On August 15, 1966 I was covering for Indian News Service, the Prime Minister’s Independence Day Address from the ramparts of New Delhi’s Red Fort.

At the end of her speech, she made the customary appeal to the audience to join with her in a three-time ‘Jai Hind’ chorus. When the roars were reverberating in the air, we all felt a mild tremor on the ramparts.

As we were packing our equipment, someone came and informed us that it was a low-scale earthquake and a house near the Jama Masjid in Dharmpur area had collapsed. The next day, August 16, I journeyed to Haridwar to cover the rail accident on the Suswa bridge site on the Haridwar-Dehradun line.

As the days passed, a spate of alarming reports started appearing in newspapers and on radio. Rice riots in Kerala … Mizo tribe in revolt in the North-East-Frontier … the demand for separate state for the Punjabi-speaking population … and above all, about an unprecedented erratic weather and its adverse effect on crops in the fertile Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Drought in Bihar & U.P.

The dry spell had already proved to be one of the worst – both in its severity and magnitude. People in the area hardly remembered anything of this kind ever before. The drought in UP and Bihar soon emerged as a major national problem.

On November 5, 1966, I was assigned to cover a two-day flying visit of the Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi, to the drought-hit areas in Bihar and UP. About a million people, mostly malnourished, unemployed farmers and landless labourers had lined along the 80-mile long route of the Prime Minister’s cavalcade as she motored through the districts of Monghyr, Bodh-Gaya and Patna in Bihar. It was not the usual cheering crowds with smiling faces shouting zindabad, but masses of worrying and starving breathing skeletons asking ‘where do we get our next meal?’

The government of Bihar had requested for 4,00,000 tonnes of foodgrains per month. “We may not be able to accede to the request and even if we want to, we do not have enough stock in our hand,” was the reply of the prime minister to newsmen.

A little while later, I was assigned to cover the drought-hit areas. Our entire unit of five members drove by road from Delhi on November 30, 1966 towards UP and Bihar. After two days on the road, passing through Moradabad and Lucknow, we reached Manikpur in Banda district. Banda was famed as the rice granary of UP. But now it was in the grip of the century’s worst food shortage.

Help from the Missionaries

At Churai Kesarva village, instead of government agencies and political leaders working in the field, we found people from the Ramakrishna Mission and the Catholic Relief Society (CARE) of U.S.A. distributing foodgrains, clothes and medicines to the distressed people. Suffering knows no frontiers. We jumped out of our van and started capturing on our camera these mercy-missionaries of Krishna and Christ.

We were eager to know from Swami Kshetrananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, how he came to know about these remote places and the suffering of the people? “First we had sent our volunteers to find out where the worst-affected were that needed help. And that’s how we are here”.

We came to know that the Swamiji had more precise infor-mation about the drought in the region than any government official or politician. Based on his information, we moved to Kamal-pur in Allahabad district where more than 700 people were working at one spot to build a bunting wall to block rain-water as and when it rained. Young boys and girls, old men and women, all were busy on relief work. Some women were working with soil-laden baskets on their head and infants tied to their shoulders, sucking their dry breast! We were recording this pathetic visual. Sukhlal, a villager was facing our camera:

“How long you have been working here?” Kapil (a member of our unit) asked.

“Three weeks”.

“How much do you earn?”

“Thirteen annas a day”, (About 80 paise).

“Do you get grains?”

“Once in two weeks”.

We now moved towards Mirzapur and Varanasi covering on the way, relief works. The problem undoubtedly was colossal and could not be solved all at once. The pity was, ‘no rain’ had become a handy excuse for the politicians-in-power and perpetuated the sluggish mentality of government officers.

Callous Politicians

Passing through Varanasi, we entered the Bihar border and saw a big official hoarding written in Hindi: “Ghoose Lena Dena Paap Hai”. (It’s a sin to take or give bribes). This gave us an idea of the state of affairs in Bihar. We reached Patna. According to local newspapers, this was the worst drought in Bihar in the last two centuries! But in Patna we found complete indifference. The forthcoming General Election seemed to have greater priority than the drought. We decided to leave Patna the next day for Bodh Gaya. Passing through the famous Grand Trunk Road, we could see an unending stretch of parched land. From the interior, reports were steadily coming in of large scale migration of landless labourers and marginal farmers to the neighbouring states of West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. To us the situation looked very grave.

As we were approaching Bodh Gaya in the evening, just seven miles from our destination, we saw a grim-faced crowd by the roadside at a village called Achama. We were told that the drought-stricken people had gathered for quite some time at a fair price shop in the hope of collecting foodgrains.

