Union Minister Arun Jaitley (Files)
At a time the Congress is looking for alliances in states with regional parties like the SP with an eye on Lok Sabha polls, senior minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said he has always serious doubts whether those who represent the political DNA of Dr Lohia and Pandit Nehru can in the long run ever work together.
In the final part of a three-part series of his article ‘The Emergency Revisited’, Jaitley wrote on the role of political parties in ending the Emergency. Jaitley said that the Congress (O), the socialist parties, Swatantra Party, Jan Sangh and RSS were the main participants in the Satyagraha and protest against the Emergency.
“To me the Lohia socialist and their post-Emergency evolution has shown a very curious trend. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia was the creator of the slogan in the early 60s. His legacy was represented by George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye and Raj Narain, who were all consistently anti-Congress. Today that legacy has been inherited by Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and substantially by Shri Nitish Kumar in Bihar. While the trace of anti-Congressism is visible in both, the party formed by Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav is always willing to do business with the Congress. I have always serious doubts whether those who represent the political DNA of Dr Lohia and Pt Nehru can in the long run ever work together,” he wrote.
Jaitley’s remark comes almost a year after SP contested UP elections in alliance with the Congress, and both parties are looking for a similar tie-up in the Lok Sabha elections. Nitish Kumar had broken ties with the Grand Alliance parties, Congress and RJD, in Bihar and re-formed the Bihar government with the support of the BJP.
Jaitley said, “Though I believe it is impossible for anyone in India to repeat the Emergency, but as the famous advice goes that democracy lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no Constitution can save it and no judge can protect it.”
He said that India’s Left parties have always been a puzzle to him. Jaitley said that the CPI was an unashamed supporter of the Emergency and its political line was that Emergency was a war on fascism. Though theoretically the CPI (M) was opposed to the Emergency, it was not an active participant in the struggle against the Emergency, he said.