[Letter to Mr Minoo Masani]

Summary

This single-page typed letter, dated 9 April 1975 from Madras, is addressed by Harihar Palit to Minoo Masani in the weeks preceding the Emergency. Palit encloses (for Masani’s reference) a copy of a letter he has sent to Nabakrishna Chowdhury, who has been entrusted with carrying a Bihar-style mass movement into Orissa.

Palit’s chief anxiety is factional interference: he warns that Biju Patnaik and his B.L.D. contingent are attempting to monopolise the agitation and bend it to their own purposes. He reports from the field that public regard for Jayaprakash Narayan in Orissa is high, that JP’s recent public meetings were very largely attended, and that the movement can be organised well there — provided Patnaik’s interference is contained. Constrained by what he can commit to paper, Palit asks Masani for an indication of his views and hopes to meet him in person.

Key points

• Typed letter from Harihar Palit to Minoo Masani, dated 9 April 1975, sent from Camp Madras — two months before the Emergency was declared.
• Palit encloses a copy of his own letter to Nabakrishna Chowdhury, who has been assigned to run a ‘Bihar type of movement’ in Orissa.
• Reports ‘grave apprehensions’ that Biju Patnaik and his B.L.D. troop are trying to monopolise the Orissa agitation and twist it to their purposes.
• Notes that people in Orissa have great respect for Jayaprakash Narayan and that JP’s recent public meetings there were very largely attended.
• Says he cannot write freely in a letter and asks whether Masani could meet him in person.
• Requests an ‘indication’ from Masani — i.e., a signal of Masani’s own reading of the Orissa situation.