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Lok Nayak's humane face

The Lok Nayak was a paradox of simplicity and dynamism. Smitten by his charm, LAVANAM recounts his association with JP

STANDING TALL Jayaprakash Narayan (extreme right) with his wife Prabhavati Devi and Lavanam

Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, during his visit to the city sometime in 1949 or 1950, stayed with Dr. T.V.S. Chalapathi Rao, the then municipal chairman. That was when he was a socialist leader and had not joined Vinoba's Bhoodan movement. My father Gora and JP (as Jayaprakash was popularly known) were good friends and I accompanied him when he met him. I saw JP interacting with the socialist leaders in Krishna district. He was very warm to us and enquired about my father's health and his activities.

His next visit to the city was after he joined the Bhoodan movement in December 1955. Vinoba Bhave was also in Vijayawada as part of his Bhoodan Yatra. JP had come to attend a public meeting at P.W.D Grounds, held on the sidelines of the Sarvodaya Conference.

Impressive translation

Vinoba was the first speaker and I translated his speech into Telugu. Then spoke JP who was known for using long-winding sentences. Also, his expression of thought was not as clear as that of Vinoba's. Impressed by the ease with which I translated his speech, he made it a practice to ask me to be his translator whenever he visited Andhra Pradesh.

I accompanied JP when he toured the State, from Chittoor to Srikakulam in 1957.

As part of the tour, he came to Vijayawada to preside over the gram swaraj conference organized by my father. His wife Prabhavathi Devi was also with him.

JP's attachment to his wife Prabhavathi Devi clearly reflected in his simple act at the railway station. Even as a huge crowd waited eagerly at a distance to welcome him, he did not budge from the place until Prabhavathi Devi joined him after counting all her baggage. He greeted them with Prabhavathi Devi beside him. His gesture touched my heart.

The couple stayed in a small hut at the Atheist Centre here and I was attending on them. JP's last visit to the city was in the early part of 1975. He was on a nation-wide campaign to drum up support against the `dictatorial policies' of Indira Gandhi. The Sarvodaya members were not in favour of JP's campaign. His tour programme was charted by leaders of Jana Sangh or the R.S.S.

Spousal bond

But that did not prevent Gora and me from meeting him in the railway station. We were standing aloof, slightly away from the welcome gathering. But JP walked straight to us and asked my father if he had arranged any programme for him. He grew angry when he learnt that our plea to accommodate a small programme at the Athiest Centre was turned down by the organizers of his itinerary.

He called the organisers and told them that the next morning, he would spend two hours at the Atheist Centre from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

They were surprised and tried to explain to him that they had scheduled other important programmes during the slot. Reacting sharply to their remark, JP said nothing was more important to him in Vijayawada than Gora and his son Lavanam.

We felt completely humbled. At the Atheist, Centre JP spoke for over an hour on the need for democracy above party lines.

It showed that though he was on a mission to mobilise all the opposition parties against Indira Gandhi, his ultimate goal was to achieve democracy above party lines. That was his last visit to the city and his last meeting with Gora.

JP was in jail when Gora died after few months. Soon after his release, he spoke to me on telephone and conveyed his condolences.

Despite adopting a different line of thinking on some issues, what was most striking about JP was his commitment to the cause he had championed for throughout his life.

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