JP: A ‘Loknayak’ remembered

Himanshu Shekhar

“Freedom is just not enough. It must mean freedom for all—even the lowliest—and this freedom must include freedom from exploitation, from hunger, from poverty.” JP Narayan Restless and struggling hard with the might of a titan against the dark forces of power centric politics, corrupt bureaucracy, feudal dominance and losing morality, Jaiprakash Narayn lived and died the life of a ‘Loknayak’ or people’s hero. ‘Loknayak’ is the prefix he earned. Jaiprakash Narayan was the name who epitomized a movement. JP movement called for not just a socialist India but an India where, everyone is free from hunger and poverty. Incidentally this time his birth anniversary falls in a week when the world is observing poverty eradication week. The country, which is riding high in the 21st century on the success wave of IT and infrastructure, still has not found basic solution to poverty and hunger. Many believed he was ‘The Prime Minister India never had’. Few in politics know that Jaiprakash Narayan was Mahatma Gandhi’s first choice as Prime Minister. As a leader he will always be remembered for his call of ‘Sampoorna Kranti’ and his head on collision with Indira Gandhi. Terming him just a revolutionary will be doing grave injustice to the causes he fought for. Jaiprakash Narayan in his historic speech in 1950 says, “The aims of the socialist movement . . .. [Are] the creation of a society of free and equal peoples . . . based on certain values of human and social life, values which should never be sacrificed in the name of theory or the Party line or expediency of any sort.” Early leaning towards ‘Marxism’ Born in Sitabdiara village of Bihar he was highly impressed by the revolutionary movement in Bengal. Hardly 15 years of age Jaiprakash was swept by Gandhi Ji’s call of Non Co-operation Movement. He says in a book, “I, too, was one of the thousands of young men who, like leaves in the storm, were swept away and momentarily lifted up to the skies. That brief experience of soaring up with the winds of a great idea left imprints on the inner being that time and much familiarity with ugliness or reality have not removed. It was then that freedom became one of the beacon lights of my life, and has remained so ever since.” Jaiprakash moved to Wisconsin in USA for higher studies where he leaned towards Russian communism. Jaiprakash said, “Marxism provided another beacon light for me: equality and brotherhood. Freedom was not enough. It must mean freedom for all—even the lowliest—and this freedom must include freedom from exploitation, from hunger, from poverty.” Marxism to Realism JP soon was disillusioned from the Marxist ideology and he categorically states, “I plunged into the fray with all my heart. . . .But I did not find the Indian Communists anywhere on the battle lines. . . .Worse, I came to know that they were denouncing the national movement as bourgeois and Mahatma Gandhi as a lackey of the Indian bourgeoisie . . . .My differences with the CPI (Communist Party of India) thus marked the beginning of my ideological alienation from Soviet Russia…” JP provides solution to democratic India Politics today is a medium to gain power. Many of his protégé who are in that position have completely forgotten his ideologies. A socialist society is a distant dream. There is an India which boasts of world’s richest people on one hand and on the other there is an India where thousands of farmers commit suicide as they have no other way. He had said once, “ I am not for a moment suggesting that I have arrived at a flawless solution of social problems or that ‘sarvodaya is the last word in social philosophy…I am forever pressing forward with the quest for democracy and for discovering ways and means by which more and more people could govern themselves more and more.” The best tribute for Loknayak on his birth anniversary will be to work towards decentralization of power. In power lies arrogance and to divest power will mean equal distribution and participation of masses, a quintessential factor for any democratic country. “The moment ‘Rajniti’ changes to ‘Lokniti’, we will move towards socialist India free of hunger and poverty,” JP once wrote.