From the distance we could see a big crowd in front of the fair-price shop. An old frightened woman, almost at the fag end of her life was sitting in a corner holding a dirty bag of grains. We got busy filming the entire sequence of distribution and the sale of food-grains to the waiting crowd. After the filming was over, I saw the old lady had not moved from her place. I went near her and spoke to her. She hardly had any strength to speak. Her name was Satia … she had walked all the way from distant Gopalpur village … she had no food for the last three days … she had just received four kg. grains … she was a ‘red-card’ holder – identification for the destitute that are entitled to free foodgrains from government fair price shops during droughts. Those who could afford to purchase their grains at the controlled price, were given ‘white cards’.

I requested her to open her bag. She meekly obeyed. The grain given to her was dirty, full of dry grass and pebbles. I was disturbed. I asked the Mukhiya whether he had given this dirty stuff to her?

“Yes”

“Will you eat such dirty wheat?”

“I am helpless, what I receive, I distribute”.

“This old lady is a ‘red card’ holder and she is entitled to free rations from the government and not this dirty stuff which you and I can’t eat”. I could not control myself. “You better clean this stuff and give what is due to her”. I was almost shouting at him.

“I belong to the upper caste”, showing his Janeu (sacred thread), he said. “Sieving of foodgrains is not my job”, he retorted.

“You will have to do it”, I insisted.

The waiting crowd and my unit members supported me. Assessing the situation, the Mukhiya was forced to sieve the grains most unwillingly. After the dirt was removed, the wheat was again weighed. It was 700 grams less. I asked the Mukhiya to replace it with clean wheat and give it to her. Reluctantly he obeyed. We took in writing from him about the 700 grams of dirty stuff given to the ‘red card’ holder and got it countersigned by the Gram sevak, a village volunteer. I took the note along with the dirty stuff with me – hardly knowing what to do with it!

The site of this village was hardly seven miles from Bodh Gaya where Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment. And yet his teachings seemed to have had no impact on the people here!

We moved on to the district of Palamau. 1966 was the second successive year of drought in this district, affecting 1.3 million people, mostly peasants, tribals and landless labourers. To increase the purchasing of the people of the district under what came to be known as the ‘Palamau Experiment’, the District’s Deputy Commissioner had planned to provide jobs for 3,00,000 people on relief work. A scheme for ‘Food for Work’, His blueprint was ready with 1,500 labour schemes, which were production oriented. But in the state capital Patna it was gathering dust because of complete apathy towards the drought.

JP’s Free Kitchen Movement

The socialist leader, Babu Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), Chairman of the Bihar Relief Committee, was the lone voice to suggest an in-depth study of the ‘Palamau Experiment’. He said, “Any aid delayed would amount to aid denied”.

Age had not withered the rebellious spirit of sixty four-year-old Jayaprakash Narayan. a man who never sought fame or position. He was a down-to-earth social worker, concerned with doing things wholly on pragmatic grounds and solving problems.

In 1966, Babu Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), was the only name on the lips of government officials and the drought-stricken people all over Bihar and UP. After two days of filming in and around Daltonganj, we moved to Nava village, about 20 miles away. None of our unit members had ever witnessed hunger on such a large scale. Hundreds of starving people had lined-up, holding empty bowls outside the “Free Kitchen” run by the Bihar Relief Committee under JP’s Chairmanship. According to JP, 35 million people were starving in Bihar during that famine in December 1966. He feared that the number of hunger-stricken people would swell by another ten million in the coming months. Drought had turned into scarcity and scarcity into famine.

JP’s ‘Free-Kitchen Move-ment’ in this area saved hundreds from dying of hunger. At the ‘Free Kitchens’, there were many in the crowds with bowls in their hands, who avoided facing our camera. Probably, this was the first time in their life, that they had been forced to stand in a food line.

We were very eager to meet the man behind this ‘Free Kitchen Movement’ and the Chairman of the Bihar Relief Committee and so we rushed back to Patna. We positioned our camera in the open yard of JP’s residence in the ‘Mahila Charkha Samiti’, an institution named by his wife Prabhavati Devi. Through our camera, JP was addressing his appeal to the nation:

“I regret very much to say that although the need of the drought-stricken people of Bihar is enormous, the response from the country has not been encouraging. This may be due to lack of adequate information about the severity of the situation. Please remember that this is not an ordinary drought. This is an unprecedented drought, the like of which this part of the country has not seen in the past centuries. At present, the most pressing need is for clothing and blankets. I appeal to all of you to spare from your ration whatever you can, as some people are already doing. There is need for cash contributions, small and large, with which we can buy whatever is needed …”

Among the political leaders in India, JP was the only one who was alive to the grimness of the situation. Under his direct supervision, the ‘Free Kitchen’ service was now increased from 1,000 to 1,400 and on an average, about 700 people were fed daily from each kitchen. As the situation worsened, he increased the facilities within his available resources.

