K.B. SAHAY- A PILLAR OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION -Mohammad Muslim Ansari, Chairman, Handloom and Handicraft Corporation, Bihar

 

KRISHNA BALLABH SAHAY 

K.B. SAHAY- A PILLAR OF NATIONAL INTEGRATION

-MOHAMMAD MUSLIM ANSARI

Chairman, Handloom and Handicraft Corporation, Bihar

I came close to the late Shri K.B. Sahay since the stormy and momentous year 1937. The first Congress Ministry headed by Dr Sri Krishna Sinha, was formed on 20^th July, 1937. The people of Bihar gave a clear verdict by an overwhelming majority to the Indian National Congress through the democratic medium of the ballot paper to form a Ministry and run the administration in Bihar State along with other States of India.

A medium-statured, robust, well-built, rotund figure, possessing a round countenance, with piercing and radiant eyes, broad brow was inducted as a Parliamentary Secretary (Appointment and Political Secretary attached with the Chief Minister in the Sri Krishna Sinha Ministry) along with Shri Jagjivan Ram (Development), Shri Jagat Narain Lal (Finance and Commerce), Shri Binodanand Jha (Medical and Local Self-government),  Shri Sarangdhar Singh (Revenue and Education), Shri Sayeedul Haque (Excise) and others. This gentleman was Shri K.B. Sahay. This assignment was the lowest in the rung of the full-fledged Bihar Ministry. But merit and talent could not be suppressed. This was the stepping stone to his ascent to the highest ladder of political firmament in Bihar. Shortly afterwards, he became the Revenue Minister. With his vast intellectual attainments and political insight, he became the Chief Minister of Bihar- the highest executive of the second-largest State in India.

Shri K.B. Sahay had made Hazaribagh his political forum. This was the focal point he operated throughout the Province of Bihar. Giridih, then a sub-division town of Hazaribagh, was visited by K.B. Sahay on numerous occasions. A sizable population of Muslims has been residing at Giridih and its environs. He held frequent meetings at Giridih on various social economic and political issues. He was frank, cordial, outspoken, and receptive to everyone, he encountered. He freely mixed with the Muslims of this town and suburbs. As a matter of fact, he made it a point to visit Giridih on the occasions of the Idd and Bakr-id festivals. He endeared himself to the Muslim masses and the Adivasis in general. He took particular care in studying the socio-economic problems of Hazaribagh and other districts of Bihar to benefit them directly. I vividly remember attending scores of meetings presided over by K.B. Sahay in Hazaribagh district accompanied by Shri Abdul Qaiyum Ansari, a Cabinet Minister of the Srikrishna Ministry and President, of the All-India Momin Conference. It was of K.B. Sahay’s warm interest that the grant of Rs 500/- per year was raised to Rs 12,000/- in favour of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Library located at Giridih. This was in consonance with his instinctive zest for learning his intensely secular approach to the problems of the Muslims, the biggest community among all the minorities of India.

Because of his tremendous popularity with the people of Hazaribagh, he had no difficulty getting elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. What is rather significant and remarkable is that in every general election, he worked hard to get a Muslim candidate elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from a constituency in Hazaribagh district. In 1937, besides Sukhlal Singh and K.B. Sahay, a Muslim candidate namely Abdul Majid was elected as an M.L.A. Again in 1946 even weathering the Muslim League ‘wave’ among the Muslims, he was instrumental in getting Shri Mohammad Majid Ansari elected to the Bihar Assembly from a constituency of the Hazaribagh district.

Shri Abdul Qaiyum Ansari, a Cabinet Minister of Bihar, enjoyed the confidence and deep friendship of K.B. Sahay as the Revenue Minister of Bihar, while Shri Syed Jaffer Imam, the Excise Minister of Bihar in the K.B. Sahay Ministry, had the latter's closest trust while he was the Chief Minister of Bihar.

K.B. Sahay as a devoted and a dedicated member of the Indian National Congress, warmly responded to Mahatma Gandhi’s call as revealed in the following statement in his weekly journal ‘Young India’ dated 6^th April 1918- ‘The primary motive of Non-Cooperation is self-purification by withdrawing cooperation, from unrighteousness and unrepentant government. The secondary objective is to rid ourselves of the feeling of helplessness being independent of all government control and supervision.’ K.B. Sahay published the message throughout Bihar, particularly in his familiar Chhotanagpur belt. Again K.B. Sahay, like a devoted supporter of secularism in its truest spirit, supported the following resolution of Mahatma Gandhi- in the context of the Khilafat Movement of the movement sponsored by the Ali Brothers. The Muslims have adopted a significant resolution. If the peace terms are unfavourable to them (which may God forbid) they will stop all cooperation with the government. Thus, it is an inalienable right of the people to withhold cooperation. We are not bound to retain government titles, honour or continue in government services.

Clearly, K.B. Sahay was one of the brightest models of secularism of deep-seated Hindu-Muslim Unity, of perennial communal accord with the sole objective of the rapid progress and unhampered development of Bihar his dear province. In fact, his motto eloquently symbolized the following classical poetic lines of a popular English poet by the name of Longfellow-‘All your strength is in your unity, all your danger is in discord.’