04-26-2007, 08:34 AM
Bodhi,
Thanks for that report on JP and SR Goel.
The report confirms that he was quite openminded on the issue of hindutva. JP was surely not a hindutvavaadi, but he did manage to convince Jana-Sangh/RSS to fight together against Indira Gandhi during the emergency. That was also the first time Jana-Sangh had been accepted by other political outfits as partners. Incidentally Janata Party rule disntegrated when other partners demanded that erstwhile Jana-Sanghis break their links with RSS. Janata Party has never been a force since then. Jana Sanghis broke away to form BJP. But AB Vajpayee wanted to introduce "Gandhian socialism" into BJP. That didn't go very well with the electorate, and BJP ended up with a miniscule number of seats in the Lok Sabha. So, we can perhaps say that the Janata-Party experiment ended up emasculating Jana-Sangh. It was only after the Rama-Janma bhumi issue that BJP's stock started to rise again.
Jayaprakash Narayan could carry people with him even while having ideological differences. His personal integrity was never in doubt. During the emergency, he was the one who became the symbol of resistance against the Indira-Sanjay duo. He commanded the respect (and irritation) of Indira Gandhi as well as Jan-Sanghis besides the Lohia-socialists. Laloo was just a regional student leader. He didn't have any national or even statewide pull. Janata Party was Jayaprakash Narayan's creation. Only his charisma kept it together that won the landslide victory in 1977 against Indira.
Laloo's claims are ridiculous to the extreme, and all the people who remember the emergency era would/should put him in his place.
Thanks for that report on JP and SR Goel.
The report confirms that he was quite openminded on the issue of hindutva. JP was surely not a hindutvavaadi, but he did manage to convince Jana-Sangh/RSS to fight together against Indira Gandhi during the emergency. That was also the first time Jana-Sangh had been accepted by other political outfits as partners. Incidentally Janata Party rule disntegrated when other partners demanded that erstwhile Jana-Sanghis break their links with RSS. Janata Party has never been a force since then. Jana Sanghis broke away to form BJP. But AB Vajpayee wanted to introduce "Gandhian socialism" into BJP. That didn't go very well with the electorate, and BJP ended up with a miniscule number of seats in the Lok Sabha. So, we can perhaps say that the Janata-Party experiment ended up emasculating Jana-Sangh. It was only after the Rama-Janma bhumi issue that BJP's stock started to rise again.
Jayaprakash Narayan could carry people with him even while having ideological differences. His personal integrity was never in doubt. During the emergency, he was the one who became the symbol of resistance against the Indira-Sanjay duo. He commanded the respect (and irritation) of Indira Gandhi as well as Jan-Sanghis besides the Lohia-socialists. Laloo was just a regional student leader. He didn't have any national or even statewide pull. Janata Party was Jayaprakash Narayan's creation. Only his charisma kept it together that won the landslide victory in 1977 against Indira.
Laloo's claims are ridiculous to the extreme, and all the people who remember the emergency era would/should put him in his place.