Madhu Limaye

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Madhu Limaye was an Indian Socialist essayist and activist, particularly active in the 1970s. A follower of Ram Manohar Lohia and a fellow-traveller of George Fernandes, he was active in the Janata coalition that gained power at the Centre following the Emergency; he, with Krishan Kant and Raj Narain was also responsible for the collapse of the Morarji Desai government installed by that coalition, by insisting that no member of the Janata party could simulataneously be a member of an alternative social or political organisation. This attack on dual membership was directed specifically at members of the Janata party who had been members of the Jan Sangh, and continued to be members of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Jan Sangh's ideological parent. The issue led to fall of Morarji Desai government in 1979, and the destruction of the Janata coalition [1]

In retirement, through the 1980s, he continued to write; he was especially caustic on Constitutional issues, where he set himself the task of defending the Constitution in the media against those who would seek to modify it to centralise power, or to replace the Westminster system with a Presidential one, fearing a 'slow slide to despotism.[2]

He showed less antipathy to the memory of Mrs. Gandhi than could have been expected, reserving his anger for Jawaharlal Nehru, who he seemed to think "could have set a standard beyond reproach, but did not." [3]

He was responsible for personally grooming many of the names that dominate Bihar politics today, including Laloo Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav. [4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "In Pursuit of Lakshmi: The Political Economy of the Indian State", By Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne H. Rudolph, University of Chicago Press, 1987. pp 457-459.
  2. ^ "Contemporary Indian Politics, by Madhu Limaye", reviewed by Roderick Church, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 3. (Autumn, 1988), pp. 536-537.
  3. ^ "Prime Movers: Role of the Individual in History, by Madhu Limaye", reviewed by Leonard A. Gordon , The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3. (Aug., 1988), pp. 683-684.
  4. ^ "The Vajpayee Manoeuvre", by M.J. Akbar, the Daily Excelsior, Jammu. July 30, 1999.
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