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Hindustan Times
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
How Emergency Brewed in Bihar
Sinhasan Khali Karo Ki Janata Aati Hai! When Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan roared with these lines of legendary Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' from the stage of Delhi's iconic Ram Leela Maidan, the janata (public) of the country rose with their echo. It however unnerved Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was facing salvos of public anger. Out of despair, she imposed what historians now recall as the dark chapter in Indian history – the Emergency, declared on June 25, 1975. Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan addressing a rally just before the Emergency was declared at Ramlila Ground in New Delhi. (HT Photo.) It was a paradox that Dinkar, who was revered and exalted to Rashtrakavi (national poet) status by Indira's father, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, for his poetry of rebellion, turned out to be a weapon in the hands of Indira's bete noire. JP was a political honcho who was moulded in the grind of Bihar. Dinkar was a bard of Bihar. So, the embers of political pirouette in the leadership of JP had to be most glowing in Bihar. The state in fact soon turned into the epicentre of anti-Congress and anti-Indira temblor. JP evolved into a principal of all those clamouring 'Total Revolution' – total change of system. Patna university would be its seminary, its students its knights and Bihar its hothouse. And Dinkar's poetry will be its song. Till it was lifted in 1977, many acts of the Emergency unfolded in Bihar. Early build-up in Bihar It was on June 5, 1974 that JP gave a call for 'Total Revolution' against the 'corrupt Congress regime, price rise and other forms of misgovernance from Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan, and gradually his movement became pan-India, seeking resignation of Indira Gandhi. Indira was enduring but as the Allahabad high Court annulled her election from Rae Bareli, she went draconian. And the country was introduced to the Emergency. Actually it was an incident in Bihar that is believed to have seeded the idea of Emergency in Indira's mind. It was the assassination of then Union minister Lalit Narayan Mishra that took place in a blast in Samastipur in January 1974. Once the Emergency was in place, the state turned into a battle ground and both the Indira machinery and the Opposition leaders tested each other's guts. In Bihar, the main action was in Patna, the State Capital, where the proclamation of Emergency suddenly put the onus of compliance of everything on the administration. Vijay Shankar Dubey, a 1966 batch IAS officer and then district magistrate of Patna, recalls a chain of events that unveils how events shaped the history of that pivotal time. He says the roots of the emergency had been laid long before Indira Gandhi made the big announcement. He lists a number of factors, including the poor financial condition of the country after the 1971 war, rising prices, shortage and black marketing of essential commodities like sugar and kerosene and the students' agitations in various parts of the country. He says that as soon as students mobilised all over, a large-scale arson and violence broke out. In Patna alone, 13 lives were lost in police firing. In order to rein in chaos and streamline the agitation, JP took over the leadership in his hands. 'It was March 18, 1974 when the. Then Patna University Students' Union (PUSU), comprising the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav as president, Sushil Kumar Modi as general secretary and many others, announced to gherao the Bihar Assembly during the session, seeking resignation of CM Abdul Ghafoor and his cabinet over price rise and corruption. It led to stone pelting and violence. Many important buildings were set on fire, including the Searchlight and Pradeep newspaper office on Buddha Marg, which now houses Hindustan Times and Hindustan, Kotwali police station, Assembly secretary's house, Circuit House, education minister's residence, fire station, etc. Had I not ordered firing, things would have spiralled out of control and the entire city would have burnt,' he recalls. Students' agitation Dubey's tenure as DM of Patna was from March 1974 to June 1977. He was witness to all – from student agitation, large-scale arrests, imposition of myriad kinds of restrictions, suspension of fundamental rights and all other 'excesses' that define the Emergency era. He recollected that JP was in Patna those days after having witnessed another students' movement in Gujarat,and saw in it an opportunity to take it forward under his leadership in a different way. 'On April 2, 1974, he led a silent procession from Kadamkuan in Patna with barely around 500-600 persons -- all with hands and mouth cuffed, against police action, price rise and for seeking resignation of CM and his cabinet, etc. but swelled into 50,000 plus by the time it reached the then Bailey Road. It further boosted JP's confidence that the people were desperate for change. CM Ghafoor was, however, not ready to resign nor did Indira Gandhi want an elected government to go under pressure,' he reminisces. However, he said that April 2, 1974 onwards, agitation in Bihar became a routine affair and spread across the state. 