victorious hero’ of hundreds of films has lost every round in the state’s rabble-rousing political game to his old rival M.K Karunanidhi, former Chief Minister and leader of the opposition DMK party. MGR and his AIADMK were no match for Karunanidhi, who, despire being out of power, exposed MGR’s political naivette, taking full advantage of MGR’s support for Mrs Gandhi and politicizing the cyclone disaster in the state, though it was not quite to the same extent as in Andhra Pradesh.

Beginning with the anti-Indira Gandhi demonstrations organized by the DMK on October 30 and 31 [1977], when Mrs Gandhi toured the state, MGR has been forced to back down on several of his decisions in the face of popular upsurge in favour of Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi and his colleagues, who had been arrested in the wake of the October disturbances and charged with, among other things, conspiracy to murder Mrs Indira Gandhi, had to be released unconditionally when thousands of DMK party workers courted arrest all over the state and matters threatened to take an ugly turn. The cyclone too, proved to a boon to Karunanidhi. While MGR came out with a statement that all parties except the DMK were helping in cyclone relief, the DMK, which had earlier given up its agitation for the release of Karunanidhi, ordered its partymen to send their relief donations to Karunanidhi in jail. The move, expressly designed to embarrass the Government, worked, and hundreds of money orders began to pour into the jail where Karunanidhi was detained. The authorities refused permission to Karunanidhi to accept the money and directed that it be sent to the Governor.

The DMK subsequently decided to resume the agitation for Karunanidhi’s release on December 9. At the time MGR reversed his earlier line and appealed to DMK leaders to come out on bail and help in cyclone relief. (Karunanidhi had refused to ask for bail). On December 8, after an undertaking by the accused that they would appear in court when summoned, Karunanidhi and his colleagues were released unconditionally…MGR has obviously lost the battle of the streets.”

I checked two Indira Gandhi biographies – written by Inder Malhotra (1989) and Katherine Frank (2002). Both have omitted Indira’s visit to Tamil Nadu in October 1977, probably as it was nothing but a ‘paper weight’ event in totality of her agitated political career. In my view, Karunanidhi made a mountain out of a mole hill, in this agitation against Indira’s visit to Tamil Nadu, (1) to embarrass MGR, and also (2) to show Janata Party leaders, that he was ‘with them’. He even recorded in his autobiography that to protest Indira’s visit, DMK cadres in Chennai, caught pigeons in hundreds, tinted them with black color and released these birds simultaneously when Indira’s plane was about to land at the Chennai airport! But, Karunanidhi failed to record, whose bird-brained idea was this? And how many of these hundreds of black-tinged pigeons were able to fly, due to excess load in their feathers and other regions of their bodies?

Fracas in the Janata Party

Ajit Ninan cartoon showing 9 of Indian Prime Ministers in 1997

In 1999, India’s irrepressible journalist Khushwant Singh made an interesting comment to a question, ‘What do you think of Sonia (Gandhi) getting into politics and possibly becoming prime minister?’ At that time, already one Sonia surrogate prime minister [i.e., P.V. Narasimha Rao] had completed one five year term. Subsequently, from 2004 to 2014, a second Sonia surrogate prime minister [i.e., Manmohan Singh] would complete two five year terms as the prime minister of India. Khushwant Singh’s humorous response in 1999 was, ‘In this country nothing comes as a surprise. We’ve had so many donkeys as prime ministers’ [India Today, Aug 30, 1999, pp. 12-13] I guess, what Khushwanth Singh derisively meant as ‘donkeys’ were those who couldn’t complete even the nominal one five year term as the prime minister.

