Task before the Finance Minister


rated by the General Election among non-Congress parties, not toeing the line meant losing caste, Thus, the P S P was bullied into a position, it detested for fear of appearing less oppositionist from Lohia's group. There was similar competition between Left and Right Communists So, even before Husain's Candida ture was formally announced, the "opposition" groups proclaimed their nominee. But it was still a bargaining gambit and Indira Gandhi was initially inclined to do business with them by accepting Subba Rao as Vice-President. But Morarj Desai, Chavan and Kamaraj put their fool down and ruled out a compromise. The issue having been joined. Indira Gandhi had to mobilise her party members. It was no secret that non-Congress groups were ban- king on the expected aversion of many members of the ruling party to a Muslim as the President. So she squarely joined issue with such thinking. She pointed out that failure to support Husain would be taken as a repudiation of the Congress idea of a non-denominational approach to politics. In the event the appeal yielded results. The average voter, including many non- Congress ones, could not countenance the rejection of a principle for which Gandhiji had paid with his life. No other argument would have gone home so well.