What Jana Sangh’s co founder Balraj Madhok has to say Tweet 87 23 HT HOME / BLOGS HOME > CAPITAL CLOSEUP / NEW DELHI / WHAT JANA SANGH’S CO FOUNDER BALRAJ MADHOK HAS TO SAY On Monday, I met Balraj Madhok, the 90-year-old co-founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh at his house in New Rajinder Nagar. The meeting took place a day before the BJP and the Sangh observed the martydom day of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukheree and Madhok appeared very cheerful and fully alert despite his advancing years. Being the senior most living member of the undivided Sangh Parivar, he still has a lot of fire left in him and he minced no words in criticizing BJP leaders who are trying to dilute the party’s commitment to hindutva. For him like before, hindutva was the only Mantra for the Sangh and that is what people expect out of this party. Madhok was candid and frank during his meeting and paid rich tributes to Mukherjee who he said was ahead of his times and was singularly responsible for founding the Jana Sangh along with like-minded people. Both Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani were nowhere in the picture and even the RSS had no role to play in founding the Jana Sangh. He said that while preparing the first manifesto of his party, he had incorporated the basic ideas of the Hindu Mahasabha, Arya Samaj and the RSS in the document. The RSS at that time was confused and was not clear which way things would go. After the ban following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the RSS was looking for protection from some quarters and the Jana Sangh appeared to be one such outfit, which could provide it since it had similar views on many subjects. Madhok said that it was important to record it that it was Mukherjee and others like him who founded the Jana Sangh and not the RSS, which got associated with it subsequently. In the first elections, the Jana Sangh got little more than three percent of the total vote share and thereby was recognized as a national party by the Election Commission. Madhok said that those who are questioning the basis of hindutva must understand that it was because of hindutva that India exists in its present form. India is a secular country since it is a predominantly Hindu country. It would not have been secular had it like Pakistan been an Islamic country. This is what needs to be understood by one and all, he emphasized. Madhok does not care whether anyone agrees with his views or not. He said that for the BJP to come up and counter the Congress, it has to stick to its basic ideology and not harp on values, which the Congress has believed in. The two parties are distinctly different from each other and if there is any confusion within the BJP it is on account of Vajpayee and Advani who have done greater harm to the hindu cause than anybody else. Madhok is very critical even today of Vajpayee and Advani and has not even a single good word for either of them. “When I criticized Nehru in Parliament in the wake of the Chinese aggression, Vajpayee came up to me and told me that I will never be elected to Lok Sabha again. Acharya Kriplani who was sitting nearby told me that do not take him( Vajpayee) seriously since he is Nehru’s planted man in the opposition”. Madhok also said that attempts were made to subvert the party’s basic ideology by Vajpayee and some others. They talked about Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s humanism, which was nothing original but borrowed from the thesis of MN Roy and applied to Sangh politics. “Advani was a RSS pracharak and subsequently taken into the Working committee by me at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya’s insistence. He used to live in a government accommodation at RK Puram and I asked him in 1967 to contest for the Metropolitan Council from that seat. Two days before the nominations, he came to me and opted out on the ground that there were several villages in the area and victory was not guaranteed. I told him no one’s victory including mine (I was South Delhi Parliamentary nominee) was not guaranteed. But he did not agree and I put up another person. The results came and we all won. Deen Dayalji told to nominate Advani to the Metropolitan Council (there were five nominated seats) and make him the Chief Executive Councillor. I declined to make him the CEC since he had not contested. But under RSS pressure I got him nominated and made him the Chairman of the Metropolitan Council and made Vijay Kumar Malhotra as the CEC.” Madhok who has written several books believes that Deen Dayal Upadhdya was murdered as a part of a well-planed conspiracy and some top Jana Sangh leaders of that time could have had a hand in his killing. He also said that Shyama Prasad Mukherjee earlier did not die a natural death as is claimed by many people. These two deaths changed the destiny of the Jana Sangh and it got into wrong hands. Madhok also spoke about how he was implicated in a breach of discipline case by Advani at the Kanpur session after he himself leaked out confidential information to the media but blamed him for the leakage. Similar tactics were employed at the recent BJP National Executive meeting also when some secret letters were similarly leaked. Madhok says that Vajpayee, Advani, Nanaji Deshmukh and KR Malkani did incalculable harm to the Jana Sangh cause. Madhok also recalled how Indira Gandhi had rejected the demand for banning one of his books. It was probably at Sanjay Gandhi’s instance. “She knew that I had said a lot of harsh things about her but she sent a senior officer to me to collect the copies of my book. Later she sent word that she liked it and she wanted me to implement some thoughts. When I asked her emissary how would I do that, he said that she wanted me to join her ministry. This is after she returned to power in 1980. I was reluctant and than I got a feeler that Sanjay Gandhi wanted to see me. The meeting was being fixed at an undisclosed place for June 23 but he died that morning in the plane crash. Looking back, I should have taken Indiraji’s offer seriously. I will at some point also like to meet Sanjay’s son, Varun Gandhi.” Madhok lives with his two daughters after having lost his wife some years ago. ( 21 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5) POSTED BY PANKAJ VOHRA ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2009 AT 7:49 PM FILED UNDER NEW DELHI · TAGGED BALRAJ MADHOK , BHARATIYA JANA SANGH,
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 12:12:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015