BJP gushes about Shastri, who wasn't hostile to RSS

The ruling BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, are all praises for — after Vallabhbhai Patel and BR Ambedkar — another Congress icon, Lal Bahadur Shastri, given the former Prime Minister's independent stature from the Nehru-Gandhi family.

In an article in the 70th anniversary edition of weekly Organiser, BJP leader LK Advani said Shastri — unlike Jawaharlal Nehru — was not ideologically hostile towards the RSS, and would often invite its chief MS Golwalkar for consultation on national issues. Current RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat also lauded him last year, referring to him as a "lok neta" or a mass leader.

For the decisive military action that India under Shastri took during the War of the Rann of Kutch, Deendayal Upadhyay, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader and forerunner of the present-day BJP, praised him for the departure from Nehru's pacifist security policy, according to Mahesh Chandra Sharma, the author of 'The Politics of Undivided Nationalism'.

After Pakistan attacked India on April 24, 1965, India hit back, and at the behest of British Premier Harold Wilson, a ceasefire was signed.

In this context, writes Sharma, "Naturally, Upadhyay lauded Shastri for not accepting Pakistan's offer of ceasefire before asking the aggressor to vacate Indian territory and considered it an unprecedented event in India's security history."

Even during Pakistan's misadventure in Kashmir in 1965, Upadhyay was all praises for Shastri's militarist policy against the aggressor. "The 22-day war with Pakistan is a proud moment in India's post-Independence history. India decided to take a bold step against the aggression," Upadhyay said. Perhaps contrasting it with Nehru's policy, Upadhyay added, "We came down from the land of dreams and learnt to face realities on the ground."

About the military response, Upadhyay was so impressed with Shastri that he said, "The military strategy that the Jan Sangh had been demanding was started on this day."

"Shastri had convened an all-party meet on September 6, the war having had started five days earlier, where he had invited RSS chief MS Golwalkar as well as Upadhyay, then Jan Sangh leader," said BJP mouthpiece Kamal Sandesh's executive editor Shiv Shakti Nath Bakshi, whose book on Upadhyay is soon to be released.

However, in both cases -- Kutch Agreement and the Tashkent Agreement that stopped the Indo-Pak War of 1965 -- Upadhyay was ultimately disappointed with Shastri.

Upadhyay was against Shastri's decision, at the request of Wilson, to refer the boundary dispute in the Rann of Kutch to an international panel, which he called a "suicidal mission" and one which was a "result of mischievous manoeuvrings of external forces".

Upadhyay led a massive political protest against the bilateral agreement in front of Parliament, BBC pegging the number of protestors at five lakh. Consequently, Shastri was forced to cancel the scheduled meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries on August 20, 1965.

Jan Sangh in its resolution attacked the Shastri government, saying: "If the masses remain so active and vigilant, the Kutch Agreement will be reduced to a scrap of paper."

Meanwhile, as regards the Tashkent Agreement, Upadhyay and the RSS were extremely critical of Shastri. They opposed the ceasefire agreement as Golwalkar spoke all over the country, requesting Shastri to not go to Tashkent.

The opposition was so stiff and determined that Sharma writes: "If Shastri had been alive, the Jan Sangh would have probably welcomed him back home with a black flag demonstration..."

The title of Upadhyay's book against the agreement, 'Vishwaasghat' (Treachery), is ample testimony to what he thought of the agreement and Shastri.

Mincing no words for Shastri, Upadhyay, who had in the midst of the Indo-Pak war called him a 'Rashtranayak' (National Hero), took a dig at the then PM's favourite slogan of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan'. "We forgot the slogan of Jai Jawan at the Tashkent and as soon as we got the American wheat, we forgot even the other part of the slogan, Jai Kisan. This is not desirable. We cannot get foreign aid without strings."