“Amrit Mahotsav – 75 years of Independence” What was lost and what was gained ?

“Amrit Mahotsav – 75 years of Independence” What was lost and what was gained ?

?This year we are celebrating Amrit Mahotsav of Independence on completion of 75 years of Independence. In these 75 years as a Nation there has been many achievements. Out of these 75 years there were Prime Ministers for 55 years from Congress, BJP had its Prime Ministers for approximately 14 years and for about 6 years Prime Ministers were from different parties like Janta Pary, Samajwadi Janta Party and United front.?Country got 15 Prime ministers and many books were written about the achievements of each of them. Political writers and historians will write thousand more books on the achievement of last 75 years.

There has been many achievements of all the Prime Ministers of last 75 years. I belong to eastern part (Purvanchal) and would like to throw some light on the achievements of Prime Ministers of my area. There is also a reason behind it, if I exaggerate something in discussing their achiements country will not mind it. While praising his own soil even a neutral writer show a bit of partiality.

?My birthplace Purvanchal also gave three Prime Ministers to the Nation but unfortunately no one could complete their term. First of all Lal Bahadur Shastri became Prime Minister in 1964 who served for 1 year 216 days, there after Vishwanath Pratap Singh became PM in 1989 who served for 343 days and lastly Chandra Shekhar Jee became in 1990 who remained PM for only 223 days. Two Prime Ministers could not complete even a year in office so it may not be proper to evaluate their achievement. Anyone needs at least 1-2 years’ time to perform. First of all at that point of time the process of forming Govt. and saving them was not so developed. On the other hand their parties were not rich like other national parties that they could have done some research on the methods of saving the Govt. One can see that only Lal Bahadur Shastri got about one and half years to lead the country.

?Lal Bahadur Shastri was true Lal (son ) of India who set examples of simplicity and honesty in public life. So Bahadur (brave ) and self-respecting that when American President Lyndon Johnson threatened to stop supply of red wheat under PL 480 during the war of 1965 if he did not stop the war with Pakistan, he called upon the countrymen to forgo one meal every week which will compensate the deficit of supply of American wheat. Shastri was so learned that in a short period of 18 months of his Premiership he took India to the height of success. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, Green Revolution, White Revolution and many more examples are there.?

?I, on the basis of my limited research can say with conviction that as a Prime Minister the lesson of honesty in public life which he taught was never seen either before him or after him. Please don’t take my words otherwise or see it with a different view. Honesty in public life is not limited to only financial irregularity. Honesty in public life is much bigger than this such as favour own acquaintance to give high post bypassing merit, help in growth of own political party, establish family and loved ones in politics, use administrative power to suppress opponents, doing?political compromises to remain in power. Accepting wrong and right things of own party people to remain in power, in spite of sitting on the topmost post take direction from someone else and many other parameters are there to define and measure honesty.?

?In last 75 years our country has progressed in all fields. In the field of education big educational institutions like IIT, IIM, and AIIMS were established and students coming out of them kept the Indian flag flying high all over the world. Big hospitals were built, sending Mangalyan and Chandrayan were sent in space,?Missiles were made, country became nuclear capable, armed forces became powerful, airports were built in all big cities, Railway network laid, Metro rail network laid, highways network was built, high-rise buildings started coming up, there was industrialisation, big industries were setup, Make in India became talk of the era, Digital India happened, Bank became accessible for everyone, dream of Bullet Train started materialising, big Seaports started being built, industrialist of our country became known in the world, people from lowest strata of the society started reaching in every field, people from lowest section of society became Prime Minister and President, Democracy got strengthened continually, apart from this lot of development took place to make a list of which many books will fall short.??

?British Govt.?used religious divide time to time as a trump card to continue in power. Religious flags were flying high 2-3 years before and 2-3 years after the independence.?Hindu and Muslims both got highly radicalised and divided. Ugly face of this radicalisation was visible and country could not express the happiness of achieving freedom with open heart. This resulted in division of country in two parts India and Pakistan. Pakistan continued to spread the venom of religious frenzy and moved ahead as a nation. Keeping aside religious hysteria India moved on the path of development and progress as a secular nation.

?India only after 2-3 years of independence brought religious fanaticism under control and started the work of building the nation which had become hollow after hundreds of years of slavery. Now the country was mainly divided into two different political ideologies. Followers of 1st ideology wanted to focus on prevalent divide of upper and lower class, rich and poor, cast system, untouchability and many other evils existing in the society. Primarily they wanted to move ahead with ideology of socialism and communism. Followers of 2nd ideology gave priority to development and wanted to concentrate on improvement of economic condition of the country.?Both the ideologies had honest intention and had the same goal to achieve. 1st ideology wanted to develop the nation through socialism and 2nd ideology wanted to set right the social fabric by following the path of development. Both the ideologies had strong presence and respected each other and it can be said that they moved ahead with mutual consent. For the convenience of the readers I will address the 1st ideology as “Socialism” and 2nd ideology as “Modernism”. Influenced with modernism Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister and influenced by Socialism Rajendra Prasad became the first President of the nation. Socialism and Modernism both the ideologies were present in the Govt (Congress) and outside in the opposition.

