The rise and fall of Babu Jagjivan Ram is a near-forgotten saga that so palpably illustrates the cruel denouement of one of India’s tallest Dalit leaders by the political establishment. Indeed, there is a remarkable lack of remembrance, let alone reverence, for a man who had been projected by the Congress leadership during the freedom struggle as a rival to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Ambedkar’s radicalism and dogged refusal to kowtow to the establishment provoked much hostility while he was alive but elevated him into an abiding icon for his own people. But Babuji, despite his long parliamentary career and string of cabinet posts, remains a telling example for aspiring Dalit politicians of the perils of playing Uncle Tom.

5th April 2002 was the 115th birthday of freedom fighter and veteran leader Babu Jagjivan Ram. Jagjivan Ram, often known as Babuji, a Dalit icon who battled for the rights of the disadvantaged.

Jagjivan Ram, known popularly as Babuji, was an Indian independence activist and politician from Bihar

Jagjivan Ram’s political career spanned a record 50 years. During the 1971 India-Pakistan war, he served as Minister Of defence. Between 1977 and 1979, Babu Jagjivan Ram was also the Deputy Prime Minister. Jagjivan Ram was also rumoured to have a shot at becoming the first Dalit Prime Minister. However, an incident happened after which his name was dropped.

The incident was an act of political revenge, in which intimate photographs of Jagjivan Ram’s son Suresh Ram in a compromising position with a 21-year-old Delhi University student were splashed over the center spread of a magazine. The magazine known as Surya ran a two-page spread with naked images of his 46-year-old son, Suresh Ram, and a college student called Sushma Chaudhry.

The photos had been taken on a polaroid camera.  Many believe that this scandal coming out at such a critical point in Jagjivan’s career was nothing less than a plot to ruin his political career.  Some have even theorized that politicians from his own party had a hand in the scandal.

Kushwant Singh was the consulting editor of the magazine at the time of the sex scandal.  He stated that the polaroid photos were sent in an envelope to his National Herald office, which was run by Congress. Bear in mind that, at the time, obscenity tolerance was low and any media house that would have published these pictures risked being shut down.  So there had to be some kind of vested interest behind these photos being published.  Most agree that the photos appeared to be politically motivated.

When Indira Gandhi was defeated in the 1977 Janata Party movement, Jagjivan Ram was widely regarded as the front-runner for the position of Prime Minister. Unfortunately, Jagjivan Ram had to shoulder the weight of the subsequent sex scandal involving his son, forcing him to pull back from the run.

Maneka Gandhi had published explicit sexual photos in her magazine to target political rival Jagjivan Ram

However, the tragedy is more than just photos published in a magazine. Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi was the editor of the magazine in which these images were published. It was India’s first major political sex scandal.

This scandal breaking at such a critical juncture in Jagjivan’s political career was nothing short of a conspiracy to derail his political career. Jagjivan had resigned from his 30-year stint as a Congress cabinet minister. He had left Congress and had a solid reputation as a capable administrator and seasoned politician. He then joined the Janata Dal-Secular, providing an alternative to Indira Gandhi. But this scandal resulted in the fallout of his political career.

Accounts of the scandal say that Jagjivan would have given up the chance at being Prime Minister of the Janata Government, returning to Congress, if the photos remained unpublished.  However, he was asked to first leave Janata, which he did not do, and the deal fell apart.  It was then that Surya published the pictures of Suresh Ram.

Notably, former Lok Sabha Speaker and senior Congress leader Meira Kumar is the daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram. She was the first female Lok Sabha speaker, serving from 2009 until 2014. She also got the candidacy of the United Progressive Alliance for the 2017 presidential election but lost to National Democratic Alliance candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

References:

opindia.com