Janata Morcha to AAP

1974 to 1975 has been very eventful days in post-independence history of India. The student of Gujarat started protest against price rise. This demonstration transformed into state wide demonstration under the banner of Nav Nirman Andolan in 1974. Mr. Morarji Desai of Congress (O) rode the popular wave and became the leader of the agitation. The agitation forced Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel of Congress (R) to resign in Feb-1974. Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed Presidential Rule in the state. But State Assembly had to be dissolved amid tremendous pressure from this movement. The State Assembly elections were held in 1975 and Janata Morcha won the Assembly Election on 12-June-1975.

At the same time in 1974, the student of Bihar started their protest against misrule, corruption, rise in inflation, unemployment in Congress (R) government. This state-wide Bihar Movement was supported by all student organizations except organization belonged to Congress. Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) provided leadership to this movement and gave a call for “Total Revolution”. Unlike in Gujarat, Mrs. Gandhi did not dismiss the Chief Minister and curbed the agitation forcefully.

The famous Railways strike was led by George Fernandes in Feb-1974. All Railway unions came together under his leadership. The entire nation was brought to complete halt. Their demands were better wages and better working condition. The strike was not really successful. Government ensured divisions in the protesters and George Fernandes finally called it off after 19 days of strike.

You can imagine, Mrs. Gandhi was facing tremendous civic disobedience in many parts of the country. The last nail on coffin was a judgment of Allahabad High Court on 12-June-1975. Raj Narain who was defeated by Mrs. Gandhi in 1971 election filed a case against her for misusing government machinery for election purpose. Incidentally, Mr. Shanti Bhushan (Father of Prashant Bhushan of Aam Adami Party) fought for Raj Narain. The court found her guilty, cancelled her election and banned her from contesting election for 6 years. She approached Supreme Court and Court upheld High Court judgment on 24-Jun-1975.

On the next day (25-June-1975) JP held a massive rally in New Delhi. He demanded her resignation and declared non-cooperation movement similar to what Mahatma Gandhi called during Independence struggle. In the midnight, she declared the state of Emergency and democracy was brought to complete halt. She immediately dismissed Government of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and imposed President’s rule there.    

Although, Janata Morcha was formed in 1974, its real fight against Congress and Mrs. Gandhi started after declaration of Emergency. Janata Morcha consists of all Socialist Parties, Congress (O) and Jan Sangh. It gave new political platform to aam adami. It also gave lot of new leaders to the country. 1) Lalu Prasad Yadav: A lawyer and Masters in Political Science. He was student leader in Patna University. He played pivotal role in Bihar Movement in 1974 and later in JP movement. 2) Mulayam Singh Yadav: Master in Political Science. Strong follower of Ram Manohar Lohia and Charan Singh became part of JP movement. 3) George Fernandes: Born in middle class family in Mangalore, famous Union Leader from Mumbai. 4) Sharad Yadav: Gold medalist in Electrical Engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College and became a part of JP movement. 5) Nitish Kumar: Civil Engineer from NIT Patna and participated in JP’s movement in 1974.  6) Dr. Subramaniam Swamy: Doctorate from Harvard University. Mrs. Gandhi expelled him from IIT. He joined JP movement during Emergency.

There were host of other leaders such as Morarji Desai, Chandrashekhar, Ramkrishna Hegde, Devi Lal, Sikander Bakt, Deve Gowda of Congress (O) who joined JP movement and became the part of Janata Party. There were few ex-congressman such as Biju Patnaik, Charan Singh etc. became the part of Janata Morcha and finally part of Janata Party. Jan Sangh leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Vijayaraje Scindia also became part of Janata Morcha during emergency and then became part of Janata Party.

Janata Party’s landslide victory in general election in 1977 is a golden page in history of civic movement in India. It not only brought the first non-congress government but also changed the political fabric of India. Janata Party’s diverse folks could not keep them together after a huge success. A common goal (of defeating Mrs. Gandhi) could not keep them united. Their government fell down in 2.5 years due to internal differences. They forgot JP’s call of “Total Revolution” and many felt that it was impractical! As Janata Party could not live up to the trust shown by citizen of this country, they forgot atrocities and autocracy of Mrs. Gandhi during Emergency and elected her Prime Minister of India in 1980 once again. Socialist Party and thought started disintegrating since then and now it is confined to few states. It is completely wiped out from state like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, etc.

They say history repeats! Here we come in 2009-10. CAG reported large scale irregularities in allocation of 2G spectrum. Initially, people like Kapil Sibbal said that there was no loss to exchequer. But we saw imprisonment of A. Raja. In 2012, CAG once again reported large scale irregularities in allocation of Coal deposits. Prime Minister was coal minister during this period. There is still no conviction in this case. These two scams along with inaccessible and very weak PM, dual power center at center tarnished the image of Congress government. On other side, corruption charges against B. S. Yeddyurappa, CM of Karnataka, forced him to resign in 2011. Corruption cases against Madhu Koda, Lalu Prasad Yadav, disproportionate asset case against Mulayam Singh Yadav, corruption in Common Wealth Games etc. created an impression within the country that all the political parties are corrupt especially two major parties i.e. INC and BJP.

