Veteran journalist Harish Khare has been scathing in his condemnation of Jayaprakash Narayan and his legacy:

“Fifty years after Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency, history is turning a harsher gaze not just on her authoritarian turn but on Jayaprakash Narayan’s fateful alliance with Sangh. Legitimised by JP’s mis-judgment, the RSS has wrecked India’s democracy, institutions and political culture… History has already dealt a rough hand to Indira Gandhi for embarking on a dangerous road 50 years ago; what she did during those dark days could be rolled back by the masses. History will deal an equally rough, if not rougher, hand to Jayaprakash Narayan for rehabilitating the RSS as a normal political force. Fifty years later, Indira Gandhi’s excesses pale in comparison to JP’s cardinal sin.” 

This condemnation does not bear truth. As the “custodian of JP in Emergency Jail” in Chandigarh (1975) who had interacted intensely with him for about six months of the most adverse period of his life and later before he passed away in ‘heart-broken-grief’, I am duty bound to tell the truth.

First, two quotes from JP:

“When, following Gandhiji’s murder, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was under a shadow, there were many protestations made about its being entirely a cultural organisation. But apparently emboldened by the timidity of the secular forces, it has thrown its veil away and has emerged as the real force behind, and controller of, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. The secular protestations of the Jana Sangh will never be taken seriously unless it cuts the bonds that tie it so firmly to the RSS machine. Nor can the RSS be treated as a cultural organisation as long as it remains the mentor and effective manipulator of a political party.” [1968: MG Devasahayam, JP in Jail – An Uncensored Account (Roli Books, Delhi, p. 206-207)]

“RSS identifies the Indian nation with Hindu Rashtra. Such identification is pregnant with national disintegration because members of other communities can never accept the position of second-class citizens. Such a situation, therefore, has in it the seeds of perpetual conflict and ultimate disruption. RSS should ‘give up the concept of Hindu Rashtra and adopt in its place Indian nationhood, which is a secular concept and embraces all communities living in India.’ RSS should disband itself and merge with the youth and cultural organisations of the Janata Party and admit Muslims, Christians, and members of other communities.”  [1977: MG Devasahayam, Counterview]

These are two searing statements – one before the JP Movement commenced and the other after the Emergency when the Janata government was in power. They reflect JP’s opinion of RSS and his contempt for this fanatic outfit. Yet, through sheer lies and skullduggery, these masters of deceit have been able to project JP as their icon and a co-fascist. 

Howsoever tall a man may be, he is fallible, and JP is the proof. His ‘devil’s bargain’ with the Jana Sangh, the outfit of the communal and fascist behemoth, RSS, to defeat the Emergency and its autocratic ruler, Indira Gandhi, has cost the Indian polity, nay, democracy itself, very dear.

In December 1974, RSS Sarsanghchalak Balasaheb Deoras declared the JP Movement as ‘a force for the good of the society’. The encomium was reciprocated by JP when he told a BJS/RSS conclave in March 1975, “if you are a fascist, then I too am a fascist.” JP perhaps did not realise that he was dealing with a Goebelisian propaganda machine that believes in ‘Asatyameve Jayate’, meaning ‘Lies Alone Shall Triumph’. With this single and stray sentence, they have painted JP with black tar, with the ‘intellectual elite’ blaming him for the rise of fascist politics and governance that is afflicting the country today. It is only half-truth.

It is on JP’s initiative Jana Sangh merged itself into the Janata Party in 1977. Due to the JP Movement’s widespread impact and the pressure of the Emergency, Jana Sangh had changed its strategy and during the 1977 Lok Sabha election, this party neither used its flag nor campaigned on its staunch pro-Hindutva ideology. All Jana Sangh candidates signed on the Janata Party’s membership form, which stated, “I express complete faith in the values and ideals as propounded by Mahatma Gandhi, and I dedicate myself to the cause of establishing a socialist state.”

But future political incidents would go on to prove that doing this was merely political drama and opportunism by the Jana Sangh and the RSS to attain their far-reaching goals. They never drifted from their original aim nor changed their ways of achieving it. JP faced criticism for providing a platform and political acceptance to the RSS even when he was alive. Since this has become a raging controversy, it needs to be looked at from a proper perspective. 

During the Emergency, when he was in prison, JP wrote a letter addressed to the people of Bihar in which he explained his motive of incorporating them in the Sampoorna Kranti Andolan, in order to de-communalise them – the RSS and Jana Sangh. This was a noble objective in the conditions prevailing at that time. 

The student movement in Bihar started from an issue of corruption in hostels of some colleges and soon morphed into a wider anticorruption movement. Police firing took place during a protest outside the state legislative assembly, and dozens of protesters were killed. On 11 November 1974, while leading a massive rally at Patna, JP himself was baton-charged and shielded by his supporters to prevent his skull from being broken.

There was an urgent need to break the spell of terror prevailing after these incidents. JP had agreed to lead the movement on the condition that he would be in complete command of the entire movement and that it would be carried out in a peaceful manner. Jan Sangh and RSS elements were already present in the movement when JP took charge. Soon, the movement acquired a larger dimension and demands were made to dissolve the Bihar state assembly for the brutal baton charge. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was of the opinion that a movement that is demanding the dismissal of an elected government is ‘fascist’ and the entire movement was targeted for getting support from these ‘fascist organisations.’

JP’s point of view was that he was leading the Bihar movement, and other political parties were participating in it after leaving behind their own flags and banners. Whoever came to support this movement against an ‘autocratic government’ by accepting its terms was welcome to do so. If Jana Sangh was being labelled ‘fascist’ for opposing an ‘autocratic government’, then JP too was a ‘fascist’ by association. That’s the historical perspective many of JP’s critics are not even aware of. Nor do they realise that JP never had any personal ambition because he always spurned positions of political authority – even that of the Prime Minister of India.

