BJP TODAY

October 1--15, 2005 - Vol. 14, No. 19

My Days with Deendayalji
By Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi

I came in contact with Deendayalji in 1949. That was the time when ban was imposed on the RSS. He was the Sah Prant Pracharak in Uttar Pradesh. We invited him to give a lecture at my College. Students from Socialist and Communist parties worked overnight to make the proposed programme a big flop. Deendayalji came and the programme started on time. I along with my friends went out to ensure that no untoward incident could take place in the campus during Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's speech.

Attempting to disrupt the programme a group of students removed the electric fuse. We immediately rushed to bring other alternatives for light. It was done in such a great hurry that I fell down and got hurt. In spite of their 'best efforts' the students from Communist wings did not succeed in their motive and the meeting ended in a success. We went back to our hostel rooms. When Deendayalji came to know about us being hurt, he came to see us in our hostel rooms. After that I remained in constant touch with him till he left for his heavenly abode. Panditji continued his work for the RSS and then went on to become the founder member of Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

I went to Allahabad for higher studies. Panditji was a frequent visitor to the city and used to stay at Rajju Bhaiyya's place. In Allahabad, he never forgot to visit the hostels in the University area. His simplicity had an element of surprise even for those who were close to him. In spite of being the General Secretary of a prominent political party, he never allowed his position to reflect in his behaviour. His simplicity and intelligence helped him in coming closer to students and they were deeply impressed by his unassuming personality.

One day he expressed a wish to see Prof. J K Mehta, a renowned economist and the Head of Department (Economics) in Allahabad University. Prof. Mehta was surprised by his in depth understanding of a subject like economics and realised that Panditji was no ordinary politician.

I got the opportunity to work for BJS in 1957. Since then Deendayalji made it a point to stay at my place whenever he visited Allahabad. Those were the days when Jana Sangh was in its nascent stage. Allahabad was then a Congress stronghold, thanks to stalwarts like Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri the BJS had little chance to register its effective presence in and around Allahabad.

In spite of all odds, Panditji frequently toured Allahabad. On one occasion, a karyakarta was deputed to take Deenadaylji by his motor car to the venue where a meeting was scheduled. The motorcar broke down and it could not reach the station. I owned a motorcycle those days. Without any hesitation he took a ride on my motorcycle to reach the venue on time. There he addressed a predominantly rural gathering, and it was a pleasant surprise to see him discussing the hardships faced by them. Needless to say he could easily strike a chord with the ordinary farmers living in villages. Most of the times he never informed us about his arrival in advance. I had seen him coming to my house even on a rickshaw. His taste for food was modest. Parantha, Ghuia, Dahi-boora and Urad ki Dal was enough to tickle his taste bud. For him it was no less than a royal feast. He even cared for small things, easily forgotten by others. Even a small suggestion could ignite his mind.

In 1962 Lok Sabha polls the opposition parties fielded Dr.Ram Manohar Lohia from Phulpur constituency against the then Prime Minister Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru. Although he lost, he gave Pandit Nehru a tough time till the last vote was counted. On certain polling stations under Jana Sangh influence Pandit Nehru could not get even a single vote. This election brought me closer to Dr. Lohia.

When Dr. Lohia showed interest in knowing the RSS and BJS better, Deendayalji invited him to a camp of BJS karyakartas organised in Sonbhadra, near Mirzapur in UP.. His experiences at the camp left a big positive impact on his mind. Later Deendayalji and Dr. Lohia turned good friends. Their unison opened a new chapter in Indian politics. Deendayalji and Dr. Lohia were the pioneers to talk about peaceful coexistence of India and Pakistan and even issued a joint statement proposing an Indo-Pak Confederation.

Deendayalji never gave importance to pomp and show and accepted invitations from much smaller places and organisations if the event or programme had significance. Hindi Sahitya Sammelan organised a seminar on Official Language Act and they wanted a national leader as chief speaker and guest. When I personally talked to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya he was more than willing to do so as it offered him an important platform to put forward the views and ideology of his party.

He had many friends in my neighbourhood who never lost an opportunity to interact with him whenever he was in town. Once he asked me to take him to a nearby village. There he had a lively interaction with villagers. On our way back to Allahabad he told me he went there to fulfill his promise of visiting them again at the earliest possible occasion.

In 1963, Deendayalji contested a by-election to Parliament from Jaunpur but lost. He accepted defeat with modesty without indulging in any blame game. "My opponent proved better than me in carrying the message to voters," was the only comment he offered.

Four years later in 1967 the mighty Congress was forced to bite the dust in several State assembly elections. The Congress party lost majority of its seats to different opposition parties. It triggered off many rounds of deliberations as opposition parties wanted to form the government in the States at any cost. Bharatiya Jana Sangh was an important player as it had sizeable numbers in the assemblies. Deendayalji gave a cold response to the idea of forming a Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) Government. In his opinion short cut to power would bring no glory to the party and ideology. In Uttar Pradesh he refused the offer. But in Bihar he agreed. In the end he gave green signal to SVD Government in UP as well.

When Deendayalji became Party President I accompanied him to Calicut. After the historic session at Calicut he became a prominent figure in India's politics. He went to Uttar Pradesh after his return from Calicut. He met Shri Nanaji Deshmukh, Shri Ram Prakash Gupta, Shri Harish Chandra Shrivastava, Shri Ganga Bhakt and other party leaders and karyakartas before leaving to Patna. I went to the railway station with him. It was for the last time I saw him alive as it proved to be his last journey.

After seeing him off to Patna, I went to attend a training camp in Allahabad. On February 11, 1968 we received a call from Shri Ram Prakash Gupta, the then Deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh that the dead body of Deendayalji was lying on a railway track in Mughal Sarai. This tragedy left everybody stunned. Shri Guruji asked me to rush to Benaras. His dead body was sent for post mortem and I was the one who was holding his head when it was taken to the mortuary.