In April 2011, Anna Hazare started his fast for Jan lokpal bill. Many compared his agitation with JP’s one. He ended his fast after 98 hrs. after government agreed to set up a Joint Drafting Committee. Anna gave a deadline to the government of 15-Aug-11 to pass the bill. The committee failed to agree on the terms of the bill and government filed their own version of bill in Aug 2011. Anna and his team felt that the government version of Lokpal bill is very weak and will be ineffective in curbing corruption. They asked for permission for fast and agitation against bill in Aug-2011. It was given with lot of conditions. On 16-Aug, Anna was taken into preventive custody but he instructed his followers to continue with the protest. His arrest resulted into huge outcry across the country and government released him on the same evening. He refused to come out of jail and started his indefinite fast from jail. Thank God they did not repeat the mistake of Mrs. Gandhi! Finally government agreed to his demands and allowed him to start his agitation from Ramlila Ground. This agitation continued for 12 days. The impromptu demonstration were held across the country and citizen showed solidarity with Anna’s movement. This agitation brought completely new faces in front us. 1) Arvind Kejriwal: IITian, ex-IRS officer, RTI activist, Magsaysay award winner. 2) Manish Sisodia: Journalist and social worker worked with Arvind Kejriwal since beginning. 3) Prashant Bhushan: IIT drop out, Lawyer and RTI activist. Specialist in PIL. 4) Kumar Vishwas: Professor of Hindi and appeared first time in Anna movement 5) Yogendra Yadav: Social Scientist and Sr. fellow at CSDS. He was advisor to Rahul Gandhi. Became part of Anna movement in 2011.

Arvind Kejriwal felt that political party is needed for fight against corruption. Anna wanted to keep it non-political movement. After the difference with Anna, he formed Aam Adami Party (AAP) in Nov-2012. The main agenda of the party is to fight against corruption and fight against main parties i.e. INC and BJP.

After winning second largest seats in New Delhi Assembly election, there are new hopes from AAP. The country is witnessing new enthusiasm as famous personalities like Bala of Infosys, Meera Sanyal, CEO of RBS India, and Capt. Gopinath of Deccan Airways have joined AAP. As said earlier, there is large section of society who is fade up of corruption of INC and weak government at the center. But they do not want to align with BJP either. Although, there are many so called socialist parties in India, but they became personal properties of some families with less or no principles of socialism being practiced. Socialist people in states like Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat do not have any political space in their respective states. In short, it created big vacuum in politics and Kejriwal encashed this opportunity. AAP has given new hopes to these scattered socialists across India. This is definitely sizeable votes to win 25-50 seats in next General Election. They will mostly impact INC but they would be big spoilers for most of the established parties as well. Even if they win 25 seats in next general election, they can dislodge NAMO’s dream of becoming Prime Minister. As per my earlier calculation, AAP can change the equation as follows,

Parties	Before AAP	After AAP
UPA	125	110
NDA	250	245
Third Front	168	163
AAP		25
Total	543	543

  

The parties like TMC, YSR Congress, who would not align with INC, would immediately align with AAP. As said earlier, most of AAP supporters are either socialist or communist. The simple calculation (25 + 150 of third front) and with external support of congress, AAP can form the government in next general election. If that happens, it would be very fragile government as country experienced during the days of Deve Gowda, Chandrashekhar or I. K. Gujral and push the country back by another 10 years.

There is large similarity between Janata Party and AAP. People took the advantage of popularity of JP in Janata Morcha and similarly, Kejriwal and team took advantage of Anna’s popularity. Janata party fought against Mrs. Indira Gandhi and AAM is fighting against Congress and BJP. Janata party initially declared many popularistic policies such as lowering sugar prices, banning liquor etc. AAM is also doing the same. Janata Party declared that they would file cases against Mrs. Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and other corrupt congress leaders. But not a single case saw a day of light. Mr. Kejriwal is also saying the same. The difference in Janata Party and AAP is that AAP has not allowed any political party to merge with them. Another difference is that Janata Party never dislodged JP and JP never left Janata party in his life. However, Kejriwal and company have already dislodged Anna and Anna has already disowned AAP.  AAP has to prove the mettle by delivering in New Delhi as per their manifesto. They need to serve the country for some time and get the experience of running government. We already have one experience of giving central government to newly formed party. We can’t afford it once again. Now we have to decide whether we want strong government or weak government and vote accordingly!