Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan

It was in 70’s when Indira imposed an emergency over the nation, the days when democracy of the country was jailed, the youth of the country awakened against the rising evil. Those were the days a new leadership emerged from the educated India. The first ever winds of change were seen all across. None other than Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan, a freedom fighter and a close aide of Mahathma was driving force behind these winds of change, which shook the very base of Congress leading to the defeat of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay in the election that followed.

11th October 1902 was the day when mother India has seen the birth of a son another son who made her proud of. It was the day when an eminent freedom fighter and a renowned politician of Indian politics, Mr Jaya Prakash Narayan was born in Saran dist of Bihar. After Graduating from Patna University, he left abroad for further studies. On his return from US in 1929 he was an active participant in Indian freedom struggle, and was jailed several times. Narayan gained fame in 1942 during quit India movement, when all the senior leaders of congress were jailed for leading the agitations. He was known for setting up a left wing in Congress, Congress Socialist Party, also served secretary for the wing till Independence, which later on formed into Praja Socialist Party.

Narayan kept away from active politics after the Indian independence. He worked with Vinoba Bhave in Sarvodaya movement. It was then; he broke up with Praja Socialist Party and started pursuing Lokneethi. An ideal he believed in; the polity of People stands higher than Polity of state. He returned to the National Politics in late 60’s when election of Indira Gandhi was declared void by court of law. He called for Indira to resign, for which the reply came as an emergency culling the democracy of the nation. He led the student movement in Bihar in which he declared his wish for Sampoorna Kranthi, a complete revolution. It was this student revolution, that built up the generation next of Indian politics with new leaders like Chandrasekar, Murarjee Desai, A B Vajpayee, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar seeing a rise. His struggle against emergency imposed, and the Lokneethi he pursued got him the Title Lok Nayak. He was the main inspiration behind the early tides of change against the dynastic rule in Congress to touch the shores of Indian politics. The mesmerizing speeches of Mr. Narayan reaped in the elections with the defeat of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, bringing the Barathiya Jana Sang led coalition to power in centre. Despite his heroic struggle to restore democracy in India, he never fought an election, nor did he assume any post in any govt. Narayan expired in October 1979.For his selfless service to the nation he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1998.