The BJP celebrated socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan’s 114th birth anniversary as "Save Democracy Day” here on Sunday with party leaders highlighting his role in opposing the Emergency, restoring democracy in the country during the Indira Gandhi regime. They recollected his contributions for the “second freedom movement” in India.
District BJP president Bijaya Kumar Swain presided over the meeting.
Senior BJP leader Rama Chandra Panda said loknayak Jayaprakash was a saint leader who defeated the dictatorial regime of Indira Gandhi. Without JP, an alternate non-Congress Government at the Centre could not have been possible. Some leaders now leading Bihar have betrayed JP and his ideology by deviating from JP’s core anti-Congress values.
JP gave the call for “Total Revolution” which envisaged complete transformation of the society which assimilated the concept of integral humanism propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, Panda said.
Ganjam Bar Council president and BJP leader Sisir Kumar Padhi also recollected JP’s courage in spearheading the movement against the Emergency. JP was instrumental in uniting opposition parties to fight against Indira Gandhi’s leadership, he said.
BJP youth leader Bibhuti Bhusan Jena said that despite his deteriorating health condition, JP rose like a sphinx and challenged Indira Gandhi with the power of people by organising the largest people's movement in the country since Independence often called India's “second freedom struggle”.