Indira Gandhi: A Biography by Pupul Jayakar

Author:Pupul Jayakar [downloaded from gappaa.org]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: downloaded from gappaa.org
Published: 2015-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

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With mounting food shortages, rising oil prices, diesel and kerosene in short supply, the cessation of US economic aid, the threat of sabotage and drought and the seething unrest, it was inevitable that Jayaprakash Narayan drew large crowds as he travelled through the length and breadth of the country. In Bihar, a students’ agitation under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan had commenced along with the revolt in Gujarat. He wrote an article in which he said that the people of the country themselves must fight, in peaceful ways, of course, for deliverance from the corrupt system under which they were suffering. Apart from corruption, they must also fight hunger, unemployment, inflation and economic injustice of many kinds.

Unlike in Gujarat, Indira Gandhi struck back at the Bihar movement. Lathi charges and tear gas were resorted to by the police to quell the agitators. Jayaprakash Narayan was in the thick of one of the processions and would have been seriously hurt if his followers had not surrounded him and protected him.

On 5 June 1974, at a meeting held in Patna, Jayaprakash Narayan demanded the dismissal of the Bihar Ministry on grounds of corruption and the dissolution of the Assembly. He called for a total revolution.

Gravely concerned with the situation in the country, some of Jayaprakash Narayan’s friends attempted to bring about a rapprochement between JP and the Prime Minister. Achyut Patwardhan, a close colleague of Jayaprakash Narayan and a hero of the freedom struggle, had abandoned politics after India attained independence. Deeply moved by J. Krishnamurti, he had gone to live and work in a village in Varanasi. He came to Delhi and asked me, as an old friend, to arrange a meeting between him and the Prime Minister. I was present at the meeting and Patwardhan suggested several possibilities to Indira Gandhi. Earlier, Achyut Patwardhan had held discussions with Jayaprakash Narayan. It was suggested that JP could make a conciliatory statement to which Indira would respond, following which the two could jointly draw up a programme for the return of a moral tone to government and the country. Indira listened to Patwardhan and Achyut came away with the feeling that she would cooperate in the search for a solution.

On 11 October 1974, I received a letter from the Prime Minister:

It would certainly be most welcome if JP were to make a statement along the lines suggested. But I am afraid that the idea of establishing a non-party government in consultation with him would mean the death knell of democratic functioning. Is it possible to find other ways of “moral” co-operation with JP, such as cleansing the election process?4

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