From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. THE NUCLEAR FAMILY – THE IMMINENT MELTDOWN
becoming thinner and thinner: at the top there is one man. So you see that one man at the top, but
that man, underneath him, has three men; those three men have nine men; those nine men have
ninety.... And they are all depending on those who are lower than themselves. They are standing on
their shoulders. They can throw them off any moment.”
And in politics, once you have the power which you have got from so many people’s support you have
to fulfill all those people’s desires. Somebody has supported you in order to get licenses, somebody
has supported you to have an industry started, somebody has supported you for something else –
now you have to fulfill their desires. Otherwise, as you are standing on their shoulders, they can
move away. The topmost man is a very weak person in a way; he has nothing above him to hold on
to. Underneath are people who would not miss a single chance to throw this man out, because if
they can throw out this man, then one of those three who are under him will come to the top. So he
has to fulfill all kinds of criminal things.
I know, because that’s how Indira came to power: because she was living with her father. She was
a born politician; her husband was not. While studying in England they fell in love. The husband
was not even a Hindu, not a brahmin. Indira was a brahmin, a very high-caste brahmin, a Kashmiri
brahmin. The man she fell in love with, Feroz Gandhi, was a Parsee. The whole family was against
it – nobody had ever heard of a brahmin girl marrying a Parsee, a man who was not even a Hindu.
It is a totally different religion.
But she was the only daughter of Jawaharlal, and after Jawaharlal’s wife died – she died very early –
Indira was the only person close to him. He stood by her and told her, ”Don’t be worried about your
grandfather and your grandmother. I will manage them. First you get married. If you wait for their
permission, it will be impossible; even I cannot manage to persuade them. And they will be hurt. It is
better that you first get married, and when you come home, married, I will persuade them:’Because
nothing can be done now; the marriage has happened.”’ That’s how they got married in the court.
But Feroz Gandhi had no interest in politics. Just because he was the son-in-law of Jawaharlal
he became a member of parliament, but he had no interest at all; that was not his thing. And for
Indira that was the only thing. They started quarreling immediately, and fighting... and soon Indira
moved to Jawaharlal’s, the prime minister’s house, and left Feroz Gandhi. They lived separated, not
divorced; but for years they were not seeing each other. All these years she was a watcher of all
the politicians, and she was collecting information about each politician: his weakness, his crimes
against the society, his exploitation of others, his corruption... and yet on the outside he would go
on keeping a pure white Gandhian face.
She was collecting a file – she showed me the file – against every leader, and that was her power.
When Jawaharlal died all these politicians were afraid of Indira because she had the key. She could
expose anybody before the public, before the court. She had all the evidence, she had all the letters.
They were afraid of her for the simple reason that only she could save them; otherwise they would
be exposed. That file was her power.
I have looked into the file. All these people have been exploiting that poor country. They all have bank
balances in foreign countries, in Switzerland, in America. They all have connections outside India,
from where they get bribes and money and everything, for giving secrets. They are all connected to
one country or other; they are agents. They have one face before the masses, the poor masses, and
From Ignorance to Innocence 34 Osho