{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox political party | name = Indian National Congress (R) | colorcode = {{Party color|Indian National Congress (R)}} | country = India | abbreviation = INC(R) | symbol = [[File:Cow and Calf INC.svg|200px]] | founder = [[Indira Gandhi]] | foundation = {{Start date and age|1969|11|12|df=y}} | split = [[Indian National Congress]] | successor = [[Indian National Congress]] | ideology = {{Plainlist| * [[Socialism]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |year=2021 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=9780691206806 |page=2}}</ref> * [[Economic nationalism]]<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.timesnownews.com/exclusive/indira-gandhi-nationalised-14-indian-banks-on-this-day-why-she-did-do-that-and-what-was-the-outcome-article-92973348|title=Indira Gandhi nationalised 14 Indian banks on this day: Why she did do that and what was the outcome | website=Times Now | date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Pro-[[Soviet Union|Soviet]] sentiment<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/1971-when-delhi-and-moscow-came-together-101628761894276-amp.html|title= 1971 When Delhi and Moscow came together|date= 12 August 2021|access-date= 21 July 2022|archive-date= 21 July 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220721052819/https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/1971-when-delhi-and-moscow-came-together-101628761894276-amp.html|url-status= live}}</ref> * [[Secularism]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://edurev.in/question/1692426/Difference-between-old-congress-and-new-congress- | title=Difference between old congress and new congress? &#124; EduRev Humanities/Arts Question | access-date=25 May 2022 | archive-date=5 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205110910/https://edurev.in/question/1692426/Difference-between-old-congress-and-new-congress- | url-status=live }}</ref> }} | position = [[Centre-left politics|Centre-left]]<ref>{{cite web|title=The 1970s Indian Economy: A Period of Growing Strains and the Nation's Fight Against Poverty|url=https://m.thewire.in/article/history/indian-economy-1971-poverty-bank-nationalisation-indira-gandhi|first=Arun|last=Kumar|date=2021-03-10|access-date=2024-07-18|quote="The right-wing tried to control the party but Mrs Gandhi allied with the centre-left forces and fought back and the party split."|website=The Wire}}</ref> to [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Mahendra Prasad|title=Split in a Predominant Party: The Indian National Congress in 1969|publisher=Abhinav publications|date=1981|pages=109|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOQRWuMXyRMC&q=info:VyX2kS8zrmAJ:scholar.google.com/|isbn=9788170171409|access-date=2024-07-18|quote="...the split placed the faction of their preference-the Congress left wing- in firm control of the ruling party."}}</ref> | dissolved = {{end date and age|1978|12|24|df=yes}} | colours = {{colour box|Turquoise}} [[Turquoise (color)|Turquoise]] }} '''Indian National Congress (Requisitionists)''' was the leftist faction of the [[Indian National Congress]] led by [[Indira Gandhi]], formed after the party split due to her expulsion in 1969.

The letter 'R' stands for 'Requisition'.<ref name="book">{{cite book|last=Sanghvi|first=Vijay|title=The Congress, Indira to Sonia Gandh|year=2006|publisher=Kalpaz Publications|location=New Delhi|isbn=81-7835-340-7|page=77|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=npdqD_TXucQC&q=%22indira+gandhi%22+cow++calf+symbol&pg=PA77}}</ref> The other faction of Congress party then became the [[Indian National Congress (Organisation)]], or ''Congress (O)'', and was led by [[K. Kamaraj|Kamaraj]]. It was informally called the ''organisation Congress'' or ''Syndicate'' and retained the party symbol of a pair of bullocks carrying a yoke. Gandhi's breakaway faction were given a new symbol of a cow with suckling calf by the Election Commission as the party election symbol.<ref name="book" />

The split occurred when, in 1969, a united opposition under the banner of [[Samyukt Vidhayak Dal]] won control over several states in the [[Hindi Belt|Hindi belt]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Chaudhary Charan Singh:Champion of farmers, first CM of non-Congress govt in northern India|url=https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/chaudhary-charan-singh-champion-of-farmers-first-cm-of-non-congress-govt-in-northern-india/articleshow/107561401.cms|date=2024-02-09|access-date=2024-07-18|website=The Economic Times}}</ref>

Indira Gandhi, prime minister and daughter of [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], was then challenged by the majority of the party leadership. Gandhi led the new faction to demonstrate her support amongst the people. In the [[1971 Indian general election|1971 general election]], Congress (R) had secured an overwhelming majority winning 352 out of 518 seats in the [[Lok Sabha]].<ref>{{cite web|title=When Indira Gandhi broke 'One Nation One Election' cycle|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/one-nation-one-election-simultaneous-poll-indira-gandhi-expelled-from-congress-broke-1971-nehru-bjp-ram-nath-kovind-2517913-2024-03-22|first=Sushim|last=Mukul|date=2024-03-22|access-date=2024-07-18|website=India Today|archive-date=18 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718160245/https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/one-nation-one-election-simultaneous-poll-indira-gandhi-expelled-from-congress-broke-1971-nehru-bjp-ram-nath-kovind-2517913-2024-03-22|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of seats held by the Congress (O) fell from 65 to 16. The Election Commission recognised Indira Gandhi's group as the real Congress with the right to call itself the Indian National Congress without the suffix (R), and restored the frozen Congress symbol of two bullocks to it. But Indira Gandhi's supporters preferred the 'calf and cow' symbol that it had adopted after the 1969 split.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://ia803209.us.archive.org/31/items/journeyofnationi00anan/journeyofnationi00anan.pdf | title=Journey of a Nation | website=us.archive.org}}</ref> In the elections to five state assemblies too, the Congress (R) performed well.

