Lalu Yadav on how JP Movement shook the Indira Gandhi regime: 'We had no idea...'

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was part of the JP Movement against the Congress regime led by PM Indira Gandhi. (File: PTI)

Rashtriya Janata Dal president and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, an active member of the movement led by socialist icon Jayaprakash Narayan, on Wednesday said that the student protests in Bihar transformed into a movement much bigger than any of them would have anticipated.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Lalu said that they took out a protest march on March 8, 1974, demanding improvement in hostel and mess conditions, reduction in college fees and bus fare. "...It was purely a students’ movement. There was barely any participation by politicians."

Reminiscing about the sequence of events at the time, Lalu said that student leaders met JP at his Patna residence and requested him to lead the movement only after the protest turned violent and its scale got bigger. Lalu said that though JP was initially unwilling, he agreed on one condition — that protesters would not engage in any kind of violence.

"We had no idea that the movement would shake the regime of Indira Gandhi, who had emerged as a strong and authoritative leader after India’s victory over Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh. JP built the momentum in such a way – from Patna’s Gandhi Maidan to Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, with all top Opposition leaders joining in – that Indira was left clueless," Lalu said.

The JP movement, that began 51 years ago, shaped the political course for Bihar as well as the nation as it paved the way for an alternative to the Congress’s dominance at the time. Two of its products -- Lalu and Nitish Kumar -- have governed Bihar for 35 years.

"The cry for dignity and the rights of the people cannot be silenced. History bears witness to atrocities committed in the name of progress. The rights we enjoy today were hard won, and it’s up to us to protect them. The stories of those who suffered during the Emergency will never be forgotten. The forced sterilisation programme left scars that will take years to heal. Innocent lives were forever changed by the brutal hand of authority," Lalu said.

However, reflecting on the Emergency 50 years down the line, Lalu says he felt Indira Gandhi still had respect for democracy as compared to the current regime of the BJP-led NDA. "I feel Indira still had respect for democracy – she announced fresh elections in 1977 and humbly accepted her defeat. Later, she worked hard to come back to power in 1980."

The current times under the NDA rule, however, feel like an undeclared Emergency, he said. "The present dispensation has scant respect for democratic institutions. Central investigation agencies have been working at the behest of the government for political witch hunts. I have been singularly targeted for years. But I am not one to cow down," Lalu added.

When asked about the NDA's response that the Opposition parties only raise such rhetoric because they are bitter about their inability to defeat the BJP, Lalu argues that the fact that he was still being targeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was proof that he is among the few standing up to him.

"Go to any educational institution, you will see stamps of the RSS and the BJP in their functioning and appointments. Talk to their rival political parties, they will tell you about political vendetta. Despite the NDA doing so well against us, PM Narendra Modi is still targeting me. It shows that I am among the few standing up to him, opposing his authoritative style," Lalu added.

The BJP has turned the anniversary of the imposition of Emergency, declared on June 25, 1975, as a tool to attack the Opposition, particularly the Congress for the subversion of democratic rights. The party has undertaken several initiatives in a bid to "educate" the younger generation of the ills of the Emergency period.