The Janata days, fights relived

Late for a Cabinet Committee meeting sometime in 1978, Charan Singh was unusually apologetic as he greeted his colleagues.

Late for a Cabinet Committee meeting sometime in 1978, Charan Singh was unusually apologetic as he greeted his colleagues. 8220;I8217;m sorry; I got held up due to a journalist,8221; he told them while working on a blueprint on electoral reforms. L K Advani, Shanti Bhushan and P C Chunder were the other members, besides Singh, on the committee.

Union Law Minister in the Janata regime Shanti Bhushan asked him to take it easy though. 8220;The reporter asked me if I wanted to become the Prime Minister. I told him that the people who don8217;t aim high are no good. But how can I be interested in the job when Morarjibhai is around. I8217;m, of course, available once he8217;s dead,8221; said Singh as his colleagues were left speechless.

When Shanti Bhushan later narrated the incident to Morarji, the PM had something more interesting to say. 8220;An astrologer recently told me that a couple of my colleagues, both around 75, may soon die,8221; he said. Two ministers, in the said age-bracket in the Cabinet then were Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram, both potential challengers for the PM8217;s post.

Shanti Bhushan, who had played a key role in putting together the Janata Government, under the guidance of Jayprakash Narayan, knew that the Government was on its last legs. 8220;How could a Government, where ministers wished their colleagues nothing but death, be expected to last,8221; he said, at a book-release function on the Janata experiment here on Sunday. The event saw the likes of George Fernandes, Rajnath Singh, I K Gujral and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

8220;We were working on electoral reforms that would have made the future elections transparent and inexpensive. The Naxalites and the poor today then could have fought the moneyed on an even kneel in elections,8221; recalled Shanti Bhushan.

Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, who was barely 25 at the onset of Emergency, said that the repression and the subsequent fightback by democratic forces injected a dose of resilience in the polity. 8220;The youth like us then thought that we could make the impossible come true. In a way, we have. The track record of the BJP, born only in 1980, makes others pale in comparison,8221; said the BJP president.

Civil servant-turned politician Syed Shahabuddin recalled that there were at least three officers in Bihar besides him who didn8217;t agree with Indira Gandhi8217;s repressive order at all. While other speakers too had their own take on the era, it was the presence of George Fernandes at the book launch that captured the spirit of resistance to the Emergency in true measure.

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George had been advised rest by his doctors. True to his image, George overruled them and made his presence felt, even though he didn8217;t utter a word. 8220;It dealt with the Emergency and the Janata experiment, and he couldn8217;t have stayed away,8221; the author later said. The book, 8220;The Janata Enigma 8211; 30 out of 608221; has been written by journalist Kumar Rajesh and published by Manak Publications.