Author: Bal Raj Madhok
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: July 12, 2000
Shyama Prasad Mookerji,
whose birth centenary celebrations began from July 6, occupies a unique
place among the national leaders who played a notable role during the crucial
years that preceded and followed the
Partition.
Unlike most of his contemporaries,
Mookerji had no link with the Congress, nor was he influenced by Gandhiji
when he entered politics. He did so as a matter of national duty
when the Muslim League began to work for India's Partition. He did
succeed in containing the League in Bengal for some time when he formed
a coalition government with the Krishak Praja Party of Fazal-ul-Haq, in
which he was the finance minister. But the arrest of the Congress
leaders on August 9, 1942, forced him to resign from the government and
plunge into national politics.
He launched a campaign
against the League and for the Congress in the election of 1946.
But when, flouting the mandate, the Congress accepted the plan of Partition
which gave the whole of Bengal and Punjab to proposed Pakistan, Mookerji
launched an intensive campaign to save the Hindu-majority west Bengal and
east Punjab for India. That was the basis of his famous retort: ``The
Congress partitioned India and I partitioned Pakistan.''
On the advice of Gandhiji
and Sardar Patel, Mookerji agreed to join the first national government
formed on August 15, 1947. But divergence between his views and those
of the Prime Minister on Indo-Pak relations became open.Mookerji resigned
from the government to oppose Nehru's policies.
Formation of the Bharatiya
Jan Sangh was the outcome of his efforts to create a nationalist democratic
alternative to the Congress. The Jan Sangh was Mookerji's greatest
legacy to the nation.
New challenges to India's
unity arose from inside and outside the country soon after the Partition.
Islamic Pakistan raised the banner of jihad against ``Hindu'' India from
outside and the Nizam of Hyderabad and Sheikh Abdullah began to play its
game from within. Patel was able to tackle the the Nizam effectively
after the cabinet transferred the charge of Hyderabad from Nehru to him
on the initiative of Kaka Gadgil and Mookerji. But Nehru retained
charge of Jammu and Kashmir and created the Kashmir problem.
Credit goes to Mookerji
for creating national awareness against the separatist policies of Sheikh
Abdullah, who enjoyed the blind support and patronage of Nehru. Mookerji
extended the support of the Jan Sangh to the patriotic campaign launched
by Jammu Praja Parishad against Abdullah's plan to make the India-held
part of the state a virtually independent republic with a separate constitution,
flag and president.
Mookerji decided to visit
Jammu in May 1953 to study the situation where dozens of people had been
shot for hoisting the national tricolour on public buildings and thousands,
including Prem Nath Dogra, president of Jammu Praja Parishad, had been
put in jail. By then, his stature had become a matter of concern
for Nehru. Congress leaders like Sucheta Kriplani warned Mookerji
that his Jammu visit would give a handle to Nehru to get him out of his
way. But Mookerji paid no heed. Much has been written about
his mysterious death at Srinagar as a political detenu on June 23, 1953.
Before his fateful visit
to Jammu, Mookerji wrote to Nehru appealing to him to restrain Abdullah
from making Jammu and Kashmir a virtually independent republic. Nehru
replied that this was not possible as he had given his ``word of honour''
to Abdullah about granting a special status to the state. Mookerji
suggested in his second letter that if he was so particular about his personal
commitment to Abdullah then the special status might be confined to the
Valley and not imposed on Jammu and Ladakh.
Mookerji's martyrdom
led to an upsurge of national anger against Abdullah and his separatist
policies which forced the government to dismiss and arrest him. It
was followed by the initiation of a process of integration of the state
with the rest of India. Now, taking advantage of the weak NDA government
in which his National Conference is a partner, Farooq Abdullah has revised
the nefarious plan of his father. This has made the plan of action
put forth by Mookerji in his letter to Nehru all the more relevant.
The most befitting tribute to Mookerji in his birth centenary year would
be a quick implementation of his plan with necessary modifications.
