K.B. Sahay- Some Glimpses of his Social and Political Life
-Vishwanath Prasad Verma
Ex President, Patna Town Congress (I) Committee &
General Secretary, K.B. Sahay Birthday Celebration Committee, Patna
‘I slept and dreamed
that life was beauty
I woke up and found
that life was duty’- Ellen S. Hooper
The epigram above is generally true, but there is an exception. Sri K.B. Sahay never slept soundly. He also never wove a utopia. He
was always alert, wide awake, vigilant and dynamic. He always realised the supreme
virtue of duty as enshrined in the sacred Gita. He stuck to it throughout his
eventful life of 76 years.
As a firm supporter of and believer in the
democratic and secular ideology of the Indian National Congress, I came in
close contact with Sri K.B. Sahay. I had numerous occasions to watch the
various phases of his hectic, social and political life. In this brief article,
I have attempted to spotlight some features of his busy, crowded life.
During 1967 on the occasion of the stormy general
election in Bihar, a commercial-minded Congress supporter approached K.B. Sahay
and solicited monetary advances from him by trotting out a plan to take
recourse to underhand, clandestine means to secure more votes by practicing what
is popularly called rigging and booth capturing. K.B. Sahay flatly refused to
entertain this shady idea, much less to encourage and finance it. He firmly
declared that it was a preposterous proposal and could never be acceptable to
him.
K.B. Sahay’s approach to various social and political
issues confronting the masses was direct, clear-cut, and outspoken. There was
no circumlocution or diplomacy. K.B. Sahay was a hard working person. He worked
tirelessly till 9.00 p.m. He stopped work by that hour. By 9.30 p.m. he would
always have a simple dinner consisting of rice, bread, meat or fish. He was a
non-vegetarian. He relished chicken and biryani. ‘Bharta’
9pounded potatoes) was his favourite item. He went to bed positively by 10.00
p.m. He got up at 4.00 a.m. An early morning walk was a must for him. In the
morning after taking a bath, he took light refreshment- two boiled eggs along
with other items and tea.
K.B. Sahay was a leader of the masses, of the common
people, of the oppressed and the underprivileged. He put on course, rough
khaddar cloth for his daily apparel. Fine Khadi was anathema to his
democratic instinct. He was a true socialist. K.B. Sahay possessed vast and
astounding organizational talent. During the annual Congress session in Patna
in 1962, the issues of food, accommodation, transport etc of thousands of
Congress delegates thronging to Patna from all States of India, posed a tough,
complicated and vexing issue. Eminent Congress leaders of Bihar chose K.B.
Sahay for this onerous responsibility. K.B. Sahay stood supreme on that
occasion. The entire arrangements under his direct supervision were superb,
well-planned, methodical and efficient. He won laurels from the high command of
Delhi.
Contrary to general impressions, K.B. Sahay was
soft-hearted from within. On occasions of marriages, festivals etc he would
make it a point to enquire about the financial worries of his subordinate
staff. He would make over some requisite funds to them to tide them over their
monetary hardships. This was in consonance with his strong and surging
democratic instinct.
Like a benevolent patriarch, he sheltered the poor
and the helpless. He shielded the oppressed. In fact, he falsified the familiar
general epigram, ‘the poor have no friends’.
On the contrary, it is refreshing to note that he
upheld and symbolized the following epigram- ‘He that hath pity upon the poor,
landeth unto the Lord’.
Intellectually, a colossal figure, he was also an
embodiment of simplicity, sublimity, and soft-heartedness in all phases of his social,
cultural and political life.
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