A 1997 cartoon by Ajit Ninan Mathew (1955-2023) had caricatures of 9 Indian prime ministers adjacently. I provide this cartoon nearby. In it, the first prime minister Nehru is shown kissing the hands of Edwina, the wife of Lord Mountbatten. His daughter Indira Gandhi is depicted humorously like a woodpecker, pecking at the Janata Party’s wood edifice, with heads of its leaders arranged vertically, with Morarji Desai on top. P.V. Narasimha Rao, a Sonia Gandhi surrogate, is shown as a fence-sitting chameleon. Two short term prime ministers who followed Rao, namely Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral were drawn as a sleepy guy having problem keeping his eyelids open, and as a monkey-like acrobat respectively.

During MGR’s first tenure as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, two prime ministers couldn’t complete a five year term. The first was Morarji Desai (2 years and 12 days), the second one was Charan Singh (170 days). After MGR’s death, there were four more – Vishwanath Pratap Singh (343 days), Chandra Shekar (223 days), Deve Gowda (324 days) and Inder Kumar Gujral (332 days). These ‘donkey’ prime ministers were chosen by circumstances to satisfy specific conditions of their sponsors, but they could provide neither proper direction nor leadership to the nation. In my view, even Lal Bahadur Shastri, the predecessor of Indira Gandhi, who had only a 1 yr and 126 days tenure also has to be considered as a ‘donkey prime minister’; Shastri was chosen by Kamaraj and clique to prevent Morarji Desai ascending to the prime minister chair. Because in his ignorance – Shastri sacrificed the rights of the Indian hill country Tamils in Ceylon, by signing the lopsided Sirimavo-Shastri Pact of 1964.

cartoon – Janata Party depicted as Cerberus (Ananda Vikatan, Apr 17, 1977)

I wish to make a factual correction relating to a Cerberus dog cartoon depicting the three geriatric leaders of Janata Party, mentioned in Part 75 of this series. That particular cartoon appeared in the Ananda Vikatan of April 17, 1977, and NOT in Kalki magazine. It is presented nearby.

In May 1978, in a commentary entitled ‘The Aged Men of the Janata’ Romesh Tapar aptly noted the leadership debacle faced by Janata Party as follows: “The trouble with aged men is that they are either obsessed by the supposed immortality that a seizing of the prime ministership confers on them, or, having reached these apparently dizzy heights, by how to prepare to meet their Maker. At both levels of striving the worst features of human character become accentuated in politicians. We are in for a heavy dose of personal slanging matches, and strange individual fads passing for national policy.”

As per the comments by Romesh Tapar about the three geriatric Janata Party leaders (Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram) ‘preparing to meet their Maker’, it was revealed subsequently that each one was wishing that the Grim Reaper would visit his two other rivals ahead of him. Morarji Desai had employed intelligence sleuths to report on the health conditions of his two rivals. This was activated when Charan Singh had a health debacle on April 25, 1978, vomiting six times and was admitted to a hospital in New Delhi.

What Romesh Tapar had euphemistically tagged as ‘strange individual fads’ was Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s, as well as the Raj Narain (Union Minister of Health) proclamation of ‘auto-urine therapy’ for maintenance of vital health. To quote, what Karunanidhi had written in his autobiography about this ‘nature therapy.

“Not only literates living in Indian cities, but also the illiterates living in the rural villages pouted their faces to say ‘Yuck’ on this unusual announcement. What was this unusual announcement?

The Union Minister of Health had proclaimed ‘In the morning and evening, each should collect their urine in a container and drinking it is healthy for the body. I’ve been doing this daily.’ This was published in all print media. When reporters asked about this to Morarji, he himself approved it by stating, ‘I also practice this natural treatment. It’s good for body health.’

A Morarji Desai cartoon depicting scientists placed in a reflux flask [Kalki magazine, Jan 14, 1979]

For folks who had observed the sturdy routine of Morarji Desai, there did appear some vague tremor. Even medical health authorities in the country thought of researching such a practice. Can the long life of Morarji be attributed to such auto-urine therapy? However, one could state that the short life span of Raj Narain [1917-1986; He died of heart attack, at the age of 69] diminished the merits of this new natural therapy. Folks were convinced that, why a prime minister and a responsible minister propagate this as a natural therapy.”

