Having failed to secure their objective, attention was once again diverted to the students. A call was given to them to boycott examinations, and for one year boycott all colleges. The call for the boycott of examinations was largely ignored, though it is true that in the first few days of the examinations attendance was thin because of large scale coercion and intimidation. There were assaults and stone and bomb throwing incidents. One examinee was even shot dead to create terror among the other examinees. On the first day of the examination the Government did not interfere; but when it was found that thousands of students were being prevented by a handful of rowdies from entering the examination hall, the Government provided necessary protection to the willing students. As a result, a very large number of examinees appeared.
In the Intermediate Examination, 80 per cent of the students on an average appeared. Despite 88 incidents of violence and attacks through bombs and bullets and other forms of violence, the call for boycott of examinations was defied by a great majority of students.
There are some typical examples of this coercion and intimidation. In the Commerce College which is affiliated to Magadh University, less than one dozen students out of a total of 1,400 could appear at the Intermediate Examination on the first two days due to intimidation. But when the Centre for these examinees was changed to other places, the attendance swelled to more than 900. In the Anugraha Narain College, Patna, no examinee appeared on the first day of the examination due to intimidation, but on the second day when several intimidators had been arrested about 400 examinees appeared at the examination and subsequently as many as 1,200 out of a total of 1,444 appeared.
The call for the boycott of Colleges for one year had also been largely ignored, but attempts at coercion and intimidation in this field continued.
In his efforts to accelerate the tempo of the movement, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan ushered in a new phase from August 1, with a programme of paralysing the work in Government offices, launching of ‘no-tax’ campaigns and social boycott of MLAs.
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Keeping in view the organisational weaknesses and realising that widespread floods had caused a setback to the agitation, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan called for a period of consolidation and preparation towards the end of August and announced that the whole of September would be utilised for widening the mass base, completing the formation of Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti and Jan Sangharsh Samiti units, recruitment of volunteers, raising of funds, etc. In order to bring farm workers, landless labourers and poorer sections within the orbit of the movement and to broaden its mass base, it was decided to voice demands among other things, for land to the landless, rationalisation of land revenue, fair wages to agricultural workers, etc. Shri Narayan also tried to draw into the movement trade unions and non-gazetted government employees. He also arrived at an understanding with the CPI(M) whereby the latter promised to extend support to the movement by launching supplementary and convergent agitations.
With a view to reactivising the agitation, which was otherwise showing signs of fatigue and drift, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan gave a call for observance of Bihar Bandh from October 3 to 5, 1974 at a public meeting in Patna on September 8, 1974. He called for complete paralysation of train, postal and bus services and all work in government offices. The bandh was accompanied by considerable violence and railways and telecommunications were the main targets of the agitators. During the bandh there were 98 cases of disruption of rail traffic and damage to rail property, 24 of disruption of telecommunications, 9 of attack on the police, 21 instances relating to government offices, 10 of attacks on individuals and private property, 8 instances of obstruction to road traffic, etc. During the three days of the bandh many violent incidents occurred. The police were constrained to open fire on 16 occasions resulting in 16 deaths. In this phase of the agitation, picketing of community development block offices acquired significance. The agitationists then programmed relay fasting in front of the Secretariat. Shri Jayaprakash Narayan himself sat on a 24-hour relay fast on October 8.
Despite the fact that the Bihar Bandh had unleashed widespread violence and disruption, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan gave a call for a massive demonstration for November 4 and the mobilisation of a large number of people from all over the State for a gherao of the Assembly and residences of MLAs. A procession led by Shri Jayaprakash Narayan went to the Secretariat and staged dharna. The agitators launched dharna at the residences of some Congress leaders.
Shri Jayaprakash Narayan followed up the November 4 demonstration with a call for Patna and Bihar Bandhs on November 5 and 6 respectively which was carried into effect. The supporters of the movement utilised the whole of the month for disrupting public meetings organised by the Congress, occasionally resorting even to physical assault of Congress leaders. They carried on their programme of mobilising people and also to continue to bring pressure on Opposition MLAs who had not resigned from the Assembly by doing gherao of their residences, passing of no-confidence motions against them in their respective constituencies, and ultimately by subjecting them to social boycott.
