With Parliament gearing up for a debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the Congress against the Narendra Modi government, it is pertinent to recall the debate on a no-confidence motion against the government of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in August 1963 – the first such motion in Independent India.
In the months following the debacle of the 1962 Indo-China war, the political situation was changing rapidly for Nehru and the Congress. While the government faced the heat from leaders of Opposition parties –Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya J B Kripalani and Deendayal Upadhyaya, among others – for Nehru, his failing health and the challenges from within his party were proving a tall order.
It had been a little over 16 months since Nehru had taken over as Prime Minister with the Congress winning 361 of 494 seats in the elections to the third Lok Sabha held in February 1962. But with the war against China dealing a blow to the government, the Opposition had for the first time got a boost.
There were more setbacks for Congress. Of the 10 bypolls held between the 1962 elections and July 1963, the Congress could win only four, down from the eight it won in 1962. Lohia from Farrukhabad and Kripalani from Amroha were among the big winners.
It’s in this backdrop that the government faced its first no-confidence motion in the Monsoon Session of Parliament in August 1963. In fact, not one, but a series of no-confidence motions were given to Speaker Hukam Singh.
The first notice was from Acharya J B Kripalani of the Praja Socialist Party (PSP). The second one was from Bhartiya Jan Sangh (BJS) members Umashankar Trivedi (Mandsaur) and Ramchandra Bade (Khargone). But both of them withdrew their motion in favour of Kripalani’s. Another motion was brought by CPI MPs Renu Chakravartty and SM Banerjee, but it could not be adopted since only 36 MPs supported it – a minimum of 50 members need to support the motion for the Speaker to admit it.
There were more motions — by Socialist Party MPs Ram Sewak Yadav (Barabanki) and Maniram Bagri (Hisar), Hindu Mahasabha MP Bishen Chandra Seth (Etah), and PSP MP Surendranath Dwivedi (Kendrapara) – but these too were withdrawn in favour of Kripalani’s.
The Speaker finally brought Kriplani’s motion, which had the support of 72 MPs, before the House and the debate started on August 19.
Initiating the debate, Kripalani targeted the Nehru government not only over the China debacle but for alleged corruption. “A Persian proverb says that when a ruler of a country takes a pinch of salt without payment, his officers will loot the whole country. If any minister thinks that what he does in secret is not known to his staff, he is living in a fool’s paradise… The government has failed in its foreign policy; it has failed in its home policy. The country is in depression.”
Reminding the government that he had the backing of Opposition parties, Kripalani said, “Do not suppose that I stand here to represent only 73 members of this House. The voting strength with me is greater than the voting strength with the Congress. The Congress polled only 45.27 per cent votes in the last election; the Opposition had 54.76 per cent… It is not necessary that one party should have a preponderating strength in this House. Even if there are a few parties, they can unite, as we have united this time. Remember, so far as the government of the country is concerned, there can be no vacuum. ‘The King is dead. Long live the King’.”
The Opposition also demanded that the Planning Commission be abolished – over 50 years later, in 2014, the Modi government replaced the Commission with the NITI Aayog. In his speech, BJS MP Trivedi said, “Planning Commission must go. It has not served any purpose whatsoever… Proceed with the plans, make the country flourish and make it grow more. Every one of us will be happy. If socialism means that you destroy one thing and build again, I do not believe in it.”
Lohia quoted the Planning Commission’s statement to say that 60 per cent of families survived only on Rs 25 per month, before alleging that the expense incurred on the Prime Minister’s dog was Rs 3 per day. However, Nehru contradicted these figures.
Leaders such as Morarji Desai, Subhadra Joshi and Bhagwat Jha Azad spoke from the treasury benches.
When it was his turn, Nehru said, “I have welcomed this motion and this debate. I have felt that it would be a good thing if we were to have periodical tests of this kind.”
Criticising the Opposition unity and the allegations made against his government, he said, “What has brought them together in this curious array… these various members? It is obvious that what has brought them together is a negation, not a positive fact, not only a dislike of the government, of our government, but perhaps, if I may say so, it is more — I am sorry to say so — a personal matter against me, both as leader of the government and otherwise. I do not mean that everybody feels that way. Certainly, it is a negative matter that has brought them together.”
Though the motion was, as expected, negated since there was no majority in its favour, it brought the Opposition together on the same platform for the first time.
Within over a month of this historic no-confidence motion, there were other signs of Nehru’s diminishing clout within the party. On the suggestion of K Kamraj, then Chief Minister of Madras, in late September 1963, Nehru sought the resignation of all Union ministers and chief ministers. The move – called the Kamraj Plan – was proposed as an attempt to revitalise the Congress party by getting senior leaders to reign from their posts and devote themselves to the organisation. Post the Kamraj Plan, however, only a few leaders – among them, Kamaraj (in October 1963, he became Congress president), Jagjivan Ram and Lal Bahadur Shastri — were able to get their old status while others gradually lost their relevance.
Nehru himself looked vulnerable as his health had started to decline. Months later, on May 27, 1964, Nehru passed away. While the no-confidence motion debated in the Lok Sabha was among the few setbacks Nehru encountered in his political career, the motion proved to be a turning point for Opposition unity.
While the Congress came back to power at the Centre in the next election held in 1967, the party had to face defections in many states and non-Congress governments took oath for the first time in several states, among them, UP, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab.
