Toll for the great

Jagjivan Ram was a great leader and administrator. It is a great resilience and spirit that enabled him to overcome bias and rise to the levels he did.
I had the privilege of interacting with him since my childhood. There were early signs of the grit that would make him a household name in India. A relative of mine, G.S. Prasad, and Jagjivan Ram had studied in the same class at a school in Arrah.

Jagjivan Ram was the only Scheduled Caste student in the school and faced much prejudice. No one was willing to share a desk with him. Prasad volunteered and they became good friends. Similarly, the school had two drinking water pitchers, one for Hindus, the other for Muslims. Both groups of students objected to him drinking from their pitcher. The headmaster had a third pitcher brought but he broke that pitcher and insisted on drinking from the pitcher for Hindus. Prasad supported him and they got their way. Both did well at school and passed the matriculation examination in first division. Jagjivan Ram got a scholarship and joined Benares Hindu University. Later, he took to politics and joined the freedom movement while his school friend ended up as chief engineer of Bihar.
After provincial autonomy was introduced in the late Thirties, the Congress came to power in Bihar. Jagjivan Ram was appointed parliamentary secretary, equivalent to a deputy minister. He earned a good reputation among senior officials, mostly British, for his notings on files. My grandfather, who was chief of police of Bihar, the only Indian in the country to hold that appointment before 1947, spoke highly of him. One day Jagjivan Ram came to our house with rasgullas. I do not remember what the occasion was. He distributed them to everyone — most took the rasgullas in their handkerchiefs and put them in their pockets. I readily took one, ate it and asked for another. When my grandmother heard of this, she scolded me. I am not sure whether it was for eating the rasgulla or for demanding another.
In 1946, the Interim Government came to power in Delhi and Jagjivan Ram became labour minister. I was then at Army headquarters in Delhi. We heard that Jagjivan Ram’s plane had to make a forced landing in the desert near Cairo. My father later took me with him to his house to congratulate him on his lucky escape, where he also told him that I had returned from war in Burma. He enquired if I was the same boy who had taken two rasgullas from him. I was amazed at his memory.
Many years later my brother-in-law K.N. Sahaya was visiting me in Delhi and took me to Jagjivan Ram’s house for a Holi Milan. There was a large gathering that included many officials. Jagjivan Ram was very hospitable. What struck me most was that several “upper caste” people were touching his feet. India had changed a lot from the late Thirties when I saw people hesitating to eat the rasgullas he had offered them. It was rumoured that after the Allahabad high court judgment it was suggested that Indira Gandhi step down and let Jagjivan Ram become Prime Minister. She appealed against the judgment and sought re-election to Parliament. Had she done so, her image, and that of Indian democracy, would have shot up. She chose instead to recommend imposition of Emergency without informing the Council of Ministers. Jagjivan Ram continued as defence minister during the Emergency. On the eve of elections in 1977, he resigned from the Cabinet and left the Congress to join Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement. This had tremendous impact. Indira Gandhi was routed at the hustings. Jagjivan Ram returned as defence minister in the Janata government.
Jagjivan Ram’s abilities were apparent in the fact that he took pains to study a file and would often write long notes in his own hand instead of the common practice of ministers signing typed notes prepared for them. These notes showed his clarity of thought and breadth of vision. No wonder he was a success in every ministry he headed — labour, food, railways and defence. I remember one instance, when the British military attaché came to me and said Lord Mountbatten was very upset because Jagjivan Ram had not replied to his letter for three months. Mountbatten had been planning his own funeral and had written to enquire whether the Indian defence forces would be represented. Normally such a letter should have come to me as adjutant-general of the Army. I did not remember having seen it. We searched for the letter, even got the defence minister’s secretariat to look for it, and finally I asked Jagjivan Ram about it. He told me he had seen the letter. When the letter was ultimately found it turned out that his private secretary had misplaced it. He then wrote to Mountbatten that he had not had the heart to pen a reply — discussing the funeral of a living person is considered a bad omen in India. However, since he wanted an answer, he assured Mountbatten that the Indian armed forces would participate in the most appropriate manner for their supreme commander in war and their most popular viceroy.
Jagjivan Ram also stood by those who had served under him. When I was surprisingly passed over for appointment as Army Chief, he was not in government. But he raised the issue strongly in Parliament along with a few former ministers.
Jagjivan Ram missed being Prime Minister twice. The first was when Indira Gandhi did not adopt the appropriate course after the Allahabad high court verdict. The second was when Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, for political reasons, decided to make Morarji Desai Prime Minister. This was something like Mahatma Gandhi not making Sardar Patel Prime Minister. India would have had a Dalit Prime Minister long before the US had a black President. Given his political acumen, the Punjab tragedy in the wake of the Bhindranwale episode would not have taken place, there would have been no Mandalisation of politics in India and the security forces may have been better prepared to meet the challenges we face today. However, destiny follows its chosen course, whether in the history of a nation or in the lives of individuals.

The author, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir