THE INDIAN PRIME MINISTER
CHARAN
SINGH WHO WAS AGAINST DIVIDE AND
RULE AND STRUGGLED TO UNITE
DMK & ANNA DMK
“Chaudhary
Charan Singh served as the 5th Prime Minister of India, serving from 28 July
1979 until 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him
as the 'champion of India's peasants.' Wikipedia “
The only economist who was suggesting
alternative to Soviet model of industrialization pursued by Jawaharlal Nehru
was Chaudry Charan Singh. Chaudry Charan
Singh wanted FARMERS ORIENTED ECONOMIC POLICY.
As an SSLC student in South
Arcot District Public library at Cuddalore I have read the books of Chaudry
Charan Singh.
India's
Economic Policy: The Gandhian Blueprint,
Land Reforms in the U.P. and the
Kulaks
Charan Singh was a prolific reader
and writer, and he was happiest when preparing his thesis and pouring over the
mass of data he deployed for his many cogently argued government notes,
letters, media articles, public speeches, books, political party calls-to-action
and party manifestoes. His range of reading spanned global (specially
British, Russian ,European, Chinese) and Indian history, agriculture,
economics, sociology and religion.
His
writings argued in favour of the centrality of the village and the agrarian way
of life in India’s development thinking, without taking away from the benefits
of an appropriate industrialisation. He, like other leaders of the Indian National
Congress who dedicated their lives to rid the country of British colonialism, fervently
believed India would be born again and would undo the wrongs of British rule
against the peasant (by imposing landlords) and the artisans (by supporting
industrial manufacturing in Britain) and move the centre of gravity from the
interests of the urban, British and Indian elites to the villages where the
mass of India lived.
When he realised by the early-1950s that this
was not to be, he deployed his scholarship of the Indian revenue and agrarian
system to turn his sights on fighting what turned out to be a lonely and
life-long political battle for the peasant, for improving village life and in
building nationalists of high moral character. His writings are suffused with
this struggle against the urban and educated castes of his times, a struggle that
he fought ferociously on the battlefield of elections, in books and in
newspapers.
The depth and range of his reading
as reflected in the bibliography of any of the books he wrote is astounding (click here for the Bibliography of his first book Abolition
of Zamindari, 1947). His high scholarship was, it seems to me,
certainly a reflection of the times when every nationalist’s mind was in
ferment and reading was prized as a means to fight the British. For
example, Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow was published in
1938, he had already read it in Bareilly Jail in 1942. But Charan Singh's
erudition was mostly a credit to his intellect and depth of thinking seeing
that was a son of illiterate peasants, had studied in a village school and his
college studies were in Agra - a distance from Cambridge and Oxford that elite
Indians had access to. His approach was thus always grounded in Indian
realities, and his arguments were marshalled based on global knowledge.
The
vast majority of his political colleagues, in the INC and in the other
political parties he was in, had little to do with academics, reading and
writing busy as they were with factional politics and making money. His juniors and youth leaders
even less thus inclined, and a minuscule part of his vast following fully
comprehended his wide grasp of global lessons and Indian realities. He was
often heard hectoring his political audiences on his thoughts, like a school
teacher, and his village audiences would listen in rapt and silent attention as
if fully comprehending his academic logic.
He connected with academics (like
Professors Paul R. Brass from University of Washington, and J.D. Sethi from
Delhi School of Economics, to name two) as he could find in them a foil for the
sharp economic and social thrusts of his arguments. How he made time for this
intense level of intellectual engagement amidst the 'rough and tumble of
representative parliamentary politics’ (Paul Brass) is a credit to his
capabilities.
We bring to you, for the first
time, all his writings - freely downloadable.
Harsh Singh Lohit
1948, Superintendent, Printing
& Stationary, UP. India
1948, Superintendent, Printing
& Stationary, UP. India
Whither Co-operative
Farming 1956, Allahabad: Superintendent,
Printing and Stationery, United Provinces, India
Agrarian Revolution in
Uttar Pradesh 1957, Prakashan Shakha, Soochna
Vibhag, Government of Uttar Pradesh
Copyright © 2018 Chaudhary Charan
Singh Archives
CHAUDRY CHARAN SINGH
DEPUTED
BIJU PATNAIK TO BRING REUNION OF ANNA DMK WITH DMK.
[ I was a witness in the verandah
of Chepauk Tamilnadu Government Guest
House where in the presense of Hon’ble BIJU PATNAIK, both KALAIGNAR AND MGR
MET.
QUOTE : THE HINDU story with report in the words of Dr.Kalaignar
M.Karunanidhi is below :
CHENNAI: The Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam under former Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandran came close to merging
with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi said here on
Tuesday. But, a leader who was then with the ADMK, Panruti Ramachandran, spoilt
it, he added. Elaborating on the episode that was touched upon by Dravidar
Kazhagam general secretary K.Veeramani at a function to give away Murasoli
Trust awards, Mr.Karunanidhi said that Orissa leader Biju Patnaik had acted as
the mediator between him and MGR.
