A colossus in UP

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna: A political crusader

Author: Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Ram Naresh Tripathi.

Translated by: Ajai K Rai

Publisher: Vani Prakashan

Price: Rs 895

This is a book written by a doting daughter. But even making allowances for that, it is essential reading for everyone who wants to understand current politics in Uttar Pradesh and the contribution of chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, who strode the public landscape like a colossus in the 1960s and 1970s.

Like many other politicians of his times, Bahuguna earned his place in public life, and had no inheritance. He was one of those young men who was fired by Gandhi and Nehru but also by the ideals of Communism. He became chief minister of UP for the second time in February 1974 when he led the election campaign and the Congress managed to get 213 seats out of 425. With the slender majority of one seat, it would have been hard for him to run the government but for the support of Communists and other progressive forces.

Lucknow may have been UP’s capital. But it was Allahabad, eastern UP and Bihar where everything was happening in 1942. Bahuguna went to Allahabad University to study but inevitably got caught up in the vortex of the militant anti-British movement. Allahabad was the intellectual centre of political debate.

Even as he studied, young Bahuguna was deeply involved in underground activity against the British, which announced Rs 2,000 as reward to anyone who would help capture or arrest him. 

Then came independence and Bahuguna got involved in trade union activity, fighting cases on behalf of workers though he had no law degree. He had no job and tried his hand at small businesses but his heart was not in it. He plunged into full-time politics in the youth Congress but when he tried to enter the Congress, the many party factions resisted his entry. His compelling need to prove himself drove him to work relentlessly and efforts to undermine him proved to no avail. He contested his first Assembly election in 1952 from Karchana and had to borrow Rs 300 to file his nomination. From then on his career was on an upward trajectory. In 1957, he became a minister for the first time. He was to remain a towering presence in UP till 1969.

With Indira Gandhi, Bahuguna found a natural common language. But there was also fellow Brahmin, Kamalapati Tripathi. After the 1971 general election, he got a call: He was to become minister of state for communications in the Union government. He saw this as a diminution of his stature. But in 1973, he achieved his life’s ambition: UP was in the throes of a revolt by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). The book explains how this happened (G B Pant’s order as chief minister that Muslims should be recruited in as few numbers as possible in the PAC, and so on). Chief minister Tripathi was unequal to the task of controlling this rebellion.  So Bahuguna replaced Tripathi. Assembly elections were two months away. The Congress won the election and Bahuguna became CM again.

The book describes in detail, the central elements of administration during the Bahuguna years. But differences developed between him and Indira Gandhi and in 1975, he resigned from chief ministership. The book attributes the fallout to the activities of several local leaders, including V P Singh. But there were fundamental problems, especially interference by Sanjay Gandhi and his advisors. Bahuguna was not one to go quietly into the night and he opened lines of communication with Jayaprakash Narayan and the correspondence between them is revealing. He was the target of censorship by his colleagues of yore such as V C Shukla and close to 1977, he, along with Jagjivan Ram and others formed the Congress For Democracy, resigning from the primary membership of the Congress, going on to become  minister for petroleum in the Janata Party government.

When Charan Singh quit the Janata Party with Indira Gandhi’s support and formed a government, Bahuguna became his finance Minister. The book glosses over his moves during this period, attributing his “defection” to his opposition to communal forces. He became an MP from Garhwal in 1980 but resigned in six months. In 1984 came the shocker: His beloved Allahabad turned its back on him and elected Amitabh Bachchan. Worse was to follow: His nemesis, V P Singh became the darling of the Opposition, the very Opposition he was so assiduously trying to bring together on one platform. He refused to become Singh’s yes man. After 1989, it was downhill. His health gave up on him and when he died, many lamented that he should have been prime minister.

This book throws the spotlight on a slice of history that is central to understanding politics in India today. It could have done with more rigorous copy-editing — for example, “gaffe” has become “guffaw” (pg 34); coalitions are cobbled “together” not “up” (page 199). Despite such small irritants, it makes for riveting reading.