A Reluctant Liberalist.......Rest In Peace, Mr. S.V. Raju

S. V Raju Passed away a few days back. He was 81.

A mentor to me and some one who nurtured and ignited my mind, cleaning my slate filled with loads of ill conceived notions. 

He was the editor of the liberal magazine, freedom first, long time convener of the Indian liberal Group. 

The project for economic education, the Leslie sawheny program and a few more, which he made survive till his dying day.

The High court case, filed by Swatantra party against the swearing on the socialist constitution, continues for last 35 years or so. It was Raju who filed it and pursued it.

The office of PEE and discreetly of Swatantrata at Army Navy building, was amid litigation never given up, it was Raju, who led the battle.

Raju or Mr. Raju as he was fondly called, was the last official torch bearer of the erstwhile Swatantra Party, a liberal political  alternative founded by C. Rajagopalachari or Rajaji, Mino Masani, N. G. Ranga   and other Visionaries.

Some of the influencing liberals of those times included known faces like the Maharani of Jaipur, Gyatri Devi and Raja of Ramgarh, Kamakhya Narain Singh; with 19 of 44 seats that Swatantra had won as the main opposition to Nehru’s congress party.

Raju was the personal secretary to Rajaji, much later to become the executive secretary at the fag end of the party in the seventies, when Minoo Masani was old and still flying the Swatantrata flag with the white star in the middle of the blue sky, the election symbol of the party.

Of course, the party is no more. A part of it merged with the Janta party, then there were internal feud and court cases from other stalwarts, though, and technically the Maharashtra Swatantra party still exists. 

Raju, having spent time with Rajaji and Masani all his life and seen the end of Swatantra, had learnt a lot from the demise of the great movement.  

With euphoria in the times of socialism, Liberalism was lost, so were the hero’s forgotten, being ahead of their times.  Then, it was the 1990’s and Manmohan Singh happened to India, Liberal economics and liberalism was being confused. People were looking for answers; Masani was no more, it was all left to Raju to make whatever out of it.

He had a job to do; he was at best doing what he did. But, then there was no Rajaji and no Masani. He was a reluctant Activist, who did his job.

He kept the dialog on, sprouts of liberal or so called liberal activists and groups came up, individuals wanting to be under an umbrella, still not wanting to lose their individuality and merge.Joshi started shetkari sangathna and later the Swatantra Bharat party, eventually to take Shiv sena support in Rajya sabha, later we see, Jayprakash Narayan  aligning with BJP.  This was the time, there was immense pressure on restarting Swatantra, and possibly it would have succeeded, if Raju had the ability like that of Rajaji.

But he was Raju not Rajaji.

He was reluctant, there were differences, and rarely did he take firm stand, when people saw his as the liberal epitome, but he had seen the great party fall, and he was over cautious, better to have a good memory then an uncertain future. The party of course, never happened.

Indian Liberal Group was revived, instantly having strong 3000 members, across India. It was a think tank and a platform.  Like the Indian railway platform, we kept waiting for the party to come across, which never came. Instead came, the NGO style activism, looking for funds for seminars and conclaves.   Some sycophancy of prearranged voting’s on agenda’s and resolutions. Swatantrata core was being lost and soft socialism was creeping in. This drove the activism out.

Some of us quit by writing heartfelt letters.  Raju wrote back, “you shall need to die to leave the organization, you see, you are life members”. We used to meet for courtesy calls and some common platforms.

He was the keeper to a glorious political inheritance. He had seen the infighting and factionalism in Swatantra, so he was suspicious of people trying to steal the legacy, he had major differences on petty things, disliked anyone who was trying to preach liberalism other than him. Once he yelled at me for idolizing Ayan Rand or befriending any other right thinkers. He called them poachers.

He used to say, “Two liberals have three views” “let’s agree to disagree”.  But then he was a human and an Indian. He did have his soft spots and fell prey to sycophancy same thing he abhorred.

With my deficit in intellect, I used to have a lot of open probes with him to fill my void.

“Congress and its policies are bad for the country and its men, but RSS and BJP combine is enemy of mankind”. Well, some of the good people he had known did write lately that he had supported Modi. This is not strange.

If the BJP could steal, Patel, Gandhi and Ambedkar’s legacy, Swatantrata being the main opposition to congress, becomes a natural ally to the BJP, does it not.

This was exactly, why Swatantrata was needed Mr. Raju.

May your soul rest in peace