The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 37 : The fall of Janata party & the Government
https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_14_07_2021.php
Author : Sri S.Gurumurthy
Translator : C.Rangarajan
In Jan 1977, Indira had announced the elections, without ending the state of emergency. In the next two days, four parties — Congress(O), Socialists, Bharatiya Lok Dal & Jana Sangh, merged. They were afraid of Indira would decimate them, return to power and become an absolute totalitarian, if they had contested alone. Otherwise, how would they have decided to dilute the party that was nurtured by them for many years? It had other motives, even If Indira does not gets defeated; it would help to protect democracy and save them all, together. They decided on the basis that unity alone would help to achieve the goals.
Until the appearance of the Janata wave, they have not dreamt about the victory. Members and in particular the North Indians, who were part of the underground movement managed by RSS were unhappy & angry with Indira. When the leaders came out of the prison and assembled to put up the Janata party, they were not aware of the ground-level situation. Most of them were mentally prepared for the defeat and had not planned for attaining power and managing the government.
Not an auspicious time
The Janata party was comprised of four major parties and more than 40 strong & popular leaders. With their victory, more than Indira’s shock (because of her defat), they too were shell-shocked by their victory. These four parties were not mentally aligned. The gap among them continues to grow. Though Chandrasekhar was elected the leader of the Janata Party, the four parties continued to operate separately, both organizationally and as well in policymaking. Thankfully, because of the presence of Jayaprakash Narain & Acharya Kripalani, there was no fight about the PM post; otherwise, then & there, the party would have been broken on that issue alone.
All the talented opposition members were part of the Janata Party. The government had a galaxy of popular & performing stars — Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan ram, Vajpayee, Advani, George Fernandes, Prakash Singh Badal, Surjeetsingh Barnala, Biju Patnaik, Shanthi Bhushan, et al. Many times, Cho had talked about the uniqueness of this government in Independent India. The government started to struggle right from the formation. The government had assumed power at an inauspicious time. After the date & time were announced, many had told me about the inauspicious time and requested a change. I reached out to Goenka. He said, “ Guru, whatever we observe, Rahukaal, Yamakand, Hora, etc do not follow in North India. Moreover, Morarji did not agree for the change of time”. Goenka, who follows such things was not at all happy.
Lohiayaite Socialists
The Lohiayaite socialists were the root cause of all the problems in the Janata Government. In the Janata party, more than half of the seats were won by Jana Sangh & Lok Dal. The Socialists who did not have any discipline were chiefly responsible for breaking down the Janata party. Only, if we understand the history of Lohiayaite then we will be able to understand the present-day commotion, fight & unruly behavior in the Parliament. Once, the Lohiayaite socialist Maniram Bagiri bit the house Marshal, who had come to evict him. A complaint was raised.
Lohiyaites were groomed by Ram Manohar Lohia who was a great patriot and a popular leader too. He opposed the die-hard socialist Nehru, vehemently. He once argued that a passenger train is derailed then it was an act of violence and the same thing would not apply if we do with a goods train. He ridiculed Indira as a “Goongi Gudiya (quiet woman)” in the Parliament. The story about Lohiyaites is a sub-plot in the disintegration drama.
Four members — Jayaprakash Narain (JP) who did not accept the ministry given by Nehru, Acharya Narendra Deva (Guru of Chandrasekhar), Acharya Kripalani who had refused the Presidency of Congress party & Ram Manohar Lohia came together to for Praja Socialist Party (PSP) to contest in the 1951 elections. They had a huge difference of opinions and continue to discuss before reaching out to the public. They said, “Since we disagree on everything, our party does not have common agenda, except one. That is to maintain the honesty & integrity”.
Due to the influence of a tall leader like JP, they were able to win 11% of votes and attained the 2nd position in the Parliament by winning 12 seats (Congress won 45% of the votes and Jana Sangh won 3% of the votes & 3 seats). Later, JP quit politics and joined the Sarvodaya movement. In 1955, PSP got separated. Lohia formed Samyuktha socialist party (SSP) and retained its separate identity in 1972. Lohia never had an amicable relationship with anyone, and he formed one such bunch of nay-sayers, who would not get along with anyone’s followers. That group was called Lohiyaites and became popular in politics. He was the precursor for Mandal politics. From 1950 till the 1990s, Leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav was Lohiayaite socialists. They influenced people and started ruling states like UP & Bihar. After the death of Lohia, both the parties PSP & SSP merged and became a socialist party. Most of the members were Lohiyaites.