We reached Delhi on December 29, 1966. My family members found me to be a changed man. My food intake was reduced … I would not tolerate any tap leakage … No wastage of food or water in my house and so on.

On December 29, as we were working on the editing of the film, Mr. Bhownagary, our Film Advisor, introduced me to Mr. Haakon Lie, a Labour leader from Norway and a dear friend of JP. He had come all the way from Norway to see the drought condition and to help JP. In Patna, JP informed him of our film coverage of the situation in U.P. and Bihar and asked him to see Mr. Bhownagary. Lie requested, part of our coverage within two days as, on January 1, 1967 he was to fly back to Oslo. Bhownagary informed him that the film was yet to be edited and it was far from complete. … Haakon Lie pleaded to have with him for 3,000 ft. or half hour visual material. When three cans of the unedited film were handed over to him on January 1, he almost hugged me saying, “This is a New Year gift to me”.

After six weeks, on February 24, 1967, I received a rewarding letter from Lie:

“When I came back, your film was screened for the news section of our TV company. A programme on India was set up which lasted for more than one hour and had eight participants. A short version of ‘Drought in India’ was used as an opening of the programme, which then turned into a discussion on what Norwegians could do to help. The drive which followed has turned out to be a success – greater than we had dared to hope for. Here the film was the major factor in arousing the people and making them participate … You, shall, however be glad to know that it was due to your excellent work that the labour movement in a small country could make a contribution of 2.5 million rupees to your efforts to increase food production in Bihar”.

All this was due to JP.

By March 1967, the results of Fourth General Election started coming in which marked a watershed in Indian politics. Although the Congress Party retained its majority in the Lok Sabha, the losses that it suffered were the heaviest so far. Its stalwarts and senior leaders faced defeat. S. K. Patil in Maharashtra lost to George Fernandes, Atulya Ghosh was defeated in West Bengal, K. Kamaraj, the Congress President was defeated by a young man of the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. However, Indira Gandhi was elected with a vast majority, which strengthened her position in the party. The period also witnessed defections and the historic split in the Congress Party in 1969. Incidentally, 1969 was the Mahatma Gandhi birth centenary year.

Three years and nine months later, the Lok Sabha was dissolved prematurely on December 27, 1970 by the Prime Minister and mid-term elections were held in 1971. Indira Gandhi had outmaneuvered the older leaders in her party to gain control over the Congress. She won the elections with an overwhelming majority. She was sworn in a second time as the Prime Minister in 1971.

But the manner in which she had won the election from the Rae Bareli constituency was questioned by the Opposition. It was challenged in a court of law by her defeated rival, Raj Narain of the Samyukta Socialist Party on the charge that she had used corrupt practices. Raj Narain filed an appeal in the Allahabad High Court against the election result. The case dragged on.

The second challenge to her leadership and her party came from the Nav Nirman Samiti’s agitation in Gujarat in January 1974, led by the students, against the failure of the Congress Party led ministry, to protest against the food shortages, inflation, unemployment and corruption. The Chief Minister had to resign and President’s Rule was imposed in Gujarat in February.

The agitation in Gujarat was now followed by the students in Bihar in March 1974 who launched a massive movement against the Congress-led Gafoor ministry.

On April 8, 1974, Jayaprakash Narayan led a silent protest march on the streets of Patna along with students, the Shanti Sena Sangharsha Samiti and the Bihar Sarvodaya Mandal against excessive centralization of power and the Congress government’s failure to bring down prices. His protest was unique. The marchers had taped their mouths and tied their hands. People were reminded of Gandhian methods of protest during the Raj.

Acharya Vinoba Bhave was not happy with the direction in which JP was taking Sarvodaya workers. In mid-March, a conference in Paunar in which both Vinoba Bhave and JP participated, ended with a compromise – individual Sarvodaya workers were permitted to do as their conscience dictated. About 80 per cent of the Sarvodaya workers followed JP.

In the name of ‘reforms’ after the nationalization of Banks, Mrs. Gandhi, with authoritarian high-handedness followed up with the takeover of general insurance, the coal industry, the oil refineries and abolished the privy purses and privileges of the former princes.

