Himalayauk himalaya Gaurav Uttarakhand
The decks were cleared for the exit of Dr Syama Prasad Mookherjee after he had a bitter spat with Prime Minister Pandit Nehru at a Cabinet meeting over the worsening plight of the Bengali Hindus in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Earlier, before the advent of Independence, Nehru had requested Dr Mookherjee to join his Cabinet after he resigned from the Hindu Mahasabha of which he was the president in the wake of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. He joined as the Minister of Industries and Supplies.
Wilting under mounting pressure, Nehru invited then PM of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan to Delhi to find a solution to the deepening minority crisis in East Pakistan. After six days of talks, the Delhi Pact was inked on April 8. The pact said that the refugees would be allowed to their erstwhile homeland unmolested to dispose of their properties and the abducted women and the looted properties would be returned to them. Besides, forced conversions were outlawed.
At the Cabinet meeting, he roared, pointing angry fingers at Nehru, “When Muslims in Kashmir were attacked you sent the Indian armed forces and spent crores of rupees. What do you care for Bengali Hindus? What do you care for the criminal assaults on our women?” Nehru and Dr Mookherjee were both found trembling with rage. Many of the other ministers present, including Sardar Patel, chose to leave the scene, as they nearly came to blows. Dr Mookherjee along with another minister from Bengal, K C Neogy, quit the Cabinet on April 1, 1950.
The Nehru Government unheeding his demands, he started toying with the idea of forming a new party that would prove to be a nationalist alternative to the Congress which would espouse the cause of the Hindus. His search on, interestingly a document entitled ‘Wanted a National Front’ that suggested formation of a ‘Bharat Mahasabha’ reached him from Almora. It stressed on an inclusive party, embracing in its folds all the creeds existing in the land – not just Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and the Jains but Muslims, Christians and Parsis – while affirming that all must show allegiance to India and respect the cow and the Ganga as twin symbols of the Holy. The document suggested that the proposed Mahasabha should champion the cause of the 350-million strong Scheduled Caste people who despite forming an integral part of the greater fraternity were yet to get a fair deal from the so-called mainstream. While expressing anger over the vivisection of the holy land, it suggested action to unsettle the settled fact, though in a realistic way.
