16-31 Mar, 2010 - Bharatiya Janata Party
16-31 Mar, 2010 - Bharatiya Janata Party 16-31 Mar, 2010 - Bharatiya Janata Party
Kindling a movementBy Arun JaitleyNanaji Deshmukh was a tireless volunteer, till the veryend. Nanaji entered the Lok Sabha in 1977 but declinedPrime Minister Morarji Desai’s offer to be a cabinet minister.He wanted to work for the organisation. The failure of theJanata experiment substantially disheartened him.NANAJI Deshmukh died atthe age of 94. Till his deathhe was an RSS pracharak, afull timer. Very few have possessedthe kind of extroverted attitude anddynamism that Nanaji had. He hadtoured the length and breadth ofthe country. He was among thosewho established the Bharatiya JanaSangh.Most people with hisbackground remained confined to alimited group but Nanaji alwaysendeavored to step out.He was on first name terms withleaders of other political parties,industry, media, and civil societyactivists. He never hesitated tospeak his mind even ifthey were critical of thepolitical organisation ofwhich he was a member.He had the ability toraise his voice,unrestrained by partisanthinking and motivatedby the national interest.I first met Nanajiwhen I was a collegestudent. He used to livein a penthouse in theDeendayal ResearchInstitute. He was the keyorganisational functionary of theJana Sangh. He maintained a skeletalstaff and used his resourcefulnessto establish the institute. His ownMarch 16-31, 2010 6needs were limited. His home wasflooded with visitors. As a studentI used to visit him regularly duringthe 1973-75 period, before theEmergency. He had accompanied JPduring the massive demonstrationin Patna.He obstructed a lathi assaulton JP, injuring his own arm. He wasthe key person in the organisationof the JP movement. He enjoyed JP’sconfidence, worked in close contactwith JP’s associates in theSarvodaya movement and GandhiPeace Foundation. JP’s close friendslike Ramnath Goenka, Ganga SaranSingh and Nanaji guided themovement. Together they mobilizedHe had accompanied JP during the massivedemonstration in Patna. He obstructed a lathiassault on JP, injuring his own arm. He was thekey person in the organisation of the JPmovement. He enjoyed JP’s confidence, workedin close contact with JP’s associates in theSarvodaya movement and Gandhi PeaceFoundation. JP’s close friends like RamnathGoenka, Ganga Saran Singh and Nanaji guidedthe movement. Together they mobilized the entirenon-Communist Opposition in support of JP.the entire non-CommunistOpposition in support of JP.During the Emergency, he wasthe natural choice for secretary ofthe Sangharsh Samiti against theEmergency. He changed hisappearance beyond recognition. Hediscarded his customary kurta-dhotifor a bush shirt and trousers.He had acquired a moustache,a thick crop of dyed black hair onhis head and a different pair ofeyeglasses. He toured the entirecountry organising undergroundactivities. His stay in several houseswas organised by his politicalcolleagues. Well into theEmergency, he was staying at a safehouse in Delhi’s SafdarjungDevelopment Area. Even his hostdid not know as to who he was.Krishan Lal Sharma, then a PunjabBJP leader along with anothercolleague came to meet him.They were being trailed byofficers from Punjab stateintelligence. Delhi Policesearched the house whereNanaji stayed, in order toarrest Krishan Lal Sharmaand his colleague. Therethey found anothergentleman whom theycould not recognise. Hewas taken to the policestation where he confessedto his identity as NanajiDeshmukh. Photographs of Nanajiwould show a different man but thevoice revealed a similarity. Oncearrested he was brought to Tihar jailContinued on page 17
Nanaji, as I knew himBy S. GurumurthyHe was at the vortex of a powerful anti-Congress waveNANAJI”, which is howNana Deshmukh wasknown in the political andsocial circles he dominated foralmost six decades, is no more.Many, who were inspired by himin politics and outside, saw andknew him as a towering idealist;his admirers and friendsexperienced and rated him as agreat political strategist.Joining the RSS at a youngage and becoming its pracharak(full-time volunteer), he wasundoubtedly a great organiser. Hehad intimate friends in high placeseverywhere. He was acceptedfrom a very young age beyondhis organisational fraternity. Hewas equally at ease with both thenoble Bhoodan movement ofVinobha Bhave and the gutterpolitics of Delhi. He had friendseven in the garrisons of hisadversaries. When JawaharlalNehru had banned the RSS in1948, Nanaji Deshmukh, like manyRSS workers, began organisingthe underground movement. Fromwhere? Believe it or not, from thehouse of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, aminister in Pandit Nehru’sgovernment. It was publicknowledge that Nehru regarded RSSas his arch enemy and had evendeclared that he would not give aninch in India for the Bhagwa (theflag of the RSS) to fly. Still Kidwai,a great friend of Nehru and a ministerin his cabinet, had no issues keepingNanaji in his house and more —allowing him to organise undergroundactivities. This speaks ofMarch 16-31, 2010 7the magnetic personality of theyoung Nanaji, who must then havebeen in his twenties!My association with NanajiDeshmukh started with myIt was the Ramnathji-Nanaji duo that persuadedJayaprakash Narayan toagree to lead the Biharmovement in 1974, whichchanged the political pictureof the country. The Biharmovement was one of thegreatest movements in thehistory of free India.friendship with Ramnath Goenka.Ramnathji and Nanaji were