Events now took a new turn. Most of the Opposition parties joined hands with the Sarvodaya leader. There was indirect support from many Congressmen, including a Union Minister! Being a man of truth and having tremendous inner strength and cour-age like Gandhiji, JP finally gave his clarion call:

Sampurna Kranti Ab Nara Hai,

Bhavi Itihas Hamara Hai

(Our slogan is: Total Revolution. The Future is Ours)

A three-day Bihar Bandh called by JP from October 3 to 5, 1974 was most successful. Another massive demonstration took place on November 4, in which JP was hit by a lathi by the Patna police and the marchers were tear-gassed.

For the first time since Independence, Opposition parties were moving closer together, under JP’s leadership to save democracy in India. On March 6, 1975, millions from all over the country joined JP’s “People’s March” to Parliament to present a memorandum on price stabilisation, need-based wages; effective land reforms, assurance of full employment, creation of a regimen for national austerity, education and civil liberties; eradicating political corruption … It was a spectacular ‘people’s procession’ the like of which Delhi had never seen before.

On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court found Mrs. Gandhi guilty on two charges of electoral corruption. She lost her seat and was debarred from contesting elections to Parliament for six years. But the Judge granted a 20-day stay order to allow her to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Now the Opposition leaders demanded Mrs. Gandhi’s resignation. There was a crumbling of democratic political system in the country. JP’s first concern was to save it from total collapse with the help of Janashakti – People’s Power. He called upon all political parties to participate in the movement. On 25th June, JP was the main speaker at a a mammoth rally in New Delhi, under the auspices of the ‘Lok Sangharsh Samiti’ headed by Morarji Desai, JP spoke for about ninety minutes. He announced a nationwide week-long satyagraha from June 29, asking Indira Gandhi to resign as she was found guilty of telling lies and misleading the people on various occasions. He also appealed to the police and armed forces not to obey any order that they might consider illegal or immoral.

‘Not to obey illegal orders’ was taken serious note of by Mrs. Gandhi. It was interpreted as a call to the armed forces to mutiny. On the midnight of June 25, 1975, President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed a declaration of a State of Emergency in the country on grounds of threatened internal disturbances. At pre-dawn on 26th June, JP and Morarji Desai were arrested along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Chandra-shekhar, Charan Singh, Madhu Dandavate, Raj Narain, Biju Patnaik and six hundred others all over the country. Most of them were to stay in jail for the next 18 months. The process continued with midnight arrests, the denial of fundamental rights, total press censorship. The proclamation of draconian ordi-nances became the order of the day. The wheels of democracy started rolling backward with ruthless autocracy. R. K. Malkani, the editor of Motherland, who was critical of Mrs. Gandhi’s rule, was the first media man to be picked up in Delhi. But four other journalists, C. R. Irani of The Statesman, R. N. Goenka of The Indian Express, Minoo Masani of Freedom First and A. D. Gorwala of Opinion continued boldly to defy the censorship and supported JP’s movement and criticized the Emergency.
JP was just thirteen years younger to Jawaharlal Nehru and was his close associate in the early days of the freedom struggle. He used to address Nehru as “Bhai”. JP’s wife, Prabhavati Devi was a close confidante of Kamala Nehru. As a seasoned politician, JP could foresee the problems Mrs. Gandhi was creating by her authoritarian rule. On July 21, 1975, in a letter written from prison, JP advised Mrs. Gandhi inter alia to mend her ways:

It is unfortunate that JP’s fatherly advice was not heeded by Indira Gandhi.

There are some events that get registered permanently in one’s memory. A documentary film made on JP by an independent producer was thrust upon the Films Division for all-India release. In this film, JP was shown as a ‘criminal in Hitlerian garb, George Fernandes as a rabble-rousing maniac and Morarji Desai as an imposter.

On July 1, 1975, four days after the Emergency was imposed – Mrs. Gandhi announced a ’20-Point Programme’ followed with a ‘Five Point Programme’ by her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi. One of the points, ‘Family Planning’ was zealously followed to meet target.

The atrocities that had gone to achieve the target were most shocking. Orders were issued to make films on each of the items in the ’20-Point Programme’.

It is unfortunate that the Emergency period was termed as Anushashan Parva by Acharya Vinoba Bhave and the irony of it was that his own Ashram at Paunnar was raided on June 11, 1976 for copies of the Ashram journal, Maitree.

JP had become the target of the rulers during the dark period of the Emergency in the country. He spent six months under detention, most of it under solitary confine-ment. Suddenly, on September 28, he suffered acute pain in the lower abdomen indicating a serious ailment. The pain continued on and off for about a month and he became too weak to bear it. Fearing their hands would be blood-stained if anything happened to him under detention, he was flown in a state of coma to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and finally released on November 12, 1975 on parole with a special medical fund allotted by Mrs. Gandhi. JP refused the fund.