==In government== The [[Naxalbari uprising]] of 1967 made it imperative that the ruling class needed to address the concerns of small and middle peasantry against feudal interests. Indira Gandhi undertook structural reforms to boost middle-class among rural and urban areas as well to project her leftist credentials while simultaneously providing public sector financial aid to bourgeois industrialists. <ref>{{cite journal|last=Banerjee|first=Sumanta|title=Congress (R), CPI and CPI (M)|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=5|date=1970-11-07|issue=45|pages=1804–1807|jstor=4360667|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4360667|access-date=2024-07-18|archive-date=18 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718143000/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4360667|url-status=live}}</ref>

The government had a major boost in support after winning the [[Indo-Pakistani war of 1971]].

In 1972, [[General Insurance Corporation of India|general insurance]] and [[Coal in India|coal industry]] were nationalised even as a mixed economy was still followed.

Cheap foodgrains were distributed to the poor by government initiative while influence of businessmen in politics was curtailed by imposing ban on donations to parties through joint-stock companies.

On May 18, 1974, a significant breakthrough was achieved by the [[Smiling Buddha|detonation of a nuclear device]] at [[Pokhran]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Nigam|first=Sk|title=THE INC (INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS) A PARTY OF IDEA AND CHANGES|publisher=Notion press|date=2024|isbn=979-8-89233-557-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1oGEQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Indian+National+Congress%22+R+-wikipedia&pg=PT68|access-date=2024-07-18}}</ref>

==Decline and legacy==

Indira made the party into her own puppet organisation while economic malaise and unemployment started deepening. Suppression of railway strikes in 1974 led to fall in working-class support. Centralisation of power and increasing influence of business magnates (which led to more corruption) stoked protests in states like [[Gujarat]] and [[Bihar]].

Sycophantic party leaders who promoted Indira Gandhi's [[cult of personality]] further contributed to the rot in leadership. The regime reached its absolute nadir with the disqualification of Indira and the subsequent proclamation of [[The Emergency (India)|Emergency]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Chakravartty|first=Nikhil|title=Congress split: Divide to rule|website=India Today|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/19780131-indira-gandhi-installed-as-president-of-break-away-faction-of-congress-party-818678-2015-04-21|date=1978-01-31|access-date=2024-07-18|archive-date=14 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514160552/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/19780131-indira-gandhi-installed-as-president-of-break-away-faction-of-congress-party-818678-2015-04-21|url-status=live}}</ref>

Leaders like [[Jagjivan Ram]] and [[Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna|Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna]] left the party as the Emergency became unpopular. Both went on to form [[Congress for Democracy]] on February 2, 1977, which eventually merged with [[Janata Party]]. In July 1977, Karnataka CM [[D. Devaraj Urs|Devaraj Urs]] resigned and formed [[Indian National Congress (U)|Congress (U)]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Srivastava|first=Aaku|title=Sensex of Regional Parties|publisher=Prabhat Prakashan Pvt. Limited|date=2022|isbn=978-93-5521-236-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OEeHEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Naga+People%27s+Front%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT231|access-date=2024-07-21}}</ref>

The party was voted out of from power after the emergency was lifted and elections were conducted in [[1977 Indian general election|1977]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Ranjan|first=Alok|title=Revisiting 1977 elections, when Opposition came together on 'Indira Hatao' slogan|website=India Today|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/decades-ago-when-opposition-huddled-on-indira-hatao-ahead-of-lok-sabha-polls-2408296-2023-07-18|date=2023-07-18|access-date=2024-07-19}}</ref> === Indian National Congress (Indira) === In 1978, following the resignation of several leaders such as [[Nandini Satpathy|Nandini Satapathy]], who criticised abuses during the Emergency, and amid internal contestation between Indira Gandhi’s nominee [[Kasu Brahmananda Reddy|K. Brahmananda Reddy]] and [[Siddhartha Shankar Ray]] for the post of party president, Indira Gandhi broke away from Congress (R) to form Congress (Indira).<ref>{{cite web|last=Khan|first=Fatima|title=What are Congress (I) & Congress (A)? The 2 party camps in place since 1970s in Kerala|website=The Print|url=https://theprint.in/politics/what-are-congress-i-congress-a-the-2-party-camps-in-place-since-1970s-in-kerala/620786/|quote="Congress (I) where the ‘I’ stands for Indira Gandhi, was a camp that emerged in 1978..."|date=2021-03-13|access-date=2024-07-18|archive-date=18 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718153842/https://theprint.in/politics/what-are-congress-i-congress-a-the-2-party-camps-in-place-since-1970s-in-kerala/620786/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Ahead of the [[1996 Indian general election|1996 general election]], Congress (I) dropped the suffix “Indira” from its registered name. Meanwhile, Congress (O) had earlier merged with parties such as the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]] and others to form the [[Janata Party]], a broad anti-Congress nationalist political formation.

== See also == *[[Indian National Congress breakaway parties]] *[[Indian National Congress]]

==Notes== {{reflist}}

{{Indian Emergency}}

[[Category:Indian National Congress breakaway groups]] [[Category:The Emergency (India)]]