'Be it rendition of poems, speeches on the roadside, pamphlet distribution or dharna, something or the other was always on, with youth and students always at the top of JP's scheme of things. JP appealed to the people to send postcards and inland letters voicing their opinions on the government and with widely guessed 50-lakh of them loaded on a truck marched towards the Raj Bhawan on June 5, 1974 to submit it and later hundreds of thousands people gathered at the Gandhi Maidan, where he gave the call for Total Revolution and shifted his target from Bihar government to Central government for systemic change to end corruption, political and administrative reforms, right to recall and eradication of the caste system. As the long procession moved, there was firing at the tail end at a point on Bailey Road allegedly by activists of an organisation called Indira Brigade, but it was soon controlled and the accused were arrested,' he says. On November 4, 1974, JP again took the agitation route, under which the activists were to gherao Assembly and force ministers and MLAs to resign, though the administration did not allow the procession to swell by dispersing them through use of 'mild force', Dubey says, adding that he contemplates writing a book reflecting the exact turn of events during his eventful tenure as Patna DM when the country witnessed the biggest political churning. 'The procession was stopped near Revenue Building with barricades. There was also lathicharge there, in which it was alleged that JP was also hit and a picture went viral, but it was wrong. I still have two medical reports – one from JP's family doctor – indicating that he was not injured in lathicharge, though some other leaders did receive some blows. When some people later asked JP if he was hit that day, the socialist leader said that the question was not about being hit, but the larger question was why there was lathicharge. I will elaborate this in my upcoming book why there was lathicharge that day,' Dubey says, adding that after November 4, 1974, JP shifted his focus entirely on Delhi to seek the ouster of Indira Gandhi, as the discontent had spread across the country by then. Roar from Delhi and Sudden Enforcement 'I was around 35 kms away from Patna camping in Masaurhi in connection with some land settlement issue for the landless. Those days, the only means of communication was landline phone or wireless system available to senior officials. As the Emergency was imposed at midnight, I had no idea immediately. Next morning, my then PA sent a messenger to inform me about it so that I could immediately return. I reached the next morning to understand that emergency had been imposed under Article 352 and the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 and the British era Defence of India Rules had been invoked, which gave powers to the administration to detain any person/persons for up to two years without FIR or trial if there was convincing evidence against them about indulgence in unlawful activities, participating in agitation or violence,' he said. The Allahabad High Court's June 12, 1975 verdict setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi as MP, even though she was given 15 days time to move the Supreme Court, gave further fillip to the movement against her and when the Apex Court also upheld the order on June 24, 1974, refusing to interfere with the HC order, JP pressed the peddle to seek her resignation, as she would have remained the PM for six months even without being a member of either House. On June 25, 1975 in his historic speech at Delhi's Ramleela Maidan, he exhorted the police and government officials not to obey illegal and immoral orders, which became another trigger for Indira Gandhi, who was already grappling with the surcharged atmosphere. And from Ram Leela Maidan, JP roared with Dinkar's 'Sinhasan Khali Karo…' The throne shook. But it was not vacated until 1977 when janata voted out its occupant.
New Indian Express
10-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Andhra advancing rapidly under NDA government: Lanka
VIJAYAWADA: Lanka Dinkar, Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh 20-Point Program Implementation Committee, praised the coalition government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for its achievements in the first year of governance. Speaking at the Secretariat, he congratulated both leaders on completing a year in office following their 2024 electoral victory. Dinkar noted that reviews were conducted across all 26 districts to evaluate the implementation of central and state-sponsored schemes. He cited the success of welfare programs like PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, SVANIDHI, Vishwakarma, Suryagarh, and Jal Jeevan Mission, with added state support for SCs, STs, and BCs. He said Andhra Pradesh is correcting past governance failures, particularly in housing and water sectors, and is progressing toward becoming a \$2.4 trillion economy. Investments worth Rs 9.34 lakh crore have been committed, with plans to generate 25 lakh jobs. Dinkar highlighted ongoing infrastructure projects including Amaravati capital development, Visakhapatnam economic zone, Polavaram Phase-1, Ramayapatnam Port, and the BPCL petrochemical complex. He emphasised empowering women through self-help groups, aiming to create 30 lakh 'Lakhpati Didis.'
