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Indira Gandhi decided to renew INC's identity in 1978, post the much-criticised Emergency. She gave them the Palm of Hand on February 3, 1978, which is in use till date
Introduced on 3rd Feb 1978
Symbols of political parties, especially in India, become a part of the identity of the party and its ideologies in itself, whether it’s a broom representing the common man of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or the lotus (which is the national flower of India) representing Hindu Goddess Saraswati of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
How does a symbol get selected for a particular party? Most would think that the party itself comes up with it – but this is not true. The Election Commission of India has a list of specified symbols from where each party can choose its own symbol. Once a party chooses that symbol, it gets blocked from the list – no other party can choose it to represent their voice.
Historically speaking, every party gives the symbol its unique meaning according to the values that they believe in. One such interesting story is that of the symbol of the Congress party – the Palm of Hand. On February 3, 1978, the Congress Party chose this symbol to represent its unique self on the electoral list. But what’s the story behind it?
During the reign of Indira Gandhi as a powerful Congress leader, the party experienced a lot of internal conflicts – to the extent that it split up into two in 1969. The first half was called Congress (O), where O stood for Organisation. This was also called the Syndicate. It was led by Morarji Desai who was Indira Gandhi’s main opposition.
The other half was under Indira Gandhi who had been expelled from the main Congress party. She formed Congress (R), where R stood for Requisitionists. R perhaps stood for rebels as well, for Indira, with her set of supporters took on the Congress (O) who had much more experienced and senior leaders in their gang.
Since the party had split on ideological terms, Indira’s Congress (R) needed a unique symbol for itself too. While the Congress (O) held onto its symbol of two bullocks with a plough, Congress (R) chose its symbol to be a cow with a suckling calf.
In the following general elections held in 1971, these two parties fought the national elections fiercely, but Indira Gandhi emerged victorious. The Syndicate, or Congress (O) eventually merged with the Janata party after the next general elections. But this time, the Janata Party, under Morarji Desai defeated Indira’s Congress in the 1977 elections. This was also because India was unhappy with Indira for the declaration of the Emergency for 2 years (1975-77).
However, Morarji’s coalition wasn’t strong enough. It split yet again once they had won the elections, in 1979. All this while, Indira worked towards renewing her party identity. On February 3, 1978, she adopted the Palm of Hand as the official symbol of the Congress as we know today.
Following Morarji’s fall, Indira Gandhi won the elections again in 1980, securing herself as the Prime Minister till she was assassinated four years later.
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