Nevertheless, Morarji’s fetish of his urine became international news, when Time magazine (Oct 24, 1977) reported it briefly, as follows:

“India’s Prime Minister Morarji Desai, 81, works twelve hours every day, travels incessantly around India addressing public meetings, talks with vigor and bluntness to his countrymen and conducts the business of government wherever he happens to be at the time. What is the secret of his youthful vim?

Something of a health-food crank, the Prime Minister thrives on a regimen that includes daily doses of carrot or apple juice, milk, yoghurt, honey, fresh fruit, nuts and dates, and five cloves of raw garlic. And one thing more: he drinks his own urine.

Early this month Desai startled a meeting of India’s Tuberculosis Association by informing his audience that ‘self-urine’ therapy was a cure for cancer and cataracts; he claimed to have cured his own brother of tuberculosis that way. In response to a surprised reporter’s question, Desai acknowledged that ‘for the past five or six years, I have drunk a glass of my own urine – about six to eight ounces – every morning. It is very good for you, and it is even free. ‘Even in the Bible’, he went on, ‘it says to drink from your own cistern. What is your own cistern? It is your own urine. Urine is the water of life.”

A humorous aside, published in the Journal of American Water Works Association of Jan 1978, carried the following piece of information.

“..the ultimate in recycling recently revealed by Time magazine as a result of an interview with India’s 81 year old Prime Minister Morarji Desai. The prime minister, it was reported, drinks a 6- or 8 oz glass of his own urine every morning – and has for the past five or six years – to keep fit. This ‘self-urine therapy’, he claims, cures cancer, cataracts, and tuberculosis, and is prescribed by the Bible, wherein it says ‘drink from your own cistern.’ ”

Furthermore, Desai was also interviewed for CBS’s popular ‘60 Minutes’ program by American journalist Dan Rather, on June 4, 1978, when he visited USA. I could track an excerpt of the transcript of this interview. Ii is presented below, for it’s medical as well as zoological humor.

‘Rather: Tell us how are you able to run the government of India, working 12 hours a day or more, horseback riding in the countryside, talking vigorously in public at the age of 82 years young. Tell us your secret.

Desai: My diet consists of fruit and vegetable juices, fresh and natural milk, plain yogurt, honey, fresh fruits, raw nuts, five cloves of garlic every day, and I drink five to eight ounces of urine every morning on an empty stomach.

 Rather: Yack! You drink your urine? That is the most repulsive thing I have ever heard.

Desai: Don’t be alarmed, it is a very natural treatment. If you observe the animals, you will see that they drink their urine to stay fit. Observe them. In my country mothers used to give babies their own urine when they were suffering from stomach ache. And In the Hindu philosophy, in the Hindu customs, cow’s urine has been considered holy, and it is prescribed in every ceremony. People must drink it. So they drink their urine. That is not considered in any way wrong.

 Rather: I guess you don’t consider this a strange practice?

Desai: No. It is not a strange practice. In America scientists are preparing extracts from urine for heart trouble. You probably don’t know that.

 Rather: No, I didn’t know that.

Desai: They are doing it. So your people are drinking other people’s urine but not their own. And it costs dollars, thousands of dollars, while, their’s is free and more effective. Many medicines are worse in color, worse in taste, worse in smell, still people take them. I think it is much worse to take them. You should taste it to find out.

 Rather: I guess so … I could.

Desai: If you drink all your urine (urine fast), in just a few days the body becomes purified. By the third day your urine is without any color or any smell or any taste and it will be pure almost like water. You will feel very good because your system is improved and cleansed considerably. Drinking urine fights the cause of all diseases and it cost you nothing.

 Rather: Respectfully Mr. Prime Minister, I am not ready to try that.’

