1. CRUSHED FLOWER Form my personal associations, I found that Shrimathi Indira Gandhi had a special affinity to the Rose, particularly the dark-pink variety. This, probably she inherited from her father, late Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Freedom Fighter, one of the founders of the Indian National Congress Party and the first Prime Minister of India. After her downfall in 1977, she formed her own party in the name of Indira Congress. Most of the intellects in India shifted their loyalty and membership to her congress, from traditional National Congress, which won the freedom for India. A by-election held in Chikmagalore constituency, located in Karnataka state in India, seated her back on the benches of the Parliament in New Delhi, during 1980. During the post-defeat period, she made frequent visits to the Karnataka State, a stronghold of her congress, under the Chief Ministership of Shri Gundu Rao. During all these visits, she preferred to have the Congress sessions in Lal Baugh (Flower Garden), the central botanical attraction in Bangalore, the Garden city of India, and the Capital of Karnataka State. My duties as one of her Honorary Socio-economic Development Consultant, also included the selection and presentation of a Rose of pre-defined dark pink colour, with specified dimensions, well formed petal structures, and a selected fragrance, to her, on the arrival for any meeting or work gathering. This, I presume, was to tune her mood for successful conducting of the Congress sessions. On Tuesday the October 30, 1984, the stains of her own blood adorned her chest, in the place where there was a dark pink Rose. Her own body-guards stained her body in gruesome dark pink colour. The flower had been crushed. Crushing a flower cannot bring an end to its botanical characteristics. This only assisted to spread its fragrance around. The spreading of fragrance could motivate more people towards Peace and Productive thoughts, and promote their effects. So are the Indira's indefatigable qualities. The fragrance of her qualities and achievements will not only spread, assist and optimise the development of India, but are also sure to guide all the developing Third World nations. The flower has been crushed, but the fragrance will surely spread. 2. CONSTRUCTIVE ECONOMIST My first association with Indira Gandhi in 1972, planted an innovative seed on my Economic thoughts and Management practices. She said that the laws of demand and supply, or the impact of the propensity to consume, or even the break-even pricing strategy are not needed, if one has to really contribute towards a dramatic up-liftment in the public standard of living, and motivate techno-commercial innovations in the country. She believed that correct computation and monitoring of the only two basic Public Consumption Ratios are sufficient for this purpose. The first was a Monthly Ratio of the average food expense to the net disposable income of a house hold in each representative economic region of the country. The smaller this ratio, she said, the greater the contribution to the Biological Motivation of the population. The inference was that a region with households spending 20 percent of their disposable income to get a full and nutritious family meal, could divert their thoughts and actions towards more productive works, than a region with house holds spending 50 percent or more of their income for the same. The moral was that People who could not eat well, naturally could not aim high. The second one was the Yearly ratio of average clothing cost to meet their satisfactory requirements to the net disposable income of a household in each representative economic region. The lesser the cost of quality clothes as the years progress she said, the greater the achievement on Public sociological motivation. The moral was that People who cannot clothe themselves well, cannot mingle well in society, and cannot learn better skills. I suggested that an assessment of the housing needs of the people is also equally essential, as shelter forms part of the Group settlement and harmony. Her answer was that if the Government could take care of the first two ratios, then the motivation and the skills of the public will generate enough funds for the government to take care of this Capital investment in housing. This could be either leased or assigned to the people, depending upon their level in the social strata. These ideas sounded more knowledgeable and innovative to me, than what I learned from the faculty of a Management Institution with Harvard Business School, USA collaboration, during 1964-1966. I blended these down to the earth Economic concepts with my modern Mathematical know-how in my paper An Econometric Solution to the Problems of Productivity Optimisation in India, published in the Indian Management Journal (March 1972, Pages 1 to 6 and April 1972, Pages 1 to 5. Refer to 02.02 in Publications), and later used by me as a reference material, during my Doctoral Research work. 3. ACTION ORIENTED PLANNER In 1974, when she was booming with her un-challengable majority in the Indian Parliament, Mrs.Gandhi enunciated a simplified version of a Dynamic Socio-economic Development programme. She named it as a 20 Point Programme. She believed that if the country could effectively implement, monitor, and evaluate the impact of these 20 Socio-economic guidelines, then the country will prosper, and could easily break-out of the shell of its developing status. Mr. Murli Deora, a strong Indira Gandhi supporter, and the leader of the opposition in Bombay Municipal Corporation, who later became the Mayor of the city of Bombay, recommended that I should take charge as the Honorary Computer Systems Consultant to appraise the implementation of the 20 point programme. This assignment necessitated my in-depth involvement in the data collection, recording, retrieval, tabulation, and setting action-guidelines with reference to the 20 Point programme. I found that Mrs. Gandhi's 20 Point Programme was an expanded and an implementable version of her Two-points economic thoughts of 1972. In summary, this programme included: 4 Points for Agriculture and Urban land ceiling, Equi-distribution of wealth, Minimum agricultural wages, and Expansion in irrigation schemes. 3 Points for Worker's participation in industry, national apprenticeship scheme, and relief from Bonded labour. 3 Points for eradication of Tax evasion, Economic offences, and Smuggling activities. 2 Points for the Procurement, Distribution, and Price control on Essential commodities, with Economy in Government expenditure. 2 Points for the development of Handloom sectors, Improvement in the supply of Quality cloth. 2 Points for the Provision of housing, and Relief from indebtedness of the weaker sections of the society; and 1 Point each for accelerating the Power generation with Liberalised investment, Optimum use of import licenses, Speedy goods transportation on national level, and Books, Stationery, Food commodities supplied to schools at subsidised rates. (Total 4 Points) This programme was implemented during 1974-1975, which coincided with the final phase of my Doctoral work, in the faculty of Management (Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Bombay, India). The extraction of the features of the 20 Point Programme, and testing my hypotheses with reference to these Socio-Economic guidelines, introduced a remarkable and practical dimensions to my six final publications and open-house presentations. The comments on my work by the Manchester Business School (UK), The International Federation for Purchasing and Materials Management (London), and Indian Association of Personnel Management (Bombay), substantiated the practicability of Shrimathi. Indira Gandhi's 20 Point Socio-Economic Development programme. However Mrs. Gandhi was not feeling comfortable in the Parliament during 1976, particularly because of the Judgement from the Allahabad High Court, making her electoral success null and void
