Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya: The former Bharatiya Jan Sangh chief who had the dream of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’

September twenty fifth marks the one hundred and fifth beginning anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. The erstwhile president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh was discovered useless on February 11, 1968. This physique was found on the tracks close to the Mughalsarai Junction. It has been 53-years since. Still, to this date, there aren’t any solutions to who killed the man who was fondly addressed as Panditji. The mysterious demise of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay nonetheless intrigues the nation. 
It was within the morning of February 11, 1968, when a useless physique lined with a sheet was found on the railway tracks at Mughalsarai station, which the BJP-led authorities on the centre renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya railway station within the 12 months 2018. The physique was mendacity flat on its again on the railway tracks. There was a 5 rupee word within the deceased’s fist. On his wrist was a watch by the title of Nana Deshmukh. There had been solely 26 rupees within the pocket and there was a first-class ticket with the quantity 04348 on it.
Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay was discovered useless in mysterious circumstances
The physique was discovered close to the electrical pole by one Ishwar Dayal, a leverman on the station. Dayal knowledgeable the Assistant Station Master that about 150 yards from the station, in the direction of the south of the railway line, a useless physique was mendacity close to the electrical pole No.1276. This physique was later recognized because the Bharatiya Jana Sangh President Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, who was on his technique to Patna from Lucknow.
It’s disturbing that there’s nonetheless no concrete proof concerning the circumstances which led to the demise of the only real engineer of the philosophy of Integral Humanism. According to stories, the CBI has then concluded that the homicide was an odd crime. According to the CBI report, two petty thieves had murdered Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay and their motive was theft. On June 9, 1969, a particular classes courtroom gave its verdict on the premise of this CBI report. It created a stir after it said that “the real truth still has to be found”. 
The furore sparked by the decide’s assertion compelled the Indira Gandhi authorities to represent an inquiry fee.
The fee, appointed on 23 October 1969, concluded that Upadhyaya was murdered underneath mysterious circumstances.
Many individuals have since then felt that Panditji’s demise was a politically motivated killing and the urge to reopen the case has resurfaced time and time once more.

Accidental demise, or a pre-planned homicide?
According to the little info out there within the public house, Pandit Upadhyaya was on the home of his sister Lata Khanna in Lucknow a day earlier than he was murdered. On that day, Panditji needed to hurriedly board the Lucknow-Sealdah Express, since he needed to head to Patna the place a Jan Sangh assembly was scheduled to happen in view of the funds session.
Panditji’s funeral procession
Half of the bogey during which he was travelling in was a part of the third class and the opposite half was top quality. In Railway parlance, it was an FCT bogie. Panditji managed to get a first-class ticket. The Deputy Chief Minister of the state Ram Prakash Gupta himself had gone to drop him on the station.
The Pathankot-Sealdah Express reached Lucknow at round 7 pm.
Upadhyaya’s berth had been in coupe A, however he exchanged his beginning with Gauri Shanker Rai, a member of the legislative council who had his beginning in coupe B. MP Singh, a authorities officer, was the opposite passenger in Coupe A.
Those days, the Pathankot Sealdah Express didn’t undergo Patna. At Mughalsarai, a number of the practice’s bogeys had been separated and joined with the Delhi-Howrah Express.
At round 12 ‘O’clock within the night time, Upadhayaya met Kanhaiya, an emissary despatched by the erstwhile king of Jaunpur. When he noticed Maharaj of Jaunpur’s letter addressed to him, Panditji realised he had forgotten his glasses within the earlier compartment. He introduced his glasses from Coupe A, learn the letter and advised Kanhaiya he would reply later. This incidence information Deendayal Upadhyaya’s presence at Mughalsarai railway station at 2.15 am.
At 2.50 am, the Delhi-Howrah Express departed Mughalsarai and arrived in Patna the subsequent morning. Here in Patna, preparations had been being finished to welcome Panditji. Deendayal Upadhyaya, nevertheless, didn’t attain Patna the subsequent morning.
While the members of the Jan Sangh get together started looking by way of your complete practice for Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, they learnt {that a} useless physique has been found within the Mughalsarai railway station.
Back in Mughalsarai, docs had declared him useless by that point. No one on the station knew till then that the physique was that of Jana Sangh co-founder Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Nobody, not even the cops. However, there was an individual working on the station named Banmali Bhattacharya who recognised Paditji and later knowledgeable the Jana Sangh staff.
Moreover, the police additionally found a ticket beside his physique, which allowed them to rapidly determine him by matching the ticket quantity.
Additionally, when the practice Panditji was travelling in left Patna and reached the Mokama station at round 9:30 within the morning, a traveller found an unclaimed suitcase. The passenger handed it over to the railway workers. Upon investigation, it was found that the suitcase belonged to Panditji.
MP Singh, one other passenger in Coupe A, confirmed Panditji’s presence within the practice to the authorities. Singh advised the police that in Mughalsarai when he was strolling in the direction of the restroom, he noticed an individual flattening Panditji’s bedding from the practice. When he inquired, the unknown particular person advised MP Singh that the mattress belonged to his father and since he had received down on the Mughalsarai station, he was unloading his baggage together with the mattress.
Based on the tip, the authorities had been in a position to monitor down a person named Lalta. On interrogation, Lalata said that he was approached by one Ram Awadh who had requested him to take away the unclaimed mattress from the practice. On additional inquiry, the police additionally recovered Panditji’s jacket and kurta from a sweeper.

Several investigations had been carried out however no new leads had been discovered. The probe was then handed over to the CBI. When the investigations had been being carried out it was learnt that when the practice had reached Patna station some unknown particular person, who himself didn’t board the practice, had given 4 hundred rupees to a sweeper to wash the coupe.
CBI had even recognized Ram Awadh and one Bharat Lal because the accused. But since there was not an excessive amount of proof in opposition to the duo, the courtroom freed them for the costs. The courtroom concluded that Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay was murdered by two petty thieves. The courtroom despatched a youth named Bharat Lal for 4 years imprisonment for theft.
As talked about above, the case was handed over to a committee constituted by the Congress authorities, however once more nothing conclusive was arrived at. Some even blamed Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Jana Sangh’s subsequent president, however each concept failed and the demise of Panditji continued to stay a thriller.
What do analysts and BJP leaders say on the ‘murder’ of