There is another dimension, too. At that time, the Communist Party of India was opposing the movement and siding with Indira Gandhi. Gandhivadi organisations were also in a poor state. Vinoba Bhave also stood with Indira Gandhi. The socialist camp was also participating in the movement with less-than-required zeal. In such circumstances, his reliance on cadre-based RSS and Jana Sangh increased much more than he would have liked. He was probably in a delusion that, ultimately, he would be successful in de-communalising the RSS and the Jana Sangh. That is why he formed an independent youth organisation called Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini during the Emergency itself.

JP did make a historic blunder in not recognising the true nature of the RSS, which has been playing a constant role since its inception. RSS was against India’s freedom and had done everything to sabotage it. It was also responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. But they were well aware of JP as the champion of the freedom movement, his closeness to Gandhi, his troubles with the Congress party and the former government led by Jawaharlal Nehru. So, ensnaring JP had been one of the strategic objectives of the RSS from the beginning.

JP’s revulsion to this communal outfit, which had worked against India’s freedom and eventually assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, was overcome through persistent efforts. In 1959, Sita Ram Goel, with sympathies towards RSS, was the secretary of the All-India Panchayat Parishad, of which JP was the president. One day, he conveyed an invitation to JP for the RSS camp being held in New Delhi. JP was stunned, as if an obscenity had been uttered: “Do you know what you are talking about and to whom?’ There was a touch of temper in his voice. ‘You know that I have a certain standing in the country and a certain reputation in public life. You should not expect me to get mixed up with an organisation which is known for its communal, reactionary, and revivalist character.” 

Sita Ram countered, saying that JP had been practising untouchability towards a section of people. He told JP that he had never met the RSS people face to face and had never listened to their side of the story. And yet, he had formed an unsavoury opinion about them, which was unreasonable. Finding JP listening, Sita Ram continued. He told JP that his status today was not that of a party politician seeking power and fomenting partisan strife. Instead, he is a father figure for the nation as a whole and almost the conscience-keeper of the people. 

That was why people of all persuasions – Congressmen, Socialists, Communists, Akalis, National Conference men, and so on – came to him for consultation, for registering their complaints, for presenting their point of view, and for seeking his advice. He always went out and met them whenever they invited him. It is only the RSS and allied people whom JP avoided, so much so that one of their leaders could not come to him directly and had to convey an invitation through a small fry like Sita Ram. 

This argument made JP change his mind. The next day, he spent nearly two hours in the RSS camp, witnessing their mass drill and was ‘impressed’ by their prayer of ‘show’ of devotion to the motherland.

But it must be remembered that JP was never a supporter of the RSS’s communal agenda and politics. It was the Sangh’s deceitful strategies and promises that it had accepted the aim of socialism that undid JP. 

He had made his position clear when he told Jyoti Basu of CPI(M) in 1974: “if you join” the movement “these fellows [i.e., the RSS] will run away”. JP suggested that he had taken them on board only for pragmatic reasons, for “our party is not there, nothing is there, and they have an organisation.”

Both had a great equation since Jyoti Basu was the vice-president when JP was the president of the All-India Railwaymen Federation. But Jyoti Basu did not respond. Had he responded and Communists had given up their Russia/China loyalties and joined the JP Movement in full force, the political and economic landscape of India would have been vastly different.

For the RSS, there was an important urge to infiltrate the JP bandwagon. Having betrayed the ‘freedom movement’ led by Gandhiji and being excoriated for the purpose, they wanted to latch on to the epigonic ‘second freedom struggle’ led by the Apostle of the Mahatma. By emulating the Gandhian techniques of the first freedom struggle, the RSS hoped to make up for lost time by quickly amassing a prestigious repertoire of nationalism from which it had heretofore been excluded. Because of its numerical strength and visibility, RSS dominated the JP Movement and the activities it indulged in, including Satyagrahas.

The proverbial last straw on the camel’s back was the solemn pledge taken by top RSS and Jan Sangh leaders – Balasaheb Deoras, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani – in JP’s presence to totally give up communal politics in the event of winning the 1977 Lok Sabha election and coming to power at the Union. They had also categorically assured him that immediately thereafter, Jan Sangh would merge with the parent party (Janata) and would terminate the ‘dual membership’ – RSS and Jan Sangh – making the former a purely cultural organisation. 

They also assured JP that if any hurdle came up for this, they would not even hesitate to wind up the RSS. And JP, being a man of honour and integrity, had no reason to doubt these characteristics in these senior leaders.

That JP was ruthlessly betrayed is history. Authors, writers, academics, journalists and ‘intellectual-elite’ have been cruelly condemning this “Second Mahatma” who returned India to democracy and freedom after nearly two years of the “Emergency-Autocracy” of 1975. And they have been doing so from hearsay and their own prejudices. 

In the last half-a-century, not one of them has ever contacted me to get a factual account of what happened within the confines of JP’s Emergency incarceration.

JP had ‘worked and marched, fought and died for the triumph of democracy and freedom’ in a country wherein live one-sixth of the human race, after sacrificing everything and expecting nothing in return. And he did it not once, but twice – as a fiery fighter for freedom from alien rule under Gandhiji’s leadership and later winning it back from a native ‘durbar’ under his own stewardship. 

This is a rarity, unparalleled in the annals of world history. Elsewhere in the world he would have been venerated and celebrated as a great ‘icon’. Here, he is being condemned and thrown to the dog-house. This seems to be the fate of true patriots in this parched land ruled by fakes and frauds. So, be it!

M.G. Devasahayam had a ring-side view of the Emergency. Portions of the article are from the writer’s recent book titled ‘Emergency and Neo-Emergency: Who will Defend Democracy’, The Browser, Chandigarh.

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