The BJP government at the Centre has announced a slew of programmes named after Pt Deendayal Upadhyay. The irony is that many outside the party, including students of humanities, might be unaware of Upadhyay’s contribution to politics and philosophy. A mere biographical sketch does not suffice in outlining his life and philosophy.
Upadhyay had a very short innings in politics—less than two decades. But his creative politics has left a legacy for the present as well as posterity. His contribution began with his efforts to moralise politics. Of umpteen instances, the most relevant is his candidature for the Jaunpur Lok Sabha constituency by-election in 1963. Three other opposition veterans—J B Kripalani, Minoo Masani and Ram Manohar Lohia—were in the fray. Nehru had used the Muslim card to defeat Kripalani in the Amroha constituency by inserting a Muslim candidate at the eleventh hour. Earlier, the party had selected a committed local leader, Ramsaran. But Upadhyay did something worthy of being regarded as the epitome in politics. The seat, vacant due to a sitting BJS MP, was seen as “safe” for Upadhyay. But he invited his defeat by opposing any caste affiliation and identity to garner votes, infuriating his own caste-men. Yet, he celebrated his own defeat, saying he lost but the Jan Sangh’s ideology won. Even Lohia’s constituency selection was guided by the caste factor. While others preached idealism, Upadhyay practised it. He is, therefore, the seed for future transformative forces.
Upadhyay engendered a new political discourse by challenging Western categorisation of political parties as Left and Right. Apart from a false ego, this entails rigidity on certain positions for the sake of identity. Upadhyay argued that parties share many common things on economic issues but differ on social philosophy and vice versa. His new classification was “pro-changers” and “no-changers” parties.
To him, the Jan Sangh was a pro-changer while two other parties bracketed with BJS, the Swatantra Party and Ram Rajya Parishad, were no-changers due to their socio-economic philosophy of status quoism. His outlook on a proposal to merge the BJS with RRP was, “it is not being run from Prabhu Dutt Bramachari’s cottage but palaces”. Similarly, he questioned the Swatantra Party: “Have the reasons and context for its formation ended?” Upadhyay’s progressive stance gave the Jan Sangh wider acceptability and a bigger social base. His clarion call to party workers was that the quest and struggle for egalitarianism was not Communist monopoly, and they had to take leadership of all movements for changing the status quo. This entailed mutual dialogue between parties.
Upadhyay, along with Lohia, became the chief architect of non-Congressism in 1967, leading to formation of non-Congress coalitions in eight states. It was significant not merely in demolishing the Congress monopoly of power but also for its ripple effect. It was a formal end of the politics of untouchability and isolationism. The Communist Party of India and the Swatantra Party, the two extremes of political spectrum, came together with the BJS and Socialists.
However, Upadhyay’s real contribution is integral humanism, which considers human factors to be essential in economic development, challenging the premises of neo-liberalism. Ironically, his political philosophy has remained largely undebated. Nonetheless, its potential to decolonise political discourse remains undiminished.
Sinha is Hony Director of India Policy Foundation. Email: rakeshsinha46@gmail.com