1974 JP movement was second freedom struggle: Nitish

Patna, April 30: With his government having already decided in principle to honour those who laid down their lives or went to jail fighting the emergency, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday described the Jayaprakash Narayan-led movement for 'total revolution' as "the second freedom struggle" after Independence. The contributions of the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974-77 could not be undermined or underestimated as it was for protecting the democracy and fundamental rights of the citizens and culminated in installation of the first non-Congress government at the Centre, he told a 'janata durbar' here. "Cutting across party affiliations all should support the Bihar government's move to honour those who went to jail or attained martyrdom while opposing the emergency", the Chief Minister said, adding that even the Congress should not have any hesitation as the party had already apologised for imposing emergency. He said the state government had constituted a four-member committee of ministers headed by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi to decide the modalities of paying 'token pension' to the surviving "soldiers" of the movement and, in case of their death, their families. The other members of the committee are Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh, Urban Development Minister Ashwini Choubey and Excise Minister Sudha Srivastava, a niece of Jayaprakash Narayan, he said. Several legislators and MPs in different political parties are the product of the JP movement and they should understand the hardship being faced by the participants of the movement and their families, some of them living in abject penury, he said. "I know that token monetary help of the government will not change their lifestyles, but it will certainly make them and their family members feel that the government has not forgotten their sacrifices", the Chief Minister said. Speaking about the spate of kidnappings, particularly of school children, the Chief Minister patted the state police for recovery of several abducted children and said "no police across the world can ensure a crime-free society otherwise nobody would have been killed in the firing by a student at the Virginia Tech University in the US". "If the police are criticised for their failure to solve a few cases, they should also be praised for the overall improvement in the law and order to motivate them even further", he said.