This was during MGR’s first term as
Chief Minister.
Mr.Karunanidhi said that Biju
Patnaik was quite close to him and he used to discuss many issues with the
leader. Patnaik brought up the issue of the merger and Mr.Karunanidhi said that
he enquired as to where the suggestion had come from. Patnaik said that MGR
wanted a merger and wanted to know what conditions that Mr.Karunanidhi would
put forth.
Mr.Karunanidhi said that he had
three conditions: one, the name would remain DMK since it was the name that
Anna (C.N.Annadurai, former Chief Minister) had given the party. Two, the
picture of Anna on the flag of the ADMK should be retained; if he took the
picture off the flag he would be accused of not being faithful to Anna’s
legacy. Three, he wanted the Rs.9000-limit for reservation (economic criterion)
to go. Mr.Karunanidhi said that he would continue as party head and had no
objection to MGR continuing as Chief Minister. “Hearing these conditions, Patnaik
hugged me and told me that he thought I would set impossible conditions.”
A
while later, Patnaik brought MGR to the Chepauk Guest House. ADMK leaders
Nedunchezhian and Panruti Ramachandran (now with the DMDK) were with him.
Mr.Karunanidhi also was at the Guest House. MGR walked into Mr.Karunanidhi’s
room and enquired after him. “He used to call me Bhagawanae [God] or Muthalali
[owner],” Mr.Karunanidhi said and added that the meeting was very cordial. It
was decided that MGR would convene a meeting of the executive council of his
party near Vellore the next day and that Mr.Karunanidhi conduct a similar
exercise here in Chennai. Appropriate resolutions were to be passed on the
merger.
“He left for Vellore after this
meeting. I do not know what happened to him in the car. An undesirable person
got into his ear and told him many things,” Mr.Karunanidhi said and added that
Panruti Ramachandran was in the car.
Very
few people, both in Odisha and Tamil Nadu are aware of the deep connection that
Biju Patnaik had with Karunanidhi. In the third volume of his autobiographical
book 'Nenjukku Needhi', Karunanidhi mentioned in detail about Biju Patnaik and
it was he who referred to him as a "Uyarntha Manidan" (the tall man).
The
politics of Tamil Nadu may have been vastly different if Biju Patnaik's master
plan of September 1979 had succeeded. He had attempted, and nearly succeeded,
in what would appear to be an impossible dream today- the merger of the DMK and
the AIADMK.
India got its first non-Congress government at
the Centre in 1977, after Indira Gandhi's Congress was routed because of the
Emergency excesses. The Janata Party government was suffering from congenital
maladies; it was never in good health since its formation. The period between
1977 and 1979 was one of political uncertainties. Public perception about the
government in New Delhi was marred by the naked power struggle among its top
leaders. Clashing prime ministerial ambitions of Jagjivan Ram and Charan Singh
resulted in a veritable deluge of bad publicity for the ruling party.
In July 1979, Raj Narain and Charan Singh
pulled out of the Janata Party on flimsy reason that many of the Jan Sangh
members continued to be members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The left
leaning bloc in the Janata Party included leaders like Madhu Limaye, Krishnan
Kant and George Fernandes. Morarji Desai was forced to resign and Charan Singh
was sworn in as the caretaker Prime Minister, with tacit support of Indira's
Congress Party. Indira demanded her pound of flesh in the form of withdrawal of
the cases filed against her for the Emergency excesses. However, Indira's
blackmail did not work, Charan Singh refused to withdraw the Emergency related
court cases, and she withdrew support. His government could not even face the
Lok Sabha during its brief tenure of just 24 days.
Biju Patnaik was then the Union Minister of
Steel both under Morarji Desai, and thereafter Charan Singh. He was a known
strongman in the Party and had a good rapport with all the leaders of different
parties. He could read the writing on the wall: India was heading towards fresh
elections.
M.G.Ramachandran
was the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu. The thespian actor-politician had a
cult following. His party AIADMK, floated in 1972 after the split with the DMK
over differences with M Karunanidhi, had come to power after just five years of
its formation. MGR was two years into his first term as Chief Minister, and had
supported the Charan Singh government at the Centre, but the wily south Indian
politician knew that elections were looming on the horizon. He was aware that
the Janata party's repeated debacles in its short stint were propelling Indira
Gandhi back into the popularity charts. He sent feelers to her, but the wary
Indira adopted a cautious stand. A meeting was fixed between the two at Delhi
on 6 th September,but was called off in the last moment. Biju got wind of the
scheduled meeting, and on his advice, Charan Singh arm-twisted MGR, threatening
to drop two of MGR's cabinet ministers from the government. The confused MGR
cancelled his Delhi trip and did not meet Indira.
