I don't know much about Loknaik Jayaprakash Narayan but I say this man Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Lok Satta Party president is for sure the best human being of my time I saw so far. When I say best its the most sensible, most clean, most visionary, most selfless, above all most 'true'.
We see many top rankers of different entrance exams including IAS who gives advices like preparing for 10 hrs. per day, joining good institutes, and so on when asked about success in the exams. When JP was asked about his preparation for IAS (He stood all India 2nd in 1984 IAS exams in a very first attempt which is still an unbroken record) he said that he never prepared for the exam. I was the most informed youth of my time, any thing significant happening in any part of the world would be informed to me via BBC, or news papers or through some other channel, he added. The purpose of a written exam is to estimate an individual's capabilities on the subject, and if one prepares extra just for the sake of exams the whole purpose of it is spoiled. This is something that always used to revolve in my mind and JP was the only top ranker whose take on it is connected with that of mine. Every one when asked about their take on 'Separate Telangana state', they either say yes, no, or say that they will put a bill on loksabha, or will bring if people give 95% of seats, there is no Telangana sentiment, or some thing else like that. When JP was asked the same, he said we have to be clear on if its a path (to the betterment of the land) or is a destiny (its needed for self respect, or cultural, or for any such reason). If we think its a path, thats not true, still low level district governments would do and players has to change not the play ground, if its a destiny its always possible with our Constitution and there is no harm in separating in development wise... This was the explanation. I can give 10 more examples like this to say that he is the most sensible.
Manmohan Singh was the man behind the economic reforms of the previous decade which was one of the biggest reasons for increase of employment in India now. But today he is helpless when UPA government sent APJ Abdul Kalam home for asking it to re think about the office of profits. A B Vajpay was a man with flawless political career but his govt. was no less corrupted than any other. Arun Shouri was one of the best journalists of the nation but is part of a religion based corrupted party now. NTR was Icon of Telugu identity but again was not the cleanest. PV Narasimha Rao was a leader to know speaking 14 Indian languages, was a person who could translate a book into Hindi within a few hours of train journey but ended his life with a bunch of scams. Every great political personality at some or the other time was corrupted, compromised. If you take JP's case, when he was invited by NTR to join TDP he refused, when he was invited to join PRP he refused (if my source of information is true), never considered joining a party just to become an MLA or Minister. No money distribution, no liquor distribution, no criminal back grounded people in the party, no joining hands with any party which doesn't follow any of these, all just because he could't compromise. This is why I say he is the most clean.
In the early days of party establishment, I used to see news like 'Loksatta Internal constitution released', 'Loksatta, the first party to announce ombudsman', 'internal elections to elect party cader and contestants ', '50 irrevocable guarantees' and so on. I used to wonder why is this guy doing all this instead of moving close to the public with road shows, jumbo meetings etc. Lets take 'Internal elections to elect party candidate'.. There was some one in Karimnagar I guess, came to media saying that LSP is corrupted and gave ticket to the candidate who gave huge sums of money to JP. None of his allegations were published in news because there was an internal election conducted and the person complaining was defeated in the elections !! We saw another new party which spoiled its image because of ticket selling allegations. If JP wasn't visionary he wouldn't have spent time in building the roots in the early days of the party establishment which are working for the party now. Just to add, most of LSP candidates are of no previous political background with a history of changing couple of parties, most of them are true professionals like Advocates, Doctors, Educationalists, most of them have social service background being members of Lions club, Red Cross etc. I could not understand where he got time to find out candidates with such a credible background and convince them to contest in elections.
We see many of the top rankers of IAS, IPS, EAMCET, CAT and so on saying that they use their qualifications and education to serve the nation but disappearing just few years. Many politicians who joined politics get compramised years down the line no matter what the reason is. But this man, is all different. For some one like me MBBS is a great achievement. He left that to become IAS in the frustration on the Indira's govt. at the time of emergency. After 16 yrs of service as IAS at different levels, resigned his services only because of the reason that he felt that he couldn't serve better. Formed a political party despite of all the criticism only because he felt that there is no alternative to mainstream politics in democracy. Such a selfless human who doesnt care any thing to serve better and still say serving the land is my duty !!
There are few allegations on him related to caste, money, relation with Ramoji Rao etc. etc. but most of them complaining know the truth. When I told one of my friends that I donated few bucks to the party, her question was why ? you could have donated to an orphanage instead ? If the statement 'A committed MLA can do better service to a constituency than a social service organization with 10 crore rupees of funds', my little donations and the little work that i'm doing for LSP makes sense. This was my answer.
In a couple of hours the 2009 election results are to be announced. While thousands of people like me are awaiting for the election results, JP in an interview today was talking about an article 'Maoism in Jarkhand' published in a foreign news paper !! This results may turn his journey a big way (positive or negative) but could never stop him....
