t.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com

www.GOALias.blogspot.comChallenges to and Restoration of the Congress System 93public distribution of food grains, land reforms andprovision of house sites to the rural poor. While the‘syndicate’ leaders formally approved this Left-wingprogramme, they had serious reservations aboutthe same.Presidential election, 1969The factional rivalry between the Syndicate and IndiraGandhi came in the open in 1969. Following PresidentZakir Hussain’s death, the post of President of theIndia fell vacant that year. Despite Mrs Gandhi’sreservations the ‘syndicate’ managed to nominateher long time opponent and then speaker of the LokSabha, N. Sanjeeva Reddy, as the official Congresscandidate for the ensuing Presidential elections.Indira Gandhi retaliated by encouraging the thenVice-President, V.V. Giri, to file his nomination asan independent candidate. She also announcedseveral big and popular policy measures like thenationalisation of fourteen leading private banksand the abolition of the ‘privy purse’ or the specialprivileges given to former princes. Morarji Desai wasthe Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.V.V. Giri(1894-1980):President ofIndia from1969 to 1974;Congressworker andlabour leaderfrom AndhraPradesh; IndianHigh Commissioner to Ceylon(Sri Lanka); Labour Minister inUnion cabinet; Governor of U.P.,Kerala, Mysore (Karnataka);Vice-President (1967-1969) andacting President after the death ofPresident Zakir Hussain; resignedand contested presidential electionas independent candidate; receivedsupport from Indira Gandhi for hiselection as President.Credit: R. K. Laxman in The TImes of India“The Left Hook” was published after the victory of V.V. Giri, (the boxer with the garland)over the nominee of the Sydicate, represented here by Nijalingappa (on his knees).