not onlygreat friends, they both thought andfelt similarly about the country. Themutual trust and admiration thatthey had had was rooted wholly intheir love of the motherland, totallydevoid of any kind of personalinterest. The Nanaji-Ramnathjicombine had no goal other than whatthey thought was the nation’s good.Ramnath Goenka had shaped TheIndian Express not just as anewspaper, but an active partner withall nationalist forces in the cause ofthe country, setting the agenda forpolitical and social discourse.Ramnathji never knew what fearmeant. Nor did Nanaji. And thesetwo courageous persons couldeffortlessly inject many others ofhigh relevance, journalists orothers, with fearlessness. It wasthe Ramnathji-Nanaji duo thatpersuaded Jayaprakash Narayanto agree to lead the Biharmovement in 1974, which changedthe political picture of the country.The Bihar movement was one ofthe greatest movements in thehistory of free India.An incredible incident madeJayaprakash Narayan agree to theplea of Nanaji and Ramnathji tolead the movement against IndiraGandhi. I came to know of this inlate 1980s, when at a dinner in theExpress Towers in Bombay I askedNanaji and Ramnathji how theybrought JP into the movement.Nanaji described the thrilling andunbelievable episode. A historicmeeting of Ramnathji, Nanaji,Achyut Patwardhan, the hero of the1942 underground movement andRamdhari Singh Dinkar, a great Hindipoet, took place sometime in 1973 inThe Indian Express Guest House inBangalore. The four of them beganinsisting that JP should lead themovement as Indira Gandhi hadbecome highly autocratic and hadbegun destroying the institutionalframework of democracy, includingthe judiciary and bureaucracy.Incidentally, Dinkar was one of thegreatest friends of the Nehru family
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Kindling a movementBy Arun JaitleyNanaji Deshmukh was a tireless volunteer, till the veryend. Nanaji entered the Lok Sabha in 1977 but declinedPrime Minister Morarji Desai’s offer to be a cabinet minister.He wanted to work for the organisation. The failure of the<strong>Janata</strong> experiment substantially disheartened him.NANAJI Deshmukh died atthe age of 94. Till his deathhe was an RSS pracharak, afull timer. Very few have possessedthe kind of extroverted attitude anddynamism that Nanaji had. He hadtoured the length and breadth ofthe country. He was among thosewho established the <strong>Bharatiya</strong> JanaSangh.Most people with hisbackground remained confined to alimited group but Nanaji alwaysendeavored to step out.He was on first name terms withleaders of other political parties,industry, media, and civil societyactivists. He never hesitated tospeak his mind even ifthey were critical of thepolitical organisation ofwhich he was a member.He had the ability toraise his voice,unrestrained by partisanthinking and motivatedby the national interest.I first met Nanajiwhen I was a collegestudent. He used to livein a penthouse in theDeendayal ResearchInstitute. He was the keyorganisational functionary of theJana Sangh. He maintained a skeletalstaff and used his resourcefulnessto establish the institute. His own<strong>Mar</strong>ch <strong>16</strong>-<strong>31</strong>, <strong>2010</strong> 6needs were limited. His home wasflooded with visitors. As a studentI used to visit him regularly duringthe 1973-75 period, before theEmergency. He had accompanied JPduring the massive demonstrationin Patna.He obstructed a lathi assaulton JP, injuring his own arm. He wasthe key person in the organisationof the JP movement. He enjoyed JP’sconfidence, worked in close contactwith JP’s associates in theSarvodaya movement and GandhiPeace Foundation. JP’s close friendslike Ramnath Goenka, Ganga SaranSingh and Nanaji guided themovement. Together they mobilizedHe had accompanied JP during the massivedemonstration in Patna. He obstructed a lathiassault on JP, injuring his own arm. He was thekey person in the organisation of the JPmovement. He enjoyed JP’s confidence, workedin close contact with JP’s associates in theSarvodaya movement and Gandhi PeaceFoundation. JP’s close friends like RamnathGoenka, Ganga Saran Singh and Nanaji guidedthe movement. Together they mobilized the entirenon-Communist Opposition in support of JP.the entire non-CommunistOpposition in support of JP.During the Emergency, he wasthe natural choice for secretary ofthe Sangharsh Samiti against theEmergency. He changed hisappearance beyond recognition. Hediscarded his customary kurta-dhotifor a bush shirt and trousers.He had acquired a moustache,a thick crop of dyed black hair onhis head and a different pair ofeyeglasses. He toured the entirecountry organising undergroundactivities. His stay in several houseswas organised by his politicalcolleagues. Well into theEmergency, he was staying at a safehouse in Delhi’s SafdarjungDevelopment Area. Even his hostdid not know as to who he was.Krishan Lal Sharma, then a PunjabBJP leader along with anothercolleague came to meet him.They were being trailed byofficers from Punjab stateintelligence. Delhi Policesearched the house whereNanaji stayed, in order toarrest Krishan Lal Sharmaand his colleague. Therethey found anothergentleman whom theycould not recognise. Hewas taken to the policestation where he confessedto his identity as NanajiDeshmukh. Photographs of Nanajiwould show a different man but thevoice revealed a similarity. Oncearrested he was brought to Tihar jailContinued on page 17
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