State BJP has no tear to spare for Madhok, veterans pained

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 3

The state unit of the BJP seems to have forgotten former Bharatiya Jana Sangh president Balraj Madhok, who had strengthened Hindutva ideology and laid the foundation of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.

With BJP leaders tight-lipped over no tribute to Madhok, who died on Monday, there was anger among veteran Sangh Parivar leaders.

They alleged that BJP leaders were deliberately ignoring a dynamic leader who had given his blood to make the Jana Sangh a vibrant force for total integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

“What the BJP is in J&K today is all due to the unparallelled sacrifices of leaders like Madhok, who devoted the prime of his life to the state after Partition,” said former Union minister Chaman Lal Gupta.

Asked why the state BJP unit had distanced itself from Madhok, Gupta replied, “I fail to understand why it did so even though Madhok had laid the foundation of the party in J&K.”

“Madhok had made the Jana Sangh an effective and vibrant force in the Jammu region. Only the BJP leadership can answer why it had maintained a distance from its founding father,” he said.

Madhok had become a ‘pracharak’ of the RSS in 1942. He and Pandit Prem Nath Dogra had formed the Praja Parishad in Jammu in November 1947. It was merged into the Jana Sangh in the 1960s.

“Madhok convened a meeting in Jammu in November 1947 and announced formation of the Praja Parishad. He convinced Pandit Dogra to join politics and head the Praja Parishad,” he recalled.

Madhok had accompanied Syama Prasad Mookerjee on his Kashmir expedition for “Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan”. Madhok had accompanied Mookerjee up to Jalandhar on his last journey in May 1953.

Another veteran BJP leader, who had retired from active politics, regretted that party leaders had shamelessly forgotten its founding fathers, who devoted their lives for the party, after attaining power.

“It is very unfortunate that no function was organised by the party to pay tribute to Madhok,” rued the leader on the condition of anonymity.