‘Prisoner JP’ in Chandigarh, 40 years ago

MG Devasahayam

Today is the 113th birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), a fiery freedom fighter who inflamed the ‘Quit India Movement’ (1942) with his daring escape from the high-security Hazaribagh jail and post Independence had become the conscience of the nation. When the Emergency was proclaimed on the night of June 25-26, 1975, he was arrested under MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) by the District Magistrate, Delhi. On the night of July 1, he was brought to Chandigarh, where I was the District Magistrate, for safe custody and medical care.    

When I received ‘prisoner JP’ at the Chandigarh Air Force base along with Senior Superintendent of Police ML Bhanot and Air Commodore Bhasin, my impression of the old man was that though in normal health, he was perplexed and disjointed and did not know what was happening. 

One central thread that stretched through the period of JP’s confinement in Chandigarh was the confused and erratic attitude of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in dealing with him as ‘prisoner’. JP and his wife Prabhavati Devi being close family friends of Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru, he was a father-figure for Indira and it was very difficult for her to think of him as a prisoner. In our conversations later, JP fondly talked of Indira as “the child who used to play on my laps”. 

This predicament trickled down to all echelons of government both in the Centre and Chandigarh. Though the city had a sub-jail with reasonable facilities, we were under strict instructions from the PMO to have JP housed in the PGI under the care of a battery of ‘super-specialists’ for no apparent reasons. So we had to hurriedly do up a guesthouse on the PGI campus with all security trappings and notify it as a temporary sub-jail under the Criminal Procedure Code. JP was driven straight from the airport and lodged there. When later he was shifted to an unoccupied special ward, we had to notify that also as a sub-jail. 

Despite this predicament, the harsh and draconian rules and instructions from the Union Home Ministry regarding interviews with detainees and writing letters were applicable to JP. If these had been complied with, he would have been in solitary confinement, unable to meet anybody because JP had no nuclear family — wife, son or daughter — to call his own. So I resorted to circumventing the rules by using ‘discretionary powers’ to give humane treatment to JP by allowing regular interviews with his close friends and relatives. 

Prior to JP’s daring escape from Hazaribagh jail, AP Sinha, his co-prisoner, had exhorted him thus: “…you have got the passion that can make people’s spirits soar... you are a great leader”. I found this to be true. And having understood the intensity of JP’s commitment to democracy and freedom, I partook in all matters concerning him and the State, shared his intimate thoughts and feelings, discussed political events and happenings, played ‘Devil’s Advocate’, participated in brainstorming sessions, took charge of his mental and psychological well-being, and succeeded in reviving his faith in himself and his people which he was on the verge of losing. 

Certain unforgettable and unfathomable things that happened during JP’s detention are etched deep in my heart. One was the ‘death-drill’ of a person in normal health. It was initiated from Delhi within days of JP’s arrival in Chandigarh. To be known as ‘Operation Medicine’, it was a top-secret document of which only three copies were kept. 

Imminent amendment of the Representation of People’s Act granting immunity to PM’s election and several constitutional amendments became the proverbial ‘last straw on the camel’s back’ and something inside JP snapped. Having lost all hopes ‘for the revival of democracy’, on August 10, JP wrote to the Prime Minister conveying his decision ‘to go on fast until death’ unless the Emergency was revoked immediately. Considering the grave and disastrous implications this could bring forth, I pleaded with JP and succeeded in dissuading him after a two-hour highly surcharged verbal duel. 

MR Masani, distinguished parliamentarian and JP’s close associate, has recorded this episode in his book JP: Mission Partly Accomplished (Macmillan) with the observation: “...this certainly shows that JP treated him like a friend and that Devasahayam had by his behaviour towards his distinguished prisoner earned his confidence...” 

Probably it was telepathy. The need for reconciliation between Indira Gandhi and JP to end the Emergency and return India to normalcy was felt almost simultaneously by me and Prof PN Dhar, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister. The first tangible result of my efforts came in the form of a letter from JP to Sheikh Abdullah on September 22 in response to a statement by Sheikh published in The Tribune, expressing himself in favour of ‘conciliation at all-India level’ and offering his services towards this. JP’s letter inter alia said: “I being the villain of the piece, the arch-conspirator, culprit number one, a return to true normalcy, not the false one established by repression and terror, can only be brought about with my cooperation. I am herewith offering you my full cooperation.” 

This letter brought immediate response from the PMO, already working on the idea of  ‘reconciliation’. A special emissary (Sugatha Dasgupta, Director, Gandhi Institute of Studies, Varanasi, of which JP was the Chairman) arrived on 25th morning to prepare grounds for a political dialogue between the PM and JP. The process had commenced.

As hope for the success of reconciliation efforts and restoration of democracy was rising, certain intriguing things happened, raising disturbing doubts in my mind. The delivery of JP’s letter to Sheikh Abdullah was blocked by the ‘Delhi Durbar’. Simultaneously, symptoms of some major ailment in JP surfaced on September 26, a day after the commencement of preliminary efforts towards reconciliation by the PMO.

This happened again in early November just two days after the delivery of a sealed letter from Lord Fenner Brockway (eminent British Labour MP, member of the Cripps Mission and a friend of India) to JP.  The content of the letter, written at the behest of the Prime Minister herself, was a virtual apology on behalf of Indira Gandhi for imposing the Emergency and seeking JP’s cooperation in restoring normalcy in the country. As JP was preparing to respond to this request positively, his health deteriorated. Mysteriously enough, Lord Brockway’s letter disappeared. Obviously, there was a deep-rooted conspiracy to sabotage reconciliation and a return to normalcy. 

Under the circumstances, I was convinced that JP should be taken out of Chandigarh and sent to a place where his ailment could be diagnosed correctly and treated properly. This conviction led me to initiate silent and swift steps through the official channel, PMO emissary Dasgupta and JP’s brother Rajeshwar Prasad (with help from Nayantara Sahgal, Indira’s cousin) with the same outcry — “If JP dies in jail” — to create a crisis situation in Delhi to force JP’s release.

The pincer move worked admirably, resulting in a flurry of activities leading to JP’s release on November 12. The Chief Secretary and District Magistrate of Delhi flew down to serve the order on JP.  After several hiccups, he left Chandigarh on November 16. JP reached Bombay’s Jaslok Hospital just in time for his badly damaged kidney to be treated and life saved. The rest is history.