Indian Express
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Karna's dilemma, Parshuram's rage & Urvashi's love: 5 Ramdhari Singh ‘Dinkar' poems every Indian should read
(Written by Anushka Rajvedi) When passion, motivation and nationalism merged, it gave rise to the 'RashtraKavi' (National Poet) of India, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. A revolutionary poet, Dinkar's poems resonated the powerful inner voice of the voiceless. Although he wrote during the British colonial era, his works are as relevant today as they were years ago. To read Dinkar is to delve through the rugged terrains of identity, ethics, morality, duty, desire, justice and freedom. By reimagining mythological heroes such as Karna, Yudhistra and Parshuram in the modern day, Dinkar took his readers on a journey of revolution that is rooted in tradition, which is not just an instance of literally brilliance but of themes that are relevant through all ages, rooted in emotions. For a reader who indulges in revolutionary nationalism, with philosophical perceptions that set a courageous tone, here are the 5 most celebrated and honoured mythological poems by Dinkar, that would stir up the soul of readers from every generation. 'जो ना झुका अब तक कभी, जो ना कभी डरा है; रण में, वह क्या झुकेगा, जो झुक गया क़लम से।' (He who never bowed, never feared in war—will he bow to the pen?) Honoured with the Jnanpith Award in 1972, Dinkar, through the lens of the 'tragic hero' Karna, recites the epic of the Mahabharata in a powerfully crafted conflict between the inner voice and society. While most view Karna in a negative light for supporting Duryodhana and the Kauravas, Dinkar portrays him as not just a character, but a symbol of dignity. Conflicted between the ideals of his life and his loyalty to Duryodhana, Dinkar depicts how individuals are often torn between being idealistic and practical. Rashmirathi is wrapped in themes such as caste, identity, morality, justice, loyalty and meritocracy. Known as his 'crowning literary achievement', Dinkar's Rashmirathi is filled with intensity and is rich in imagery. Through the internal conflict of Karna, Dinkar urges his readers to become that power that resonates with the voice of an underdog. 'शांति नहीं तब तक जब तक, सुख-भाग न नर का सम हो।' (There can be no peace until all humans share joy equally.) Churned between the choices of right and wrong, Dinkar reflects on the moral dilemma through a philosophical dialogue between Yudhistra and Krishna after the Mahabharata war. Looking at the bloodshed after the war, Yudhistira was disenchanted. Dinkar, through the dialogues of Krishna, explores the need and the outcome of a war. Kurukshetra highlights the ethical dilemma and the moral conflict that an individual gets stuck in as they live in a world torn apart by war and shrouded in injustice. Dinkar highlights the complexity of morality and values, prompting his readers to consider whether peace and justice can ever prevail in this world without violence. Parshuram ki Pratiksha 'नया दौर है, नया दौर है, नहीं माफ़ अब अपराध पुराना।' (It is a new age—old sins shall no longer be forgiven.) Set in a fierce revolutionary tone, Parshuram ki Pratiksha is a perfect example of mythology blended with morality. Mythological character Parshuram is said to be an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, who is a warrior-sage who is known for his courage and morality. A metaphor to motivate change in the modern world, Dinkar imagines the warrior-sage Parshuram awaiting the arrival of revolution. In a world where morality decomposes as time passes by, Dinkar ignites a revolutionary fire and urges the new generation to integrate and fight against injustice and corruption. Urvashi 'प्रेम केवल भाव नहीं, है शक्ति, जो नर को बनाती देव।' (Love is not just emotion—it is the power that makes man divine.) Honoured with the highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award in 1972, Dinkar's Urvashi is a romantic eternal conflict between spiritual and physical love. When the elegance of myth delves into the depths of human emotions, it explores the true beauty of love that goes beyond the boundaries of physical and material love. The love story of a celestial nymph, Urvashi and the king Pururava is elegantly muffled in a lyrical and aesthetic mastery by Dinkar that reverberates the true essence of love in modern times. Renuka 'बेटे के हाथों मारी गयी माँ, फिर भी उठी दिव्य बना।' (The mother slain by her son rose again, more divine than ever.) 'Sacrifice', 'emotions' and 'duty' are terms that even today are often used to refer to one emotion- 'the love of a mother'. Dinkar, through this poem, talks about the maternal love of Renuka, who was killed by her son. Dinkar addresses the conflicts of obligations of duty and emotions, morality and authority and discipline and sacrifice, through the mythological story of Renuka and Parshuram. The warrior-sage Parshuram beheaded his mother Renuka on the command of his father. Dinkar binds his readers in the emotional journey that evokes the sacrifice of a mother who is often entangled in the predicament of 'Dharma', 'Discipline' and 'sacrifice.' (The writer is an intern with The Indian Express.)