Since December 1974, the leaders of the movement directed their attention to organisational work such as setting up of Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti/Jan Sangharsh Samiti units in the villages and formation of Janata Sarkars and Janata Adalatsas parallel governments and parallel courts. On January 26, 1975 CSS and JSS workers organised parallel Republic Day celebrations at various places. Sporadic incidents of violence occurred in several places. In Bihar-sharif, 50 CSS workers extracted under duress an undertaking from a Congress MLA to resign from the Assembly.
On February 19, 1975 a rally was organised at Patna which was addressed by Shri Jayaprakash Narayan and was followed by a “march to the All India Radio Station”. Towards the end of March 1975, he gave a call to students to revive the ‘no-tax campaign’. On March 18, 1975, he led a procession to the Assembly to mark the Anniversary of the stir in Bihar. Calls for periodical interruption of normal life by way of bandhs continued to be given. Bandhs were observed at Arrah (April 3) and Muzaffarpur (April 4). On April 6, a call for Bihar Bandh was given. Towards the beginning of May, a three-month programme was announced which was aimed at speeding up the formation of Janata Sarkars, strengthening of ‘Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini’, a new non-party student force, which again was dominated by ABVP and RSSS cadres. It needs to be noted that the Chhatra Sangharsh Samitis were non-party forums only in name, but were dominated by the militant cadres of the RSSS and Naxalites apart from the cadres of the Congress (O), BJS and BLD. During the protracted agitation in Bihar, there have been 544 cases of violence, and police had to resort to firing 54 times. These violent incidents resulted in injury to over 500 persons and death of 70 persons. A large number of policemen also suffered injuries.
It will be seen that at various stages in the course of the agitation in Bihar, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan’s programme included:—
- Boycott of schools and colleges and examinations for one year.
- Gherao of MLAs to force them to resign their membership of the Assembly.
- Social boycott of MLAs.
- Formation of parallel Assembly.
- Paralysing of work in Government offices.
- ‘No-tax’ campaign.
- Boycott of courts.
- Establishment of parallel governments and parallel courts—Janata Sarkars and Janata Adalats.
- Incitement of Armed Forces, Police and Government servants.
The wider overtones of Shri Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement in Bihar had become clear from some of his utterances. Addressing a big gathering at the Gandhi Sarovar in Patna while giving a call for Bihar Bandh from October 3 to 5 (Statesman, New Delhi—9.9.1974), he said:
“From this date there would be no trains running through Bihar, buses would be off the road, work in Government offices, including the Secretariat would be paralysed and shops would remain closed… A week’s paralysis would be enough to end the Government in Bihar.”
He then went on to declare:
“It is now an open confrontation with the Centre and not merely with the Bihar Government. The State Government has neither status nor stamina.”
Earlier, addressing a meeting of Opposition political workers at Patna on August 13, 1974 (Searchlight, Patna—31-8-1974), Shri Jayaprakash Narayan declared that he was ready to undertake an indefinite fast to force the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly and resignation of the Ministry “if the people demanded it”.
In an interview with Shri Dalip Ganguly (Amrit Bazar Patrika, Calcutta—20-12-1974), Shri Jayaprakash Narayan referred to the talks he had with the Prime Minister. He told Shri Ganguly:
“I had given several proposals for reforms; otherwise I was apprehensive that the situation would lead to devastation, but I was disappointed and came back with two firm convictions:
- the movement was decisive in my life, and that
- the people would have to rise in revolt against the establishment and nothing less than a total revolution will bring succour to the people.”
Through the Bihar agitation, Shri Jayaprakash Narayan further nurtured the plan—the seeds of which were sown in Gujarat—of a conscious programme to distort democratic functioning at all levels and disrupt duly constituted instruments of constitutional authority.
This is an excerpt from the MHA document titled ‘Why Emergency?’ tabled in Parliament in 1975.