So the Jana Sangh constituent of the Janata has hit back at its detractors in the party. And it has chosen Bihar for the counter-offensive. Neither of these developments is surprising. The Jana Sangh has been under attack within the Janata for its association with the RSS for almost two years and it could not have continued to ignore the efforts to embarrass it after it had been excluded from the UP ministry as a result of a deal between Mr. Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Lok Dal and Mr. Jagjivan Ram’s Congress for Democracy. It might still have held its hand if the Janata parliamentary board had not postponed the organisational elections. For in that event, it could have hoped to improve its position in the party organisation with the help of the RSS cadres and regarded it as worth its while to be patient. Similarly, since Bihar is the only big state where a BLD man, Mr. Karpoori Thakur, is the chief minister, the Jana Sangh had to join issue with him if it had to retaliate against the BLD leaders who had switched alliances and ditched it in UP. On the face of it, the Jana Sangh’s decision to recall its nominees from the Bihar government appears to be sudden. But in fact it is not. Since it was partly at its insistence that the Janata parliamentary board decided to ask Mr. Thakur to seek a vote of confidence from the legislature party, it is fair to infer that it had by then made up its mind to bring him down, if possible.
The Jana Sangh has not been isolated in UP and it will not be isolated in Bihar even if Mr. Thakur manages to survive. It is in good company in Lucknow and it will be in good company in Patna whatever the outcome of the vote. Indeed, it can emerge as the dominant partner in the new government in Bihar in case Mr. Thakur fails to win a fresh mandate. But by acting the way it has in Patna, the Jana Sangh has closed the door to reconciliation in Lucknow and joined battle with the BLD, making it extremely difficult for Mr. Charan Singh to revive the alliance with it. He has changed his stance on the Jana Sangh and its parent organisation, the RSS, in the past and he might not have been totally unwilling to do so now, though, of course, on terms acceptable to him. The Jana Sangh has virtually blocked that possibility for quite some time. He cannot walk out of the battle without seriously compromising his and his group’s position. The implications of the resignations in Bihar for Mr. Jagjivan Ram are not equally clear. Despite the arrangement between his group and the BLD in UP he has not engaged in a campaign against the Jana Sangh and the RSS. But in the new context, he, too, may not have much of a choice. He may well find it necessary to make common cause with the BLD in Bihar
as well. If that happens, it will become increasingly difficult for the Janata leadership to stop the new power alignment in UP and Bihar from being extended to the Centre and to rule out the possibility of a split in the party. For all that we know, the Jana Sangh-RSS leaders may not deliberately have opted for such drastic developments. But they cannot engage in brinkmanship without taking the risk of going over.
The Times of India, 19 April 1979