NEW DELHI-Delusions about Defeat

NEW DELHI Delusions about Defeat B M THE Prime Minister found it, characteristically enough, convenient to give her first reaction to the drubbing that her party and more especially her vaunted vote-gathering charisma have received in the recent Assembly elections in Andhra and Kanataka to a group of journalism students who made a routine call on her' She is reported to have attributed the stunning defeat suffered by her and her party to what she chose to characterise as 'malfunctioning' of the Congress (I) party and to 'adverse publicity'. This was obviously her way of trying to appear cool and unruffled in the face of a political setback which has visibly shaken the Congress (I) party at all levels as well as all those who believed Indira Gandhi to be invincible at the hustings and hence destined to rule without question and without accountability to anyone.