K.B. SAHAY: LIFE & WORK -Gutul Ji Sahay

Author: GUTUL JI SAHAY

K.B. SAHAY: LIFE & WORK

-Gutul Ji Sahay

 This article was compiled by the author (Rajesh Sahay) as narrated  to him by his father and was published in “The Hindustan Times”, Patna Edition, 31.12.1986

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mong the leaders of Bihar belonging to the 20^th Century, whom the people of this state would long remember for their constructive and invaluable services towards the progress of Bihar, Sri Krishna Ballabh Sahay would certainly find a prominent place.

K.B. Sahay’s life is a superb example of how a man can attain his cherished dream by dogged determination, systematic planning and hard labour. He dreamt of an independent India and an ever progressing Bihar for which he sacrificed his whole life.

Krishna Ballabh Babu did not come from a very well to do family of Bihar. Born on 31^st December 1898, at Sheikhpura in Patna district, he was the eldest son of a British Raj Daroga, Munshi Ganga Prasad.

Being the eldest son, Darogaji paid special attention to KB’s studies. For this, he took KB with him to whichever town he was transferred. Being a loyal daroga, Munshi Ganga Prasad would come down severely on the freedom fighters. He dismissed them as anti-social elements trying to disrupt peace.

As a child, Krishna’s sympathy lay with the freedom fighters and the outcome was inevitable. Hot debates between father and son became a regular feature of his father’s household and in this situation his mother, who was a pious lady, would find herself equally swayed towards the lines of argument of both of them.

The more father and son debated the issue, the more it strengthened Krishna’s determination to work for the independence of India. But he believed in systematic planning for which he had to wait a couple of years to complete his studies. In 1919 he graduated from St Columba’s College, Hazaribag with first class in English honors and was also awarded the Gait’s Gold Medal by Mr. Gait, the then Governor of Behar & Orissa.

It was a moment of joy for Darogaji who wanted his son to take the ICS examination. He had this dream of making his son a Class One officer and his joy knew no bounds as he seemed to be meeting his dreams. But Krishna Ballabh Babu had long before made up his mind. He had resisted from joining the war of independence only because he strongly felt that the British cannot be ousted my muscle strength alone, but it needed intelligence as well.

The examples of Gandhiji, Nehruji, and Sardar Patel were before him. Krishna Ballabh Babu jumped into the fray in 1920 giving up further studies by joining the Non-Cooperation Movement at the call of Gandhiji. Darogaji was enraged at his son’s irresponsibility and flung him out of his house.

Between 1930 and 1934 Krishna Ballabh was jailed four times for different periods while taking part in the independence movement. During one of these incarcerations he met his mentor Sri Babu and the bond of friendship which was tied in jail remained intact throughout their lives.

Came 1942 and with it came Gandhiji’s battle cry of “Do or Die” for the “Quit India Movement”. Before this senior leaders of Bihar, Dr. Rajendra Prasad visited Bihar to convey the conclusions of the “Wardha Accord” as well as to charter an action plan for Bihar during the Quit India Movement, in an important meeting at Sadaqat Ashram. Krishna Ballabh Babu was a notable contributor to this plan. “Quit India Movement” was launched with great fierceness all over India and Krishna Ballabh Babu led the movement at Hazaribagh. The British Government ordered the immediate arrest of all its leaders.

An order to arrest Krishna Ballabh Babu was passed by D.C. Hazaribag (Order No.: 132 of 10.08.1942) and the very next day he was sent off to jail. In jail, Krishna Ballabh Babu was instrumental in the escape of Sri. Jai Prakash Narayan from jail, along with his associates namely Rama Nandan Mishra, Yogendra Shukla, Suraj Narayan Singh, Sri Gulab Chand Gupta and Sri Shaligram Singh on November 9, 1942. As a consequence, he was sent off to Bhagalpur jail with orders for rigourous imprisonment.

Earlier, when the Provincial Autonomy was granted by the British Raj, Krishna Ballabh Babu was elected to the Bihar Legislative Council in 1936 and was made one of the two parliamentary secretaries under Sri Krishna Sinha’s ministry in 1937. He was allotted a bungalow in Patna and Darogaji, once and for all forgave his son.

During one such day an efficient officer of a high rank visited Krishna Ballabh Babu who was seated in the lawn with his father. On seeing the officer, Daroga Ganga Prasad, who had long before resigned his job in 1929 in defiance to a shoot at sight order against his own son could not help his loyalty from surfacing and got up from his chair to salute the officer. Krishna Ballabh Babu on seeing was obviously embarrassed. He asked the officer to meet him later and when the officer was gone, explained his father with some difficulty that the wheels of fortune had turned. Darogaji’s joy knew no bounds.

But it was his grandfather Munshi Lall who worked as a munshi for a Zamindar, was instrumental in planting the seeds of hatred for Zamindars in young K.B.’s heart. Young Krishna saw the torture which the peasants had to bear for not paying the revenue. It was simply intolerable for him to see the atrocity of Zamindars and his musclemen and he made up his mind at that very tender age to fight for the cause of the peasants.

At a meeting at Chhapra on 11^th May 1942 which was presided over by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and at another such meeting at Kudra in Shahabad, he spoke at length on the subject. Sri Babu, who also came from a zamindar family, asked him to arrange a public meeting at his native place Tarapur in Monghyr. At this meeting issue related to “Torture of inhabitants of Banaili Raj by their Zamindars” was taken up by Sri Babu and Krishna Ballabh Babu. This meeting was a grand success and this was also attended by Acharya J. B. Kriplani.

