KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY -A CRITICAL APPRAISAL - A. Munim

K. B. SAHAY AS CHIEF MINISTER OF BIHAR WELCOMING THE FIRST CITIZEN OF INDIA DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN

KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY 

-A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

A. MUNIM, M.A.

President, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Center of Social & Cultural Studies, Patna

Dr. S. K. Sinha, the scholar Chief Minister of Bihar, uttered the following in a public meeting at Hazaribagh-“People ask me why I give extraordinary importance to K. B. Sahay. My reply is- Yes, I do so because I know him. I know his exquisite merits. At that distant point of time, he stood first in English literature in the B.A. Honours examination in the entire university. And had he not joined the freedom movement, he would have become an I.C.S.” This comment came from a profound scholar, a fiery speaker and a matchless orator.

K. B. Sahay remained in active politics for long fifty years i.e. from 1920 till his death in 1974 as a result of a car accident near Hazaribagh town. Keeping to the schedule of brevity, there were, in my opinion, three features in his long political life which dominated him, gripped him and motivated him. First and foremost was the economic or agrarian problem of the teeming millions of the kisans, who still from 70% of Bihar’s total population. The abolition of the Zamindari System was no doubt, the greatest achievement of K. B. Sahay. People are prone to talk glibly and even shed tears (of course crocodile tears) for the sufferings and the hardships of the poor kisans. But K. B. Sahay, bold, dynamic and democratically-minded as he was, cut the Gordian knot. He thus proved a Messiah to the kisans, who were proverbially poor, destitute and downtrodden.

K. B. Sahay fully realized the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the minorities, particularly the Muslims, who are the largest minority community in India. He had numerous Muslim friends. He had intimate knowledge about their language and their sentiments, their rights and the responsibilities. He held liberal views on the language issue. Like a far-sighted administrator, he had the guts to declare that Hindi, the National Language, should spread gradually and not at one stroke.

The third remarkable feature of K. B. Sahay’s multifaceted personality was, undoubtedly his brilliant administrative acumen. He was tireless in going through all the files minutely, critically and methodically. He had the proverbial patience to wade through the intricacies of papers and documents. He had an uncanny memory. He did not indulge in gossips while he interviewed a large number of people daily. His decisions on numerous administrative issues were quick, firm and decisive. He did not soft-paddle the problems. He did not know the art of putting off the matters of appeasing or accommodating unreasonable persons. In this context, the fate of the famous or infamous Brett Circular is a classic example. K. B. Sahay, in the first Congress ministry formed in 1937 and headed by Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha, was only Parliamentary Secretary, attached with the Chief Minister. To put it very briefly, Mr. W. B. Brett, I.C.S. as Chief Secretary to the then Bihar government, had issued a circular to all Commissioners of Divisions and Heads of Departments curtailing the powers of the ministers by quoting Rule 13 of the Rules of Executive Business. It was a rude challenge and an open affront to the elected Congress Government. K. B. Sahay took up the challenge on behalf of the Congress ministry in consultation with the Chief Minister Dr. S. K. Sinha. The circular had to be withdrawn on the 24^th December 1937 signed by the same Chief Secretary Mr. W. B. Brett. The British civilian had to eat humble pie. K. B. Sahay had cornered W. B. Brett.

K. B. Sahay, indeed, the greatest and the most efficient administrator Bihar has ever produced so far during the post-independence period. It is not a hyperbole. This is the Truth.   

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