[Letter to Girish Munshi]

Summary

A 31 January 1977 letter typed on Swatantra Party (Uttar Pradesh) letterhead, addressed from Navin Kumar Wal (a party functionary in Lucknow, son of Dr. M. C. Saxena) to Girish Munshi, All India General Secretary of the Swatantra Party at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan in Bombay. Written on the eve of the March 1977 general election, it is a self-recommendation seeking the party’s Lok Sabha ticket for the Kannauj parliamentary constituency.

The letter opens with a grievance that Swatantra’s Lok Sabha nominations have gone only to states such as Orissa and Tamil Nadu while Uttar Pradesh — ‘having a Upper hand in the central politics’ — has been ‘totally neglected’; Wal urges that at least a few Swatantrites be given tickets so the party’s emblem and ideology can ‘have a very long standing in the politics, in the Lok Sabha’. He then offers himself as candidate for Kannauj on the strength of eleven years’ service.

Most of the body is a year-by-year CV of party work from 1966 to 1976: assisting R. S. Bhartiya, Swatantra candidate for the 1967 Lok Sabha poll; membership of the ‘Sajg Kisan Dal’ organised by Bhanu Pratap Singh, M.P.; founding a youth wing named ‘Gandhi Sena’ in 1969 that was merged into the Swatantra Yuvak Sanghtan; election as constituency president (1970), notified-area board member (1971), district general secretary of Farrukhabad (1972), State Joint Secretary at Lucknow Baradari (1973), youth convenor at the party’s VI National Convention at Rajaji Nagar, Madras, election in-charge in the 1974 U.P. Assembly poll under the State Parliamentary Board, and election in-charge for Har Mohan Singh Yadav in the 1976 MLC contest. He records having consulted ‘Mr. Raju All India Joint Secretary of the Party and Mr. M. R. Masani’ in Bombay in 1975, and adds family credentials — his father a senior Reader in Physics at Lucknow University, his uncle J. C. Saxena an Under Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labour who had earlier been Additional Private Secretary to Home Minister G. L. Nanda. A copy is marked to M. R. Masani as ‘National Leader, Swatantra Party, India.’

The chunk also contains three enclosures in Hindi: a UP Swatantra Yuvak Sangathan handbill ‘कांग्रेसियों गद्दी छोड़ो!’ with a comparative price table for staples (ghee, milk, wheat, sugar, rice, tea, oil) across 1952, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969 and 1971 arguing that inflation under successive Congress governments proves the anti-poverty and anti-unemployment slogan is a fraud, and two undated newspaper cuttings including a piece ‘बिजली का समय बदलो’ and a masthead of the weekly ‘सचेतक’ — evidently attached to demonstrate the writer’s public activity in the constituency.

Key points

• Self-recommendation letter from Navin Kumar Wal, a Swatantra Party district functionary in Farrukhabad, addressed to Girish Munshi (All India General Secretary of the Swatantra Party) requesting the party’s Lok Sabha nomination for the Kannauj parliamentary constituency ahead of the March 1977 general election.
• Central grievance: Swatantra tickets have been allotted only to states like Orissa and Tamil Nadu while Uttar Pradesh has been ‘totally neglected’, despite U.P.’s weight in central politics.
• Chronological résumé of party work 1966–1976 — recruitment (1966), assisting R. S. Bhartiya’s 1967 Lok Sabha campaign, State Executive of the ‘Sajg Kisan Dal’ organised by Bhanu Pratap Singh, founding ‘Gandhi Sena’ (1969) later merged into the Swatantra Yuvak Sanghtan.
• Party posts held: constituency president (1970), notified-area local body member (1971), district general secretary Farrukhabad (1972), State Joint Secretary at Lucknow Baradari (1973), youth convenor at the VI National Convention at Rajaji Nagar Madras, member National Steering Committee.
• Records consulting S. V. Raju (All India Joint Secretary) and M. R. Masani in Bombay in 1975, and running Har Mohan Singh Yadav’s successful opposition MLC campaign in 1976; carbon copy of the letter marked to Masani as ‘National Leader’.
• Presents family standing — father Dr. M. C. Saxena, senior Reader in Physics at Lucknow University; uncle J. C. Saxena, Under Secretary in the Union Ministry of Labour and former Additional Private Secretary to Home Minister G. L. Nanda.
• Enclosure: UP Swatantra Yuvak Sangathan handbill ‘कांग्रेसियों गद्दी छोड़ो!’ with a comparative 1952–1971 price table for staples, arguing that inflation under successive Congress governments exposes the anti-poverty slogan as a fraud.
• Additional enclosures: Hindi newspaper cuttings including ‘बिजली का समय बदलो’ and a masthead of the weekly ‘सचेतक’, apparently included as public-activity credentials.