BJP to celebrate J P Narayan's birth anniversary across nation tomorrow

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said it would organise programs across the nation to celebrate the 113th birth anniversary of social activist Jayaprakash Narayan, adding that such an initiative has been taken to make the younger generation aware of JP and his Bihar Movement and call for Total Revolution.

"Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of Loknayak J P Narayan, The BJP will organise programs on this occasion in all state capitals and district headquarters. Senior party leaders will attend programs at their respective places and party president Amit Shah will attend the programs at JP Narayan's bithplace in Saran," Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told media here.

"We are organising these programs to make the new generation aware of J P Narayan's movement. People should also know about things that happened during the Emergency, it is essential," he added.

Naidu described the Emergency as a black period in the nation's history, and added that the current generation must know about it.

"Emergency was a black day in Indian democracy. The new generation should know what was Emergency?, why it was imposed?, how it was imposed? How it was implemented? Who opposed it? How it ended? And how people taught a lesson to perpetrators? All these facts must be known to the next generation," he said.

J P Narayan was an independence activist, social reformer and political leader, remembered especially for leading the mid-1970s opposition against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He opposed the emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was jailed by the government.