At this juncture, Biju Patnaik entered the
scene. He made an impossible plan of merging the two Dravidian parties- the DMK
and the AIADMK. Biju had a very good
rapport with DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi, especially following DMK's nationwide
movement for state autonomy vis-a-vis Centre-State relations in the early 1970s.
On the 11th Sept, Biju Patnaik asked for an
appointment with Karunanidhi to discuss an important issue. The next day he
landed at Madras and met him at his residence. Karunanidhi recalled that when
he asked Patnaik whose idea it was of merging the DMK and AIADMK, Patnaik
replied that it was MGR's. It was only years later that Karunanidhi came to
know that Biju Patnaik played the same game with MGR. He had told him that it
was Karunanidhi's idea!
Karunanidhi
writes, "Biju came on September 12, 1979 and discussed the merger issue
with me in detail. After the discussion, I had put a few conditions for the
merger. We had accepted MGR to continue as Chief Minister. MGR had okayed the
merger formula wherein the unified party would be named DMK and the AIADMK flag
retained."
In what seemed a win-win situation for both the
parties, Karunanidhi agreed to MGR continuing as Chief Minister. In lieu,
Karunanidhi would be Party President for life. The contentious issue of
retaining the DMK name was resolved, with the concession that the AIADMK flag
would be the party ensign. Besides, the DMK had properties and buildings in
various places all over Tamil Nadu, and it was also the party founded by
Anna.Hence the name DMK would continue.
Biju Patnaik was elated since he had expected
much tougher terms for what seemed impossible. In fact, Karunanidhi writes that
a very happy Biju hugged him after he gave his consent. Biju arranged for a
meeting between the Chiefs of the two parties at the Chepauk Guest House the
next day. Both MGR and Karunanidhi had a one-on-one meeting in a separate room,
while Biju and the top brass of both the parties comprising DMK General
Secretary Prof. K Anbazhagan and AIADMK's Nedunchezhian and Panruti
Ramachandran met on the sidelines. Following the meeting, the two sides agreed
to the conditions, and the leaders decided to convene emergency Executive
Council meetings of their respective parties to pass resolutions on the merger.
It was decided that MGR would convene a meeting of the Executive Council of his
party near Vellore the next day and that Karunanidhi would conduct a similar
exercise in Chennai.
Media reports of Biju Patnaik's involvement in
the merger spread like wildfire. He quietly flew back to Delhi, with hopes of
having succeeded in scuttling the Congress's plans. When reporters asked
Kalaignar he said `'What is wrong in the merger of DMK and ADMK?" However
the next day, at a public meeting in Vellore, MGR surprisingly did not speak
about the merger and instead his ministers lashed out at the DMK. The DMK
leaders too started airing their dissent. Speaking to the media, Kalaignar
blamed the AIADMK. He said, "No follow up actions on other side. I think
the poll alliances of the two parties will be different." After Vellore,
it was the end of the road for the merger and talks did not continue. For Biju
Patnaik, it was a failed attempt to put a check on the Congress rising. He just
shrugged off the incident as another unsuccessful venture.
Indira
Gandhi came to know of the developments and Biju's role. She sent her close
confidante C.M.Stephen to Tamil Nadu, who contacted Murasoli Maran and
repeatedly urged him to forget the past and conveyed Indira's desire for
alliance with the DMK again. Indira Gandhi desperately needed some props in
Tamil Nadu. The DMK had supported Indira Gandhi's actions for nationalisation
of banks and abolition of privy purses. Its support to the candidature of
V.V.Giri in the Presidential elections had ensured his victory. However the DMK
had not forgotten the dismissal of its government in 1976 and opposed the
Emergency. Many DMK cadres had been imprisoned under the draconian MISA,
including Karunanidhi's son M.K.Stalin, and were subjected to inhuman torture in
prison. In fact earlier that
year in June, during a black flag demonstration, Indira Gandhi was attacked by
DMK men at Madurai. They were protesting against her for the dismissal of their
government.
However, Indira held out an olive branch.
Stephen held a juicy carrot dangling on a short stick. Karunanidhi too, like
MGR, had sensed the imminent disintegration of the Janata rule. Under the
excuse of national stability, he aligned with Indira Gandhi. He had famously
said: "Nehruvinmagalevaruga. Nilayana Aatchi tharuga (Welcome to the
daughter of Nehru. Please provide a stable rule)." His strategy proved right. In the 1980 Parliamentary elections the DMK
won 16 seats while the AIADMK could get only 2 seats. In fact, the Congress-led
coalition secured 37 out of the 39 seats.
The very next day, Karunanidhi, in a letter
addressed to the party cadres, recalled Biju Patnaik's efforts for the merger
of the two Dravidian parties in 1979 and said the attempt failed due to the
AIADMK. Even in Tamil Nadu elections of 2016, Biju Babu's name had cropped up
in various election rallies of this Southern state, both from the DMK and the
AIADMK.
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