NDTV
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Pak Will Be Wiped Out If It Continues To Nurture Terrorists: J&K Lt Governor
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday reiterated India's warning that if Pakistan continues to nurture terrorists in its backyard, its existence could be wiped out. Mr Sinha saluted the valour and indomitable courage of the armed forces for their strong and decisive action against the "terrorist nation" through Operation Sindoor. "India has warned terror state Pakistan that our forces can attack every inch of its land, and its entire existence could be wiped off the face of earth if it continues to nurture terrorists in its backyard," Mr Sinha said after attending a theatrical performance of Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's epic poem Rashmirathi, organised by the University of Jammu. "I am proud to see that our young generation is fulfilling the dreams of our founding fathers. They are upholding democratic values, protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the nation, and making sure that terror state Pakistan is punished for its misadventure," he said. The L-G also called upon the youth to seize the immense opportunity to serve the nation and play a vital role in shaping the country's future development. "Just like brave soldiers are standing firm in protecting the borders, our young students too should dedicate themselves to driving innovation and India's economic growth," Mr Sinha further said. He paid homage to the great poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and recalled his invaluable contribution to Hindi literature, Indian nationalism and society at large. "Dinkar is incomparable. His poems are timeless, and each verse is dedicated to existence. He induces intense feelings in his epic, and the nation can sing a song through his words. Our ancestors and great warriors have given voice to their feelings through the immortal personality of Dinkar," he said. The L-G said that the representation of Dinkar's epic was dedicated to the heroes of the armed forces who taught a lesson to the terrorist nation Pakistan and demonstrated courage, sacrifice, prowess and justice. "Rashmirathi is not just our ancient history. It is a symbol of the ancient values of righteousness and dharma, which are more relevant than ever before in the evolving geopolitical situation," Mr Sinha said.
Hindustan Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Pakistan will be wiped out': J&K LG Manoj Sinha's stern warning for ‘terrorist nation'
Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Monday said that Pakistan will be wiped out if it continues to nurture terrorists in its backyard. Speaking at a cultural event in Jammu, Sinha reiterated India's warning, adding that armed forces are prepared to strike 'every inch' of Pakistan's territory if provoked further. "India has warned terror state Pakistan that our forces can attack every inch of its land, and its entire existence could be wiped off the face of the earth if it continues to nurture terrorists in its backyard," Sinha said after attending a theatrical performance of Rashtrakavi Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's epic poem Rashmirathi, organised by the University of Jammu. Also Read | 'Roti khao, warna meri goli to hai hi': PM Modi's stark warning to Pakistan "I am proud to see that our young generation is fulfilling the dreams of our founding fathers. They are upholding democratic values, protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the nation, and making sure that the terror state Pakistan is punished for its misadventure," he said. Sinha's stern message comes in the wake of Operation Sindoor, India's military retaliation following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 lives. The J&K LG hailed Operation Sindoor as a bold demonstration of India's zero-tolerance approach to cross-border terrorism and praised the armed forces for their decisive actions against what he described as a 'terrorist nation.' Also Read | What EAM Jaishankar said about China's role in the India-Pakistan conflict: 'Draw your conclusions' Sinha also urged India's youth to mirror the spirit of the armed forces by contributing to national growth through innovation, education, and service. "Just like brave soldiers are standing firm in protecting the borders, our young students too should dedicate themselves to driving innovation and India's economic growth," Sinha further said. He paid homage to the great poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and recalled his invaluable contribution to Hindi literature, Indian nationalism and society at large. Also Read | What sets Operation Sindoor apart from past strikes on Pak-backed terrorism? Army veterans answer "Dinkar is incomparable. His poems are timeless, and each verse is dedicated to existence. He induces intense feelings in his epic, and the nation can sing a song through his words. Our ancestors and great warriors have given voice to their feelings through the immortal personality of Dinkar," he said. The L-G said that the representation of Dinkar's epic was dedicated to the heroes of the armed forces who taught a lesson to the terrorist nation Pakistan and demonstrated courage, sacrifice, prowess and justice.
