interview
Minoo Masani on the Importance of Dissent in a Democracy - In Conversation With Zareer Masani
By Minoo Masani
2019
Summary
In conversation, Zareer Masani remembers his father Minoo Masani as a leader of the parliamentary opposition whose annual reply to the Union budget was a major Lok Sabha event, marked by surgical, economically incisive attacks on the government of Jawaharlal Nehru and finance ministers T.T. Krishnamachari and Morarji Desai. He stresses that although Masani and Nehru clashed sharply and their rivalry dated to their student days, the disagreements stayed gentlemanly and never personal, recalling Nehru warmly greeting his family at Palam Airport.
Masani also led opposition attacks on Nehru's China policy, arguing along with Rajaji and Jayaprakash Narayan that India should have opposed China's takeover of Tibet. Zareer describes how the 1962 defeat left Nehru weakened and forced Krishna Menon's resignation, and recounts Masani's hope that a Nehru-Ayub Khan rapprochement over Kashmir, brokered via the released Sheikh Abdullah, might succeed, an effort cut short by Nehru's death and followed by the 1965 war.
Key points
- Minoo Masani functioned as leader of the opposition despite lacking numbers for official opposition status.
- His annual budget-reply speeches drew packed sittings and delivered incisive, surgical critiques of the government's budget.
- He crossed swords with finance ministers T.T. Krishnamachari and Morarji Desai, and with Nehru himself, in serious parliamentary debate.
- Political disagreements between Masani and Nehru remained gentlemanly and never became personal, illustrating a culture of civil dissent.
- Masani prominently attacked Nehru's China policy, opposing his early friendliness toward China and its takeover of Tibet.
- The 1962 defeat left Nehru weakened and compelled Krishna Menon to resign as defence minister.
- Masani favoured a Nehru-Ayub Khan rapprochement over Kashmir through the released Sheikh Abdullah, which collapsed when Nehru died.
Transcript
Minoo Masani on the Importance of Dissent in a Democracy - In Conversation With Zareer Masani
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUEbGZE8ABE Duration: 352.1s
Speaker 1 (00:00): So my father was treated as leader of the opposition, although they were not big enough to become an official opposition. And he used to make the, I remember the budget speech in reply to the Union budget every year and he was very good with his economic very incisive surgical
Speaker 2 (00:32): kind of attacks on the government’s budget. He had his fingers always at his fingertips and was a very good public speaker so his budget speech was always quite a big event. and the Lokasava would be packed for it. I went as a visitor on one or two occasions as a child and watched him crossing swords with Nehru’s finance minister, Titi Krishnamachari, and then later Muradji Desai, and of course Nehru himself, who took parliament quite seriously and participated in parliamentary debates.
Speaker 1 (01:12): And it was all, although they disagreed strongly, it was always very gentlemanly.
Speaker 2 (01:17): And I mean, I remember as a child meeting Nehru at Palam Airport when Nehru and Krishnamenon were there. They’d come to receive or see off some dignitary. And my mother and I were receiving or seeing off someone. someone and Nehru, they both came very warmly and embraced my mother and patted me on the head and were very warm and avuncular in spite of the fact that my father and they were at loggerheads. My father also took a very prominent role in the debates attacking the government’s China policy
Speaker 1 (02:02): which, you know, had by then, was then under a lot of fire because of the Chinese border
Speaker 2 (02:12): policy and Nehru initially being very friendly to the Chinese, overlooking their rape of Tibet, which again my father and Rajaji and Jay Prakash had very strongly opposed and
Speaker 1 (02:28): felt India should have intervened in some way. So Nehru had basically silently supported the Chinese position, although he allowed the Dalai Lama, rather reluctantly allowed the Dalai Lama to take refuge here. And that continued, you know, through the attacks on Nehru’s China policy until the Indochina war broke out and India’s disastrous defeat in that which left Nehru very open to attack. By then he was not well and his health was failing too. He had to sacrifice Krishnamen and who had to resign as defense minister. His rivalry with my father went back to their student days. Although he was always
Speaker 2 (03:23): was very friendly towards my mother and it never became too personal and then Nehru you know was
Speaker 1 (03:36): badly wounded by the China debacle the opposition was very much in the ascendant and under pressure
Speaker 2 (03:45): from the opposition Nehru then released Sheikh Abdullah a few weeks before he died and there was an opportunity for a rapprochement. My father was also quite friendly with Ayub Khan who was then president of Pakistan and felt there should be a rapprochement through Sheikh Abdullah between Nehru and Ayub Khan in Kashmir because Ayub Khan and Pakistan had backed India during the Indochina
Speaker 1 (04:13): war and said we will not take advantage. You can free up your forces on our borders and turn them all against China, we are not going to take advantage, offered help etc. So that had broken Nehru’s hostility to Ayub Khan which was similar to his hostility to Jinnah. So there was a tragic moment then when Abdullah flew to Raul Pindi and had talks with Ayub Khan
Speaker 2 (04:45): and then flew back to Delhi and it looked as though there was going to be a deal on Kashmir
Speaker 1 (04:52): and ending Indo-Pakistan hostility when Nehru had a stroke and died. So that set the whole process completely back because the successor government had neither the authority nor the will to go ahead with that. And so the whole thing was set back. I think Abdullah was sent back to prison. And then, of course, there was the 1965 war with Pakistan.
Speaker (05:22): Thank you.
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