JP came to Mumbai for treatment. His illness was diagonised as kidney failure. He was treated at the Jaslok Hospital. The doctor who treated him said: “He could not keep awake for more than a moment or two, and would lapse into stupor as he was talking. He needed dialysis before his physical strength was largely restored. However, he had to be on dialysis for the rest of his life, said Dr. Mani.

Jaslok Hospital is just opposite the Films Division office, where I was working. In fact, from my cabin-window, I used to watch the hospital building and pray for the patient in room 1904, who was fighting the last battle of his life to bring back democracy to India.

As soon as the news flashed about JP’s kidney failure, there were donors from all over the country. The Cumballa Hill Post Office, just opposite Jaslok Hospital was flooded with letters. According to Dr. Mani, “people from all walks of life, from every corner of the country, volunteered to give one kidney, both kidneys, any part of their body, to save the Loknayak”

On January 18, 1977, Mrs. Gandhi dissolved the Lok Sabha and announced her decision to hold elections and released all Opposition party leaders. But she kept many of the Emergency laws in force. There was a churning of most of the opposition parties. The Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal, the Socialist Party of India and the Congress (Syndicate), merged to form the Janata Party. The guiding force were Acharya J. B. Kripalani and Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan.

Hospital Room No.1904 became the sanctum sanctorum for many visitors. On April 30, 1977, Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan was conferred the title “Rashtra Bhushan” with a cash award of Rs. One lakh. The presentation was made by Mr. M. C. Chagla. Mr. Chagla said that he was honoured to present the award to the greatest Indian of our time. The Fuel Instrument Engineers (FIE) Foundation, Ichalkaranji, founded by Panditrao Kulkarni had instituted the award.

There was another unique function at Jaslok Hospital. About 80 leading smugglers led by Haji Mastan, Yusuf Patel and Narayan Bakhia gave a solemn assurance to the Sarvodaya leader to give up smuggling. The Imam of Minar Masjid read out the Holy Scripture and Swami Ranganathanandji of the Ramakrishna Mission spoke of repentance as being part of the Hindu philosophy.

Even while needing regular dialysis, JP toured the country. Large enthusiastic crowds everywhere that greeted him invigorated and energized JP. The election tide all over the country was in JP’s favour though he himself did not seek election. A unique example in post-Independent India! The Janata Party came to power and Mrs. Gandhi and her party were routed. Nineteen months of tyranny and untold terror suffered by the people came to an end. Once again, Peace, Freedom and Democracy came back in the form of a second liberation of India.

I was fortunate to be one of the 19-members with Sir Edmund Hillary (Ed) on his “Ocean to the Sky” expedition from Ganga Sagar in West Bengal to Gomukhi in the Himalayas on three jet boats. After crossing the Farakka Barage on September 2, 1977, we entered the Bihar territory on the Ganga.

On September 6, Ed called on JP at his house at Kadamkuan along with some of us. Despite his frail health, JP got up from his wheel chair and walked slowly towards the door to greet the Everest Hero.

The impact on Ed to the half-an-hour long meeting with JP is recorded in his book: “Ocean To The Sky”:

“ …We had a memorable experience when we visited J. P. Narayan, one of the great figures of the twentieth century Indian politics, and a man held in the highest respect throughout India. He was an old man and unwell, with a kidney ailment requiring weekly dialysis. Nevertheless, when I met him in his modest but comfortable home, I was deeply impressed. He had an air of serenity and incorruptibility; there was something saintly about him, not a common quality in Western politicians … I left feeling that we had met a great man.

On the front door of JP’s room, I saw a touching Urdu couplet written in Hindi:

Malik Teri Raja Rahe Aur Tu-Hi-Tu Rahe,

Baki Na Main Rahu Na Meri Araju Rahe.

This original couplet was on the lips of a freedom fighter, Ramprasad ‘Bismil’, aged 30, when he was taken to the gallows on December 19, 1927 during the British Raj.
A week after celebrating his 78th birthday on Vijayadashmi Day, JP had a meeting with his old associate, Achyut Patwardhan. According to newspaper reports, JP told him, “I am lingering on. I am waiting for death”. 15 hours after this meeting, on October 8, 1979 JP died in his sleep at 05.45 hours. Thus ended the eventful era of a man who brought back democracy to India.

Mr. Prem Vaidya, a documentary film-maker, was with the Films Division of the Government of India.