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Wages of a spurned vision
In contrast, our political landscape like the cremation area is today dotted with a multitude of ‘Gandhis’. If the incumbent leadership and predominant public opinion had shared JP’s foresight and vision, his counsel, instead of being championship of ‘lost causes’, would have obviated many of India’s problems, at home and abroad, or at least rendered them less intractable. Peace and harmony within Jammu and Kashmir and between India and Pakistan in the context of Kashmir had been one of one of JP’s abiding concerns. The author, Balraj Puri, collaborated with him in attending to them. Puri, an established political leader of Jammu and Kashmir, has written voluminously on State politics and the Centre’s relations with the State administration and the secessionist elements. More recently, when Dr. Manmohan Singh’s roundtable in Srinagar proved a nonstarter and the local tourist industry was clamouring for an end to the effort, Puri wanted more such public relations exercises. As it happened, the Prime Minister’s sojourn in Srinagar with its security ‘overdrive’ was a fly in the ointment for the prevailing tourist boom. The tourist industry, which had never had it so good, was worried when terrorists started killing tourists, besides, of course, security personnel. Such was Puri’s passion for a Kashmir modus vivendi, both internally and with Pakistan.
His archival recapitulation of history is therefore interesting and also informative in parts. For instance, it is not widely known that JP’s first visit to Jammu and Kashmir was in December 1946, when he was a leader of the Congress Socialist Party. He addressed a public meeting at Ranbir Singh Pura unequivocally supporting Sheikh Abdullah’s ‘Quit Kashmir’ movement against the Maharajah and in favour of responsible government. Ironically, the Communists then controlled Abdullah’s National Conference. They joined the Maharajah’s supporters in boycotting the reception to JP, which was organised by the students’ union led by Puri. Sheikh Abdullah who had been close to JP in the initial stages was put off by his demand for an inquiry into the death of the Jana Sangh founder-president, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee while in detention in Jammu. The Sheikh was so upset that he called JP a Hindu leader. That did not deter JP from a full-throated criticism of Abdullah’s deposition as head of J& K Government and arrest in August 1953. There are quite a few such nuggets in these pages, which should provide much-needed insight to readers from the younger generation. The same cannot, however, be said of 38 printed pages of ‘ideological-cum-political’ debate between the author and A.G. Noorani. JP who was ailing and in detention at Chandigarh had written a letter on September 22, 1975 welcoming Sheikh Abdullah’s reported statement that Indira Gandhi was "more than keen to end the Emergency" and that "differences (between the Government and the opposition led by JP) should be resolved in a spirit of reconciliation." Sheikh Abdullah was then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir following a rapprochement with Indira Gandhi in 1975. JP reiterated his readiness for sorting out differences with Indira Gandhi on the issues of corruption and fresh elections in Bihar and requested Sheikh Abdullah to meet him in Chandigarh for a discussion on the matter. The letter was never delivered to Sheikh Abdullah. To end on a personal note when posted to Pakistan as Hindustan Times correspondent in 1961, I approached JP for guidance. His reply was: "treat Pakistan’s pleasures and pains as your own." He elaborated that I should not be influenced by the Indian Government’s policies in reporting and commenting on Pakistan developments. Luckily for me, the Indian High Commission was then in Karachi whereas I was stationed in Rawalpindi, with no visa for Karachi.
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Jayaprakash
