A star in a glittering galaxy
On
September
1,
1946,
when
India’s
first
interim
government
—
with
Jawaharlal
Nehru
as
vice-chairman
of
the
Viceroy’s
Executive
Council
—
took
over,
I
was
still
in
college
and
hadn’t
yet
joined
the
trade
of
journalism.
Even
so,
like
almost
everyone
of
my
generation,
I
was
elated
at
this
advance
towards
Independence.
Pandit
Nehru,
Sardar
Vallabhbhai
Patel,
Maulana
Azad,
Rajendra
Prasad,
and
C.
Rajagopalachari,
adorning
the
list
of
the
council’s
members,
were
household
names.
But
one
of
the
unfamiliar
ones
in
the
new
dispensation
was
Jagjivan
Ram’s.
However,
the
word
spread
fast
that
he
represented
the
Harijans
or
the
Scheduled
Castes
(the
word
dalit
hadn’t
entered
the
political
vocabulary
then).
Also,
he
was
the
youngest
of
the
glittering
galaxy.
The
heights
to
which
he
was
to
rise
still
lay
ahead,
but
the
promise
in
him
was
visible
in
the
manner
in
which
he
handled
his
responsibilities
as
member
in
charge
of
labour.
Having
been
both
a
freedom
fighter
and
a
trade
union
leader,
indeed
a
promoter
and
protector
of
the
rights
of
the
depressed
and
deprived
classes
since
his
early
youth
he
was
evidently
equipped
with
all
the
attributes
necessary
for
the
task
that
was
to
be
his
lifelong
passion
and
preoccupation.
During
the
first
general
election
in
1952,
as a
rookie
reporter
in a
news
agency,
I
got
a
golden
opportunity
to
get
to
know
him.
A
Congress
candidate
in a
constituency
a
few
hours’
drive
away
from
Delhi
suddenly
fell
very
ill.
Babuji
offered
to
canvass
for
him.
Luckily,
I
was
assigned
the
task
of
travelling
with
him
in
the
candidate’s
private
car,
for
the
use
of
official
vehicles
for
electioneering
was
taboo.
Conversations
with
Babuji,
all
too
often
spiced
with
his
wit,
were
stimulating.
Since
then
I
never
had
any
difficulty
in
meeting
Babuji.
In
fact,
among
the
high
and
mighty,
he
was
one
of
the
few
easily
accessible
leaders
— an
endearing
trait
that
never
deserted
him
through
his
enviably
long
stint
as a
powerful
minister
at
the
Centre.
With
the
possible
exception
of
Swaran
Singh,
no
other
minister
presided
over
so
many
ministries
as
Jagjivan
Babu
did.
When,
in
the
early
Fifties,
private
airlines
were
nationalised
and
merged
into
Indian
Airlines,
Babuji
was
appointed
aviation
minister.
Air
India,
too
was
nationalised,
but
he
left
it
to
its
founder,
JRD
Tata,
to
run
it.
Babuji
later
moved
to
the
railways
and
made
a
big
success
of
it,
as
he
did
of
every
other
responsibility
assigned
to
him.
This
was
possible
only
because
he
was
a
man
of
exceptional
administrative
acumen
and
remarkable
parliamentary
skills.
No
human
being
is
perfect
and
Jagjivan
Ram
surely
made
no
claims
to
infallibility.
Critics
picked
on
his
flaws
and
foibles.
His
enormous
success
also
caused
jealousies.
This
might
explain
why,
under
the
Kamaraj
Plan
in
August
1963,
Babuji
was
one
of
the
six
Central
ministers
asked
to
quit.
Lal
Bahadur
Shastri
—
who
also
went
out,
returned
as
minister
without
portfolio
when
Nehru
fell
in
January
1964
and
became
Prime
Minister
after
Nehru’s
death
four
months
later
—
never
invited
Babuji
to
join
his
Cabinet.
Nor
did
Indira
Gandhi
on
first
becoming
Prime
Minister
in
1966.
A
year
later,
after
a
second
bout
of
struggle
with
Morarji
Desai
(who
agreed
to
become
deputy
Prime
Minister),
she
included
Babuji,
too,
in
the
Cabinet.
Interestingly,
she
offered
him
the
labour
portfolio
he
had
first
handled
two
decades
earlier.
However,
in
the
course
of
her
all
too
frequent
Cabinet
reshuffles
he
moved
from
one
important
portfolio
to
another.
He
earned
high
praise
for
his
stewardship
of
the
crucial
food
and
agriculture
ministry.
This
was
the
time
when
the
country,
slowly
recovering
from
the
disastrous
drought
years,
was
ushering
in
the
Green
Revolution.
By
the
time
of
the
1971
War
for
the
liberation
of
Bangladesh,
Babuji
was
defence
minister.
It
was
he
who
gave
Parliament
the
daily
report
on
the
lightning
campaign
in
his
usual
lucid
and
unruffled
style.
Babuji
had
nothing
to
do
with
the
imposition
of
the
Emergency
in
1975.
But
he
was
asked
to
move
the
resolution
in
Parliament
endorsing
it.
However,
when
Indira
announced
the
1977
election,
he
left
the
Congress,
formed
the
Congress
for
Democracy
(CFD),
and
aligned
himself
with
the
newly
formed
amalgam
of
Opposition
parties,
the
Janata.
The
combination
easily
defeated
Indira
Gandhi
and
rode
to
power
on a
tremendous
wave
of
goodwill.
But
the
Janata
government
collapsed
ignominiously
in
30
months
flat
and
Mrs
Gandhi
was
back
in
power.
There
are
those
who
say
that
the
Janata
regime
could
have
completed
its
full
five-year
tenure,
had
Jagjivan
Ram,
rather
than
Morarji
Desai,
been
Prime
Minister.
There
is
no
point
speculating
about
ifs
and
buts
of
history.
Even
so,
the
underlying
tribute
to
Babuji’s
competence,
flexibility
and
leadership
qualities
is
obvious.
Of
the
Big
Three
of
the
Janata
—
Desai,
Charan
Singh
and
Jagjivan
Ram
—
Babuji
contributed
to
the
country’s
governance
the
most.
During
the
last
four
years
of
her
life
when
Indira
Gandhi
was
in
power
and
Jagjivan
Ram
out
of
it,
she
treated
him
with
conspicuous
respect.
Arun
Nehru,
who
was
then
cutting
his
political
teeth,
told
me
that
“Indira
Phupi”
often
sent
him
to
go
and
see
Babuji.
“Kuch
seekho
gey
(you
will
learn
something)”,
she
used
to
say.