The Lohiyaites who joined the Janata party bombed its very existence. Some of the Lohiyaites like Rajnarain, George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye, Maniram Bagiri, who joined the Janata party and opposed Indira, were ideologically closer to her thoughts. Since Lohia was opposing Indira & Nehru, the socialists did not have any option but to oppose her. That forced them to work with the parties like Jana Sangh, Lok dal & Congress (O).
Madhu Limaye, who was the most famous of them all was instrumental in breaking the Janata party. He considered RSS & Jana Sangh as his #1 enemy. Nanaji Deshmukh told me that once Madhu ridiculed the RSS trains people to lift the palanquin/palki and not to sit inside. To oust the Morarji Desai government, he had united Sanjay Gandhi, Charan Singh, George Fernandes & Rajnarain. What was the conspiracy hatched?
Double membership problem, Blame it on Morarji
Janata’s party’s backbone was Jana Sangh and its Achilles heel was Socialists. Charan Singh was after the PM chair. Indira made use of those weaknesses.
Since Jana Sangh was a communal party, it tainted the Janata party and Indira started calling it a communal one too. In those times, being identified as communal was a big social taboo. To finish off the Janata Party, the trump card of opposing RSS was used. Madhu Limaye identified a plot. He had asked Kuldeep Nayar to write on the following line in the Indian Express, “ RSS is a political movement. If an RSS person joins the Janata party, it is tantamount to be in two parties. Either, leaders like Advani, Vajpayee should sever their links with RSS or resign from the Janata Party.
When the article was published in the Indian Express, Goenka exploded like a volcano. What can be done, once it was published in the paper? Dual membership became a weapon in the hands of Indira. It helped to split the Janata party. Indira was fighting the party & the government from outside. Whereas, her son Sanjay, Business leaders supporting the Congress party, with the help of the press, invited the socialists & Charan Singh to join their side. Initially, Charan Singh joined Morarji’s govt. Charan Singh taunted him for not arresting Indira. Morarji dismissed him from the government. Charan Singh was a power-hungry man and he wanted to become a PM at least for one day. That led to the paralysis of the government. Then people like Nanaji Deshmukh helped to have a compromise and made them become Charan Singh & Jagajivanram as deputy PMs. It helped to avert the tragedy for some time.
But, it did not last long. Having felt humiliated by Morarji Desai, Charan Singh reached out to political brokers like Chandraswami and through them, he had established contact with Sanjay Gandhi. With the help of his arch-rival Congress, he had decided to become the PM. He started accusing the honesty-personified, Morarji Desai and demanded an inquiry. This is how the Janata experiment was thwarted by the Lohiyaites and Charan Singh. They had cheated the very own people, who had elected them in 1977. After becoming the PM, Charan Singh openly said that his dreams became true. To date, he gets ridiculed for his role. He came to power in July 1979 and could not secure the confidence vote in the Parliament, since Indira had withdrawn her support. His government collapsed in Jan 1980.
Fernandes, the big loser
Fernandes defended the Moraraji Desai government during the no-confidence motion in the Parliament and he also opposed the totalitarian regime of Indira. His speech was appreciated by the whole Nation. On the same day, Madhu Limaye met him and changed his mind. The next day, he opposed the Morarji government. In 24 hours, the hero became a zero. He became an orphan for the next 10 years in politics. Since 1987, we became very close to each other. It is very rare to come across such kind of personality in politics. A gem of a man with a razor-sharp brain, Honesty, Bravery, and excellent oratory skills. He could converse fluently in English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada & Malayalam.
In 1988 at the Thuglaq office, Cho & I met him. Efforts were undergoing to make a unified formation under VP Singh. Fernandes was helping them but did not get the same reception in politics that was there, a few years back. He was seeking redemption and asked Cho for a way out. Cho put me in an embarrassing situation and requested to share an idea. Then, I said, “Georg, Bofors issue is gathering storm. Like 1977, there is an opportunity in front of us. All the opposition parties may unite with BJP to defeat the Congress party. If you can align yourself with the Janata Dal and help in this unification, then it will help in your redemption”. Cho had also agreed to it. In 1989, Fernandes became closer to BJP. Then, he created the Samata party in Bihar with Nitish Kuma, aligned with BJP, and helped to form the government. Later, he became the defence minister in Vajpayee’s government. If he had not faltered in 1977, he would have become the PM in the 1990s. Such a tremendous personality, he was and could not live up to his potential.
