[Letter to Nabakrusha Choudhury]

Summary

This two-page typed letter, dated 4 April 1975, is from Harihar Patel — President of the Swatantra Party’s Orissa Unit, writing from 312-Kharvel Nagar, Bhubaneswar — to Sri Nabakrusha Choudhury. Patel writes to report at length on his own efforts, over February and March 1975, to align the Orissa Swatantra Party with the wider Jayaprakash Narayan movement (the ‘JP movement’ or ‘Bihar-type movement’) as it moved into Orissa. He recounts a prior letter of 20 February 1975 offering cooperation (its receipt acknowledged by Sri Binod Mohanty), a stream of telephone calls to the Reception Committee, and a set of frustrating near-misses in trying to meet Sri Madanmohan Sahu, the Committee’s Secretary.

The bulk of the narrative concerns Patel’s touring of villages around Sundargarh on 26 February to propagate the Jharsuguda meeting, his late arrival at Jharsuguda when the train ran ahead of schedule, and his eventual attendance at the public meetings at Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. He then describes the coordination confusion around 1 April at Bhubaneswar, when the venue for a meeting of opposition leaders with JP was shifted from the State Guest House to Sri Biju Patnaik’s residence without invitation being extended to him, leaving him unable to proceed.

Patel’s argumentative purpose is to insist that the JP movement is ‘a people’s movement’ in which the Swatantra Party is anxious to participate; that opposition parties must sink their differences and work in a non-partisan spirit under a single discipline; and that the Orissa organisers should not let ‘theopposition political parties’ be denied free scope to project their various interests. He echoes JP’s public warning at Bhubaneswar that the ‘People (Janta) will not excuse the political parties for any misdeed’, and asks Choudhury, as the person responsible for ushering the movement forward in Orissa, for candid feedback on why he was left out of the private leaders’ meeting. He closes with a promise to travel to Mysore for a Farmers’ Federation of India programme and to return by 14 April 1975. A copy is forwarded to Sri G. K. Sundaram, President of the Swatantra Party.

Key points

• Written on 4 April 1975 by Harihar Patel, President of the Swatantra Party’s Orissa Unit, from Bhubaneswar; the signed original is dated 9 April 1975.
• Documents Swatantra Party’s proactive offer of cooperation with the JP-led ‘Bihar-type movement’ as it entered Orissa, dating the first written offer to 20 February 1975.
• Recounts logistical difficulties reaching the Reception Committee Secretary Sri Madanmohan Sahu and Patel’s own village propaganda tour around Sundargarh on 26 February.
• Reports Patel’s attendance at the JP public meetings at Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
• Details the 1 April 1975 confusion at Bhubaneswar when the opposition leaders’ meeting with JP was shifted from the State Guest House to Sri Biju Patnaik’s residence, leaving Patel excluded.
• Argues that the JP movement must proceed ‘under one discipline’, in a non-partisan spirit, with all opposition parties sinking their differences.
• Quotes JP’s warning at the Bhubaneswar public meeting that the ‘People (Janta) will not excuse the political parties for any misdeed’.
• Requests candid feedback from Choudhury on why Patel was omitted from the private meeting of opposition leaders and announces travel to Mysore for a Farmers’ Federation of India programme, with return by 14 April 1975.