A Kalki magazine cartoon of Jan 14, 1979, (presented nearby) sarcastically presented Morarji Desai’s idiosyncratic notions by depicting the Prime Minister observing scientists placed in a reflux flask heated by a Bunsen burner.

Specific Policy Decisions during Morarji Desai’s Tenure

Apart from this ‘auto-urine therapy’ that received international attention, specific policy decisions that made news during Morarji Desai’s tenure as the prime minister included the following:

• Reversal of Emergency 1975 decrees like media censorship, repealing controversial executive decrees and passing the 44^th Amendment to Constitution in 1978 that would make such a declaration of Emergency rather difficult.
• Demonetizing of currency notes Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 on January 16, 1978 to prevent forgery of paper currency and circulation of ‘black money’.
• Economic Policy revival such as revoking the licenses of multinational corporations to operate in India, due to investment violations that led to exit of Coca-Cola and IBM companies.
• Specific Inquiry Commissions and Tribunals on allegations of corruptions prevailing during Indira Gandhi’s tenure. Former Supreme Court Justice J.C. Shah Commission began hearings on Sept 29, 1977. It’s remit was to inquire into subversion of lawful processes and well-established conventions, administrative procedures and practices, abuse of authority, misuse of powers, excesses and/or malpractices committed during the Emergency.
• Withdrawal of all charges against the accused of Baroda Dynamite Criminal Case of 1976.

Unfortunately, Morarji Desai’s efforts were derailed by the offenses of his son. If Indira Gandhi had son Sanjay as an albatross in her neck, the pattern repeated with Morarji Desai as well. His son Kanti Desai became the center piece for inappropriate political fund collection. It was alleged that, Kanti Desai collected about 90 lakhs rupees [One lakh = 100,000 rupees] for the Janata Party’s election fund while located in the Prime Minister’s house.

Within 15 months of a pretense of governance, Janata Party fractured, due to intense struggle among the three leaders (Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram) who were ‘at loggerheads with one another’, as Indira’s biographer Inder Malhotra had noted. He continued further: Early in June 1978, Charan Singh “wrote an angry letter to Desai describing the cabinet as a ‘collection of impotent men’ incapable of bringing Indira to justice. Desai retaliated by asking Charan Singh to resign which he did promptly. The Prime Minister took the opportunity also to ease out Raj Narain, the buffoonish socialist who had defeated Indira and was appointed Health Minister. He had immediately become a loyal lieutenant of Charan Singh and was masterminding the Home Minister’s attempt to displace Desai. The seeds of the Janata’s destruction were thus sown…”

The twin problems faced by MGR and Karunanidhi in Chennai, was to prepare for the impending implosion of the Janata Party in New Delhi, and how to manage their delicate links with Indira Gandhi.

Cited Sources

Anon: The World: Drink Up, Drink Up. Time, Oct 24, 1977.

Anon: Of political games. India Today, Jan 1-15, 1978, pp. 64-65.

Anon: Percolation & Runoff. Journal of American Water Works Association, Jan 1978; 70(1): 18-19.

Anon: MGR – On the Wane. India Today, May 16-31, 1978, p. 17.

Katherine Frank: Indira – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 2002, pp. 415-439.

200. Karunanidhi: Nenjukku Neethi, vol.3, Thirumagal Nilayam, Chennai, 1997, pp. 135-136, 193-200.

Inder Malhotra: Indira Gandhi – A Personal and Political Biography, Coronet Books/ Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., Sevenoaks, Kent, 1989, pp. 201-213.

I.C.McManus: Taking the Piss. World Medicine, Nov 29, 1978, pp. 84-87.

Mukundan C Menon: Shades of Emergency. Economic & Political Weekly, July 14, 1979; 14(28): 1153.

Romesh Tapar: The aged men of the Janata. Economic & Political Weekly, May 6, 1978; 13(18): 745-746.

Romesh Tapar: Muddled-up Janata Party. Economic & Political Weekly, Aug 26, 1978; 13(34): 1458-1459.