When the interim government was formed K.B. Sahay was given the Revenue ministry since it was his pet subject. This gave him an opportunity to fulfill his cherished dream of relieving the peasants from the torture of zamindars.

To assist K. B. Sahay in drafting Abolition of Zamindari Bill, the support of Sri Bajrang Sahay was immense. Though K. B. Sahay drafted the bill, proper credit for its implementation goes to Sri Krishna Babu, who faced the brunt of the zamindars in the Bihar Assembly and got it passed successfully.

With the Bill becoming an Act (Bihar Act XXX of 1950) it sent shock waves among the zamindars all over Bihar and these zamindars under the leadership of Dr. Kameshwar Singh of Darbhanga decided to challenge the Act as a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

But before the appeal could be taken up in the Supreme Court, the Constitution of India was amended for the first time and Article 31 (A) and Article 31 (B) were added to nullify the effect of Article 14.

K. B. Sahay contested the first assembly elections of 1952 from Giridih and won by a handsome margin to return as the revenue minister to the Government of Bihar in Sri Babu’s cabinet. But in 1957 he was defeated in the assembly elections from Giridih by Raja Kamakhya of Padma (Hazaribag). This defeat deeply hurt K. B. Sahay not because of his loss but at the ignorance of his electorate who preferred a raja over a common man.

However, K. B. Sahay was down but not out. He was not used to accept defeat so easily. He moved among his people and restored their faith in him and this effort paid him rich dividends as he won the assembly elections of 1962 to enter the Bihar Assembly for the third time.

By this time the political scene of Bihar had changed a lot. Sri Krishna Sinha had died and Binodanand Jha was the chief minister of Bihar. The economy of Bihar was in shambles and the effect of the Sino-Indo war was terrific. To top it all the landlords had pressurized the CM successfully to obtain more and more time within which they were able to transfer their surplus land in excess to the Land Ceiling Act in the name of their kith and kin through Benami transaction. The very aim of the Zamindari Abolition Act was defeated.

This left the poor farmers still landless and this is where the seeds of discontent were sown which led to the tearing of the social fabric of the society. Still K. B. Sahay during his regime as the C. M. of Bihar took up the cause of the thousands of landless farmers and fought for their rights.

To make matters worse for B. N. Jha, neither the country nor Bihar was prepared for the Chinese aggression of 1962 in the North Eastern Frontier Area (NEFA) and Ladakh. Prime Minister Nehru was left with no choice but to send army troops to defend the frontiers.

In the year that followed, Kamraj, the veteran Congress leader came forward with his “Kamraj Plan” to strengthen the party. B. N. Jha camped at New Delhi from the very next day. He feared that he would not be able to check the popularity of K. B. Sahay. But Jawahar Lal Nehru was wise to interpret that a man who manages to win an election in a state like Bihar without the caste factor working in his favour cannot be questioned on the issue of popularity. But still, Nehruji, a diehard parliamentarian as he was, left the decision of the leadership to the elected members of Bihar Assembly.

On 19^th September 1963, with the announcement of “Kamraj Plan”, came the news of Sri B. N. Jha being taken as one of the eight Chief Ministers to look after the affairs of Congress Party. B. N. Jha too was not a man to accept his defeat easily. In spite of leaving the C.M.’s seat he lobbied strongly in favour of Sri Beer Chand Patel. K. B. Sahay who was the deputy minister in B. N. Jha’s cabinet was the other contestant.

In September 1963, the MLA and MLC of Congress Party in the Bihar Assembly met for an important meeting to choose their leader in the Sadaqat Ashram. B. C. Patel was no match for K. B. Sahay who polled double the numbers of votes as Sri Patel.

On 2^nd October 1963, the birth anniversary of Gandhiji was celebrated in Bihar along with the swearing-in ceremony of Sri. Krishna Ballabh Sahay as the third Chief Minister of Bihar.

On becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar, K. B. Sahay set for himself some guidelines which he followed strictly throughout his tenure.  He made it a point to be in Patna or in Ranchi when the Assembly session was on. He tried his best to attend it as he had great faith in these seats of democracy.

He saw to it that neither he nor his subordinates were obliged by transfer and postings. One of his close relatives had to face his anger when he asked him to transfer the S.P. of a certain district.

No file in his secretariat remained unattended on his table for more than 48 hours.

Most important of all was his vow that he would fight and seek Bihar’s rightful share of the national income. It was this last resolution which posed before him greatest hurdles. Nevertheless, setting up of a number of industrial plants in Bihar, viz the foundation stone of Bokaro Iron and Steel Plant, opening up of a Match Factory in Kodarma, setting up of industrial estates in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Kodarma and Hazaribag and setting up institutions of educations colleges and schools chiefly the Sainik School at Telaiya, were the contribution of K. B. Sahay towards the development of Bihar. He even crossed swords with the center on this issue.

Sri K. B. Sahay was one man whom his greatest critic would admire for his administrative abilities, which is a tribute to his efficiency. His aim was the progress of Bihar.

K. B. Sahay served under three Prime Ministers of his time: Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri and Smt Indira Gandhi.  He considered Nehru the greatest democrat but found Mrs Gandhi poles apart from her father on this issue.

K. B. Sahay lost the 1967 elections but won the local body elections in 1974 to enter the Bihar Legislative Council as an MLC in 1974. He faced inquiries by the Aiyyar Commission in between but was vindicated.

Sri K. B. Sahay had a special respect for the press and the teachers- the former for their ability to check the other two pillars of democracy i.e. the Legislative and the Judiciary while the latter for their unrewarded work in forming the future of the country by educating the youths.