?Despite sitting at the top position of the Government Nehru Ji never had the illusion of being the top leader of the country. Nehru considered thousands of leaders bigger than him like Rajendra Pradad, Sardar Patel, J.B.Kripalani, Sampoorna Nand, Puroshottam Das Tandon, C, Rajagopalchari, Chandra Bhanu Gupta, Srikrishana Singh, Maulana Azad, Pattabhi Sitaramaiya, Algu Rai Shastri, Dwarka Prasad Mishra. Nehru was never so powerful that he could do any work without the consent of his own party or opposition leaders. I would like to mention one incident as an example regarding power of Nehru which I heard in my childhood of which I don’t have any proof of it being true. Once election was to take place in the country and Algu Rai Shastri was perhaps president of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee or held some other post. Algu Rai Shastri played main role in distribution of ticket. Nehru Ji wanted ticket for his son-in-law Feroz Gandhi from somewhere in Purvanchal which may be fort of Congress and from where his victory could be assured. Algu Rai Shastri refused to give ticket to Feroz telling that being his son-in-law was not a qualification to get the ticket.

?Talking about Rajendra Babu will be like showing light to the Sun. Present and Future of independent India will always feel proud that great personality like Dr Rajendra Prasad was 1st President of the nation. I would like to mention an incident regarding Rajendra Babu which I heard in my childhood for which I don’t have any proof to prove it true. Once 5 childhood friends of Rajendra Babu few belonging to Purvanchal and few from Bihar out of which 1-2 lived in Calcutta came to meet him in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. All stayed for 2-3 days in Rashtrapati Bhavan. On the very first day during night round of conversation was going on in the Rajendra Babui’s bedroom. In the meanwhile few of the friends noticed that the bed sheet of Rajendra Babu was torn at two three places.?

Next morning when all the five friends went to visit Delhi they discussed among themselves and guessed that Rajendra Babu is passing through some financial problem. All the friends decided to buy 3-4 bedsheets because Rajendra Babu is president now and big personalities visit him who should not see it. All the 5 five friends took out whatever money they had in their pocket and purchased 4 bed sheets. They came back to Rashtrapati Bhavan in evening and another round of talk started at dinner.?Friends placed the bed sheet on a table by the side of the bed. Rajendra Babu enquired from them about the places they saw and purchases made. Friends narrated everything and also said that beautiful bed sheets were available on cheap rate. We had not brought anything for you and wanted to buy dhoti kurta for you but there would have been problem of proper fitting. Then we saw the cheap and beautiful bed sheets so we bought it. Rajendra Babu could read the sentiments of friends. After two days when all the friends were to depart for Calcutta Rajendra Babu very humbly requested them to take the bed sheets and offer them to poor labourers sleeping in the cold on Howrah Bridge. There is so much poverty in the country and here in Rashtrapati Bhavan all the facilities are there for me.

?After Jawaharlal Nehru Guljarilal Nanda and then Lal Bahadur Shastri became prime minister till then socialism remained strong. All the leaders leading their life with socialism like Ramamanohar Lohia, Raj Narain, Karpoori Thakur, Madhu limay, Morarji Desai, Chowdhary Charan Singh, George Fernandes, Atal Bihari Bajpai were in a very strong position. Modernism and socialism with evolutionary thinking continued to respect each other and the country kept progressing. Although capitalism keep standing behind the development but till that time capitalism was not so strong.?

?Then Indira Gandhi became prime minister and socialism and modernism both began to increase their strength. Indira Gandhi continued to make herself powerful. In the general election of 1971 Indira Gandhi stepped in with the slogan of “Garibi Hatao” (eradicate poverty) and won the election for Congress with huge majority.?Congress captured 352 seats in this election compared to 283 seats in last Loksabha. War broke out between India and Pakistan in 1971 and Pakistan got split in two parts. A new nation was born in form of Bangla Desh. This was a big victory for Indira Gandhi and her power was increasing not only in own country but also at international level. She was being called as “Iron lady”, “Durga” and by many such names. Capitalism which used to remain hidden behind development now gradually started becoming visible in Indian Politics. Gradually muscle power also entered Indian politics. Indira Gandhi’s power continued to grow with the help of young leaders like Sanjay Gandhi.

