[NYTr] Complex Electra: Benazir and Indira as Papa's Puppets

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

CounterPunch - Dec 38, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/versey12282007.html


The Complex Electra:

Benazir and Indira as Papa's Puppets

By FARZANA VERSEY

Brave and courageous. These words have not yet been applied to Nawaz
Sharif who returned to a turbulent Pakistan, but Benazir Bhutto was
honoured with such terms. She died on what people will now see as those
terms. As the first Muslim woman to become head of state, she came with
a readymade bonafide of martyr-rebel. 

"Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather
lead the fight against it," she had said recently. If she would have
got the opportunity, it would have been the third time. Politics is
about erring often enough to be human. 

Benazir may have identified with India's Rajiv Gandhi, but those were
superficial similarities. Her real mirror, if it may be called so, was
Indira Gandhi. 

Aside from the fact that both were ambitious women, they shared complete
devotion to and obsession with their fathers. While Ms. Gandhi was
India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's only child, it is
rather interesting that despite the politics of the subcontinent, as
indeed the world, being heavily patriarchal Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto chose
his daughter over his sons as his political heir.

The two male parents became Svengali and nemesis, their ghosts
continued to not merely haunt but hypnotise their daughters. When
Indira first came into politics, she was called "goongi gudiya" (the
dumb doll). Her whole political credo was therefore designed to hit
back.

She was Papa's puppet. Naturally, in that small stage she had to move
according to a pre-set rhythm. Katherine Frank's biography talks about
her paranoia regarding those she considered Nehru's enemies. She felt
that they were "out to trap her father and bring him down". What was
happening is that she was fearful for herself. Even as puppet she
wanted to be on centre-stage. Perhaps, by getting her father to move
away from the clique, she was subconsciously trying to claim complete
ownership.

Psychology would describe this as the Electra Complex that combines
penis envy with castration fear. Symbolically, the desire for
impregnation would manifest itself in being able to internalise the
father's ideology. 

Neither Benazir nor Indira managed to strike out on their own in terms
of policy or altering the role of the family as 'monarchy'. Benazir,
had she lived longer, would have brought her children into the
political arena just as Indira Gandhi did. 

Dynastic rule in democracies or quasi democracies has been about
perpetuating the name of the father. (The widow as successor is
essentially legitimised only as 'carrier' of the husband's progeny.)
The spouse is a prop, often a convenient one to act as buffer and even
bear the brunt of blame. Indira's marriage to Feroze Gandhi was a
fagade that went through moments of turmoil to keep it alive. In all
likelihood, she took his name to try and be her own person and not
merely the offspring of Nehru. 

Feroze was known to be a womaniser. Indira was aware of it. Her
humiliation would be avenged only if he felt that while he had proved
his manhood, he had lost out as the "nation's son-in-law". 

Asif Ali Zardari came with similar credentials. Benazir settled into
arranged matrimony and baby-producing to give Pakistan the sort of
woman who did regular things and had descendants to perpetuate the
royal pure blood. 

With such delusions, these women till the very last posed a threat only
to themselves.

Indira Gandhi saw imaginary demons. The result: The Emergency. Like all
frightened people, she camouflaged her baseless theories - about others
trying to plot against her government and stall its functioning -
beneath self-righteousness, declaring that democracy was not more
important than the nation. She could not even tolerate a peaceful
resistance movement. She was found guilty of corrupt electoral
practices by the High Court.

Benazir Bhutto was exiled to escape corruption charges. The pretence of
being the people's princess had to wear off once it was realised her
father had been the emperor with no clothes. The veneer of statesman
was wearing thin. 

Is it any surprise that Ms. Bhutto blatantly supported the Taliban
regime in its initial years to make certain that the Afghans did not
breathe down her neck? 

This was similar in manner to Indira Gandhi propping up Sant Jarnail
Singh Bhindranwale as a leader in Punjab, when he was a non-entity. She
and her younger son Sanjay used him till it was convenient. 

The mistake we make is to confuse populism for popularity. There is no
doubt that both these women had their ears to the ground; as opposed to
the sons of the soil, they were the mothers of the earth. This again
works well in the Electra Complex where the daughters aspire to replace
the mother. In villages and remote towns it can have tremendous appeal.
The poor and illiterate in our subcontinent like to be seen as loyal
subjects being the benefactors of largesse. Political coquetry is a
trait that comes with the territory. 

To make the situation even better, both these women had the benefit of a
western education and an urbane lifestyle. This seems a bit ironical for
they insisted on holding steadfastly to the dying socialist principles
of their fathers. These principles were for the most part straw pillars
meant for the masses; these families remained committed to feudalism in
their own lives. They had the luxury of encouraging coteries without
seeming to court anyone.

In India, Ms. Gandhi took away the privy purses, but kept the princes.
She spoke about rationality, but had a hedonistic 'godman' as a close
confidante. She was suave and sophisticated, but she encouraged greasy
middlemen. She spoke about "social democracy" but blatantly gave a
fillip to underhand financial dealings that came to be known as 'the
license permit raj'. And she thrived on strife. This is how she came to
support the Mukti Bahini in what was then East Pakistan and became
Bangladesh. 

A goddess was born. A few years later, she had internalised the spook
and revelled in the praise, "Indira is India, and India is Indira." 

Benazir did not have to deal with such a coinage, perhaps because
heading an Islamic country meant no idol worship. Instead, she deftly
marketed herself as the broadminded, non-jihadi face of Pakistan. Her
version of social democracy too was embedded in the old-fashioned
ideals of dignity of other people's labour while she sat back as her
husband made the money and got to keep the change. 

It takes some sleight of mind to master the act of playing both
distressed damsel and the dominatrix-matriarch fiercely protective of
everything around them and, as a consequence, their own position.

While most women in 'tough' roles are accused of mimicking men, as the
'Only Man in the Cabinet' and 'Ms. Virgin Ironpants', Indira and Benazir
demasculinised themselves. Talking about woman power, what they really
did was to build a cottage industry of being wronged. Politics became
not just a playground for suppressed emotions but a serious arena for
catharsis. 

Both women were elected to office twice. Indira Gandhi was shot dead by
her most trusted bodyguard. No one has as yet suggested that it could
well have been a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) sympathiser who did
Benazir in. She was the visible face of the party, but the ideology was
dictated by the spectre of Zulfiqar Ali. Some say that her niece Fatima
Bhutto, who has made serious allegations against her aunt for the
murder of her father Murtaza, could possibly play an important role.

If that were to happen, we would have one more "mind-controlled victim"
avenging her father's death and dreaming his dreams. Individual voices
in Pakistan are being muffled by echoes of old thoughts.


[Farzana Versey is the author of the forthcoming book A Journey
Interrupted: An Indian Woman in Pakistan, Harper Collins. She can be
reached at kaaghaz.kalam at gmail.com ]