Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #NanajiDeshmukh
Most recents (2)
Jayaprakash Narayan and Nanaji Deshmukh. Two men, from different backgrounds, whose lives would come together during the Emergency. Both born on the same date.
Thread on their Jayanti.
Thread on their Jayanti.
#JayaprakashNarayan was from Bihar’s Saran district, his father was a lower Government official, and he later went on to study in the US too. Nanaji on the other hand, was from Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, had a tough childhood., and later rose up the ranks of the RSS.
Their ideologies too differed, where JP was socialist, left leaning, Nanaji’s was more rooted in the Integral Humanism of the Jan Sangh. And yet their paths came together during the Emergency and events preceeding it.
#NanajiDeshmukh, who today was awarded the #BharatRatna, was a pivotal opposition figure in the Emergency years, and in all three episodes I've recently explored – the 'subversive' protests (1975), the 'anti-national' resistance abroad ('76) & the 'unholy alliance' ('77). Thread.
(2) In late '74, JP's 'sampoorna kranti' agitation was gaining momentum in Patna, led mainly by students. On Nov 4, a massive rally was met with a police lathi-charge. According to legend, Deshmukh protected JP from a blow – which nearly broke his arm.
thewire.in/video/watch-re…
thewire.in/video/watch-re…
(3) Emergency was declared in '75. Before #NanajiDeshmukh was arrested, in December, he issued an ‘eight-point programme for Indians abroad’, a manual for what would become the overseas anti-Emergency movement – the original "anti-national" lobby.
thewire.in/video/watch-th…
thewire.in/video/watch-th…
