Balraj Madhok

Balraj Madhok (Hindi:बलराज मधोक) (b. 25 February 1920) was a president of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) and a senior politician of India in 1960s. He was born at Skardu in the former princely state of Kashmir and Jammu (now in the Pakistani Northern Areas). He started his academic and political career in Jammu and Kashmir. He unified Hindus who were not in large numbers, to stand against the Pakistani forces and local separatists in 1948. He along with Prem Nath Dogra, formed the Praja Parishad Party in Kashmir in 1949. The party demanded complete unification of Jammu & Kashmir with India. Later he merged the Praja Parishad Party with BJS. He assisted Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in formation of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh in 1951, which in 1980 got transformed into Bharatiya Janta Party. He was the first secretary of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. He scripted the first manifesto of the Party.

He was a Professor of History at the University of Delhi. He served as the President of the party for a year. He served as a member in the Consultative committee of Foreign Affairs, Lok Sabha. He was the President of Indo-Israeli Friendship Society (1967–1974) and Indo-Tibetan Society.

He held various positions in the BJS as Secretary, General Secretary, Ideologue and Parliamentary Party Leader. He was elected to the Second and Fourth Lok Sabha from North Delhi and South Delhi. Prof. Madhok, was elected as the President of BJS in 1966 and he led the party in the general elections of 1967. Bharatiya Jana Sangh got its highest ever tally of 35 seats in the Lok Sabha. By that time, even the most hardcore supporters of him started to believe that Balraj Madhok had become too big for his boots. It started the end of his political career.

In 1969 he developed ideological differences with other senior leaders of the party like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nanaji Deshmukh and Lal Krishna Advani with regard to the policies of the party. He accused Vajpayee of being hand in glove with their biggest opponent, Indira Gandhi, and was expelled from the party in March, 1973. Since then Balraj Madhok has remained in political oblivion.

He was arrested during Emergency and was imprisoned for 18 months, (1975–1977). He initially joined the Janata Party but later resigned in 1979 and revived the Bharatiya Jana Sangh under the name Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh, but was not successful. He has keen interest and knowledge in the affairs of Kashmir. In an interview with the Hindustan Times in 2010 on the occasion of his 90th birthday, he claimed that his then opponent Indira Gandhi had offered him the post of a central Minister in 1980 on her return to power.

He has authored many books, some of them are:

• Hindustan on the Cross Roads
• Portrait of a Martyr (Biography of Shyama Prasad Mukerjee),
• Kashmir: The Storm Center of The World,
• Bungling in Kashmir,
• Kargil and Indo-Pak Relations,
• Rationale of Hindu State,
• Jeet Ya Haar(in Hindi)
• Jindgi Ka Safar part 1
• Jindgi Ka Safar part 2
• Jindgi Ka Safar part 3
• Kashmir Jeet mein Haar(in Hindi)etc.

He got huge popularity from his book "Jeet Ya Haar".

Right from his expulsion in 1973, he remains a pungent critic of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and their policies. Currently he resides in New Rajinder Nagar area of New Delhi. The road where his house is located stands named as Jagannath Madhok Lane.

Personal life

He married Kamla, a professor in Delhi University. He has two daughters.

External links

• Profile at Jana Sangh's website