Bihar in Bharat: What JP Narayan had told the youth in 1973

Every politician in Bihar pays lip service to Jayaprakash Narayan. Born on October 11, 1902, in Sitabdiara of Saran district, JP rose to be the Lok Nayak. In the 1930s, JP was the socialist leader the youth across the country looked up to. The Quit India movement turned him into a folk hero. Yet, many may say, his defining moment was in the 1970s, when he came out of political retirement, first to guide the Bihar movement, then to bring the opposition forces together to defeat the powers that foisted the Emergency on the country. Nearly all of Bihar’s current leaders began their engagement with politics in the Bihar movement.

JP was suspicious of power. His political thought constantly explored ways and means to keep power and the powerful in check. During the Bihar movement that targeted corruption and nepotism, JP used to reflect on politics in his journal, Everyman’s. The concerns he raised then are relevant even today. In the note ‘Appeal to Youth’, JP writes, “… the people’s civic life is in danger today from various sides. The most serious danger comes from the vitiation of the electoral process… elections have been growing more and more irrelevant to people and to the democratic process. The reason is that money, falsehood, corruption and physical force have combined to erode steadily the very meaning and substance of elections.”

JP then addressed the youth of Bihar: “Will our youth continue to look on idly at this strangulation of the democratic process at its very birth? Surely, there cannot be a more important issue which should move the youth to action. Time for action is here and now. What form their action should take is for the youth themselves to decide. My only recommendation would be that, in keeping with the spirit and substance of democracy, it must be scrupulously peaceful and non-partisan.”