Opinion

NEHRU AND THE KAMARAJ PLAN

Capt Praveen Davar

By August 1963, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had been the Prime Minister for 16 years. He was nearing 74 and was not in the best of health for almost an year. Despite the setback caused by the Chinese aggression in the previous year Panditji remained the supreme leader of the nation and the Congress which had won a landslide victory in the 1962 general elections in both the Parliament and state Assemblies for the third time in succession after the first general election in 1952. Under Pt. Nehru's inspiring leadership the Congress won 361 seats in the Lok Sabha, polling nearly 45% vote. Barring Kerala, the Party formed government in all the states.

However, a year later, in 1963 the Party lost three prestigious byelections to Lok Sabha which saw the return to Parliament of three veteran Opposition leaders _ Acharya Kripalani (independent), Ram Manohar Lohia (Socialist Party) and Minoo Masani (Swatantra Party). Meanwhile, K. Kamaraj, who was the Chief Minister of Madras (now Tamil Nadu), upset by the inroads the DMK had made in his state (which captured 50 of 234 seats in the Assembly and 7 of the 30 seats in Lok Sabha), was contemplating resigning as Chief Minister to work for the Party.

Kamaraj discussed his proposal with senior Congress leaders, including Biju Patnaik, before it reached the ears of the Prime Minister who invited Kamaraj to meet him in Hyderabad (where Panditji was camping for a week) to discuss his plan. N. Sanjeeva Reddy, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and C. Subramaniam, a Central Minister, were also present in the meeting where Kamaraj unfolded his plan before Panditji.

Kamaraj had prepared his plan to strengthen the Congress in Madras. But Pt. Nehru desired that it be expanded and applied to the Congress, both in the Centre and states. Noted journalist, Durga Das writes in his book, India: From Curzon to Nehru & After: "After consultations it was agreed that attention should be paid to organizational work. Nehru suggested that Kamaraj raise the issue in the Working Committee, which was to meet shortly. He did not know what was in Nehru's mind but did as he was bid. There was general agreement on the plan in the Committee (CWC). Nehru said the principle should apply to leaders in the states as well as the Centre. He christened it the Kamaraj Plan and had it endorsed by the AICC."

It was left to the Prime Minister to decide whose resignations were to be finally accepted in the interest of the Party. The Kamaraj Plan received enthusiastic response throughout the country. All Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and 300 Ministers from various states submitted their resignations. This electrified not only the rank and file of the Congress, but also received an extremely favourable response from the public and the media.

On August 24, 1963, Pt. Nehru accepted the resignation of six senior Cabinet Ministers and six Chief Ministers. The Cabinet Ministers, in order of seniority, were Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri, S.K. Patil, Jagjivan Ram, B. Gopala Reddy and K.L. Shrimali. The last two were included for reasons other than seniority, stature and competence. The Chief Ministers whose resignations were accepted were K. Kamaraj (Madras), Biju Patnaik (Orissa), C.B. Gupta (U.P), B.N Jha (Bihar), B.A. Nandloi (Madhya Pradesh) and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad (J&K). Lal Bahadur Shastri, was however, inducted back in the Cabinet in January 1964 as a Minister without Portfolio, following setback in Panditji's health, a move which facilitated his unanimous election as Prime Minister after Pt. Nehru's demise. n

- Author is a secretary in AICC