If you tune in any day to some of the political broadcasts by AIR against J.P. (Jayaprakash Narayan) and the Opposition, you could clearly realise that this dictum (on propaganda) of Hitler’s is being followed by V C Shukla religiously.That’s L K Advani, writing in prison, about a man who headlined the Emergency. Shukla, the man who gagged the press, jailed editors, including from this newspaper, and victimised singers like Kishore Kumar for not parroting the Government’s songs.Today, some 30 years later, the same Shukla proudly passes himself off as Advani’s brother-in-arms. BJP’s latest recruit blithely suggested to The Sunday Express that he had talked things over with Advani and that we should let bygones be bygones.But even in an era of loosely held political convictions and ever-changing loyalties, former Rajya Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar is stunned that the BJP can welcome to its fold a man who was once anathema to it.‘‘He controlled and dictated,’’ said Nayar. ‘‘He was a man who hated the BJP.’’ And he hated opinions that did not conform with his own.Nayar worked for this newspaper when the Emergency was declared. When Shukla and his censors would not allow The Indian Express to report news as they saw it, this newspaper made its statement by carrying blank spaces, devoid of all editorial matter.And when Nayar organised an editors’ meeting at the Press Club of India to discuss the fallout of the Emergency, he was thrown in jail for three months by Shukla. ‘‘He told me he had given us a million dollars’ worth of publicity,’’ recalls Nayar.Perhaps one man’s memory may be clouded with emotion but the findings of a judicial commission, set up to probe the Emergency, also devote page after page to the role of Shukla, who was appointed I&B Minister on June 29, 1975, three days after Emergency was imposed. At a time when the code of conduct prevents the Government from abusing its resources, it is instructive to see how Shukla exercised such even-handedness. He personally supervised what AIR was broadcasting. The Shah Commission noted that in December 1976, AIR bulletins devoted 2,207 lines to the Congress and 34 to the Opposition then propped up by the likes of A.B. Vajpayee and Advani. Newspapers that did not go down on bended knee had their power supply disrupted. Singer Kishore Kumar, who refused to take part in the Government’s propaganda drive, found his films and songs banned from TV and radio.Shukla now says the Emergency was a mistake. ‘‘The imposition of censorship was the worst part,’’ he adds with a straight face.And yet the Shah Commission noted Shukla’s ministry went ‘‘beyond the scope of censorship guidelines’’ on a daily basis.But perhaps all that is respected in politics is the power to sway the vote. On this count, Shukla has few equals. He has been elected to the LS nine times, was expelled from Congress in 1987 and then rejoined it. Denied a ticket in 1999, he left it again and was part of the National Congress Party and the Rashtriya Jantantrik Dal before joining the BJP. Asked about Advani’s Hitler parallel, he says: ‘‘I have discussed this matter (with Advani).He succeeded me and I&B Minister. He knows what was done was done by other people.’’ So, in Shukla’s mind, joining the BJP seems logical. ‘‘Congress under Sonia has changed,’’ he says, ‘‘the shell remains but the substance is gone.’’ BJP, too, has changed, he says. ‘‘Six years of administration has mellowed them down.’’ That’s his opinion, uncensored.