?After winning the 1971 election and Bangla Desh war Indira Gandhi became very powerful and started looking like a dictator in the eyes of Socialism. Socialism also started preparing to fight its last battle with full force. In 1971 Loksabha election, preparations were on to field a strong candidate from Rae Bareli against Indira Gandhi.?Indira Gandhi was so strong that everyone was afraid of facing her in election. Chandrabhanu Gupta, Chandrashekhar or any veteran leader did not dare to fight Indira. Rajnarayan contested against Indira Gandhi in 1971 election from Rae Bareli. Rajnarayan after losing the election went to court to declare Indira Gandhi’s election illegal.

?Rajnarain surrounded Indira on every front to save socialism. Fought with full might on every front from election ground, courts to roads. Socialism got a boost from the attack of Rajnarain on Indira and those who feared Indira became fearless. Indira started getting challenges from everywhere. Jaiprakash Narayan challenged Indira with the slogan “Vacate the Chair Public is coming/Sinhasan khali karo Janta Aati hai”. JP movement spread all over the country. On 12th June, 1975 court verdict was given which went against Indira Gandhi and court ruled election of Indira Gandhi from Rae Bareli illegal. Rajnarain and socialism had a huge victory against Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was scared badly for the first time and history accepts the fact that if iron lady Indira Gandhi was frightened by anyone it was Rajnarain. Within two weeks of this verdict Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country.?Country’s prisons were filled with leaders and public. Country’s democracy got a black spot on it.

Real reason for imposition of emergency was also Rajnarain.

?In his life span of 69 years Rajnarain went jail 80 times and spent in all 17 years in jail. Out of these 17 years he spent 14 years in the jail of independent India. Rajnarain dedicated his full life to save socialism and democracy in true sense. Great socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia Jee often used to say that so long Rajnarain is alive democracy would not die in the country.?

?After 21 months of emergency in 1977 parliamentary election was held in which Congress was defeated and Janta Party got a big victory. Country’s most strong leader Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lost the election to Rajnarain from Rae Bareli seat. For the first time foundation of non-congress Govt. was laid and Morarji Desai became Prime Minister but he remained on this post for only 2 years and 126 days. Even after getting majority in election Janta Party could not complete its full 5 years term. Elections were held in January 1980 again in which Congress Party emerged victorious and Indira Gandhi was returned to power. After Indira Gandhi Rajeev Gandhi became PM and after that power moving through?Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Chandrashekhar?again came back to Congress in 1991 and PV Narsimha Rao became Prime Minister.

?Socialism and Modernism were fully dead and country’s politics had changed completely. Till the time Socialism and Modernism were alive politics meant service to the society and nation. Meaning of politics changed and it got divided in to many parts. Politics became business, became profession, became employment, became religion, became cast and creed, became muscle power, became criminal, became corrupt, became capitalist, became opportunist, became power, it became winning elections, became impersonator and became many other things. Politics went gradually and fully into the clutches of capitalism or it may be said that capitalism started deciding as to who will remain in power. Capitalism smothered the modernism and socialism.

?I have always been confronted with the question that what would have been the main reason for change in Indian Politics. Sometime I think that fall of Janata Party Govt. was the main reason and sometime I think formation of Janata Party Govt. was the main reason. Had the Janata Party Govt. not fallen and completed its full 5 years term without fighting each other perhaps something good would have happened. Would it have been good if Rajnarain, Jagjivan Ram, Atal Bihari Bajpai, Lalkrishna Advani or someone else had become Prime Minister? Again I think that if Janata Party had not won the election then perhaps socialism would have survived and could have become strong too.?

?In Govt. buses on two front row seats MLA seat and MP seat used to be written and honourable used to travel with public in buses with pride. Even today public is travelling continuously same way but those two seats are missing and honourable’s journey with the people stopped. The dream that vacate the throne public is coming got realised just by disappearance of legislature’s and parliamentarian’s seat. People have now become only a vote bank and even today they vote in every election with the hope that their own “Gudri ka Lal” (some hidden hero from amongst them) will come and honestly try to change their fate.

?Politics of India prior to 1980 is part of beautiful history and everything after that is present. My childhood was spent during present and I could not see history with my own eyes. I would like to dedicate this Amrit Mahotsav of independence to history and continue to see the political dream and wish that same history returns once again.

My article has been published in hindi in “Gauravshali Bharat” magazine.

Link for the Magazine-

https://gauravshalibharat.com/75-years-of-independence-what-was-lost-and-what-was-found/

The above thoughts are not written for the purpose of hurting any country, person and society. If someone is hurt, then I apologize.

Thank you

Ravi Shankar Rai

?24 July 2022