The old bugaboo of international forces out to derail the government still needed to be trotted out, but clearly Indira Gandhi’s old and trusty foreign hand needed a 21st-century makeover In the Indira Gandhi days there were always two hands. One, her party’s electoral symbol, the other, the “foreign hand”. And the party hand always knew what the other was up to. The foreign hand practically became a member of the Indian extended family much like the troublemaking sister-in-law who’s part of every TV soap opera parivaar. While the wicked on-screen bhabhi switched salt and sugar in the kitchen, the foreign hand was busy meddling in India’s domestic affairs. In 1976 at a rally in Kolkata, Gandhi said the foreign hand was always trying to run down India and belittle its achievements, whether it was the launch of Aryabhata, India’s first satellite, or the Pokhran nuclear tests. The Emergency, she said, was “an excuse to criticise us afresh.” In 1980, she claimed she’d got reports that the foreign hand was behind the riots in Moradabad and other places.