Reminisces of Jaipal Reddy, a friend and a mentor

I first met Jaipal in 1964 when he was the President of the Osmania University Students Union (OUSU), the omnibus union of all student unions, and I was the general secretary of the Nizam College students union. That year there was a major struggle on the issue of university autonomy between the then CM, K Brahmananda Reddy and the Vice Chancellor of Osmania University, the well-known educationist, Dr. DS Reddy. The CM wanted full control of the university, at that time one of the two big universities in Andhra Pradesh, as the state government financially supported the university. The Vice Chancellor felt that ceding control to the government would mean a progressive dilution of standards and discipline. Jaipal was supporting the CM. It was well known that Brahmananda Reddy thought highly of him and was grooming him for high office. He chose well.

However, Nizam College students had taken a contrary position and were with the VC. Jaipal came over to the Nizam College’s famous Rajiah Canteen, where we effectively ended up having a debate in front of a canteen full of students. Jaipal was then studying for his second master’s degree and his fellow district students adored him. As Jaipal and I debated the issue, I realized how well read and articulate he was. He turned the general notion about a college student from the districts with school education in the vernacular struggling with English on its head. Here he was in full flow quoting Rousseau and Russell literally storming my pre-analytic cognitive vision of a university free of political meddling. His followers had no doubt he had won. But Nizam College didn’t join the strike.

Later in life when he would bemoan the falling standards of university education, I would always remind him of the debate in Rajiah Canteen. Jaipal was always gracious to admit he was wrong and it was a mistake. When I read yesterday about the KCR government appointing eight IAS officers as Vice Chancellors of the universities in the state, I was reminded about how it began. Jaipal was on my mind, and when the phone rang at 3 pm this morning, I knew it was his time. I had spoken to his brother-in-law Laxma Reddy and his long time secretary Venkatram Reddy last night and my instinct was that the end was near.

That first encounter with Jaipal turned into a lifelong friendship that grew stronger with the years and even when we were in opposing trenches. Jaipal became a MLA in 1969 and his small apartment in the old MLA quarters became an adda for long political discussions and gossip over endless cups of tea. In those days Jaipal was an admirer of Morarji Desai and approved of his liberal economics and austere life. Most us, his friends and followers, admired Indira Gandhi, while Jaipal felt she was destroying the inner party democracy of the Congress party.

Jaipal would always recall the tussle between the Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and Brahmananda Reddy factions in the party elections for a PCC president. When Indira Gandhi and her immediate court took complete control of the Congress after the split in 1969, Jaipal stayed on with the Congress (I), because that’s where his mentor KBR was. But he felt stifled. It was during this period that Jaipal became well acquainted with the leading light of the Congress Young Turks, Chandrashekhar. He became a fervent admirer and his fascination for him took many of us towards him.

When Indira Gandhi suspended democracy with the Emergency of 1975, it was the green light for him to openly oppose her. He did it with gusto and his MLA quarter’s front yard resonated with his criticisms of Mrs. Gandhi. I used to caution Jaipal to go easy lest he be arrested. But he would scoff at the fears and would loudly say Vengala Rao (then CM) did not have the courage. He was right, for Vengala Rao was afraid that Jaipal in jail would become a cause celebre and Osmania University would become a hotbed of resistance.

The end of the Emergency saw the emergence of Jaipal Reddy as a national figure. The Congress swept AP winning 41 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, but was virtually wiped out in the Hindi states. He became the leader of the Janata Party in AP and became the new party’s leading voice in south India. The Congress won the 1978 state elections in AP but the Janata Party under Jaipal’s leadership emerged with 60 seats and almost 30% of the popular vote, about 9% behind the Congress. The rump Congress (Reddy) won 30seats with 18% of the vote. It is conceivable that if the Janata and Congress (Reddy) joined hands together, it might have been end of the Congress party. But history gave Jaipal another chance.

In 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi won in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination with 440 seats, and the opposition front benches were bare with leaders like Chandrashekhar and Vajpayee defeated in their bailiwicks, Jaipal a first timer in the Lok Sabha became the oppositions leading voice in Parliament. He used to torment Rajiv Gandhi with his razor wit and incisiveness. When VP Singh fell out with Rajiv Gandhi in 1988, Jaipal Reddy emerged as the main spokesman for the opposition. He reveled in this role. I had returned from Harvard in early 1984 Jaipal quickly co-opted me into the oppositions attack team. I would write position papers and would work with Jaipal on how to dominate the newspapers the next morning. Jaipal would tell me, that since the opposition did not seek a revolution, but only a reformation of the political process with an electoral victory, the task was to chip away at Rajiv’s ankles every day with issues and criticisms.

When the Janata Dal imploded in 1991, Jaipal persisted with the opposition despite PV Narasimha Rao’s standing invitation to rejoin the Congress. Interestingly enough the stint as the oppositions frontbencher took Jaipal more leftward politically. He would chortle over my description of Manmohan Singh’s reforms and trickle down economics as feeding imported oats to racehorses so that the sparrows could eat the dung. Jaipal would also point out to his own inconsistency in opposing the Congress Party’s dynastic rule, when all the Janata factions became dynastic parties themselves. He swallowed his pride and rejoined the Congress.

Only two people made an impression on my political and economic thinking. One was Chandrashekhar and the other was Jaipal. Chandrashekhar died in 2007. A dozen years later Jaipal has followed. When I told my wife about his demise early this morning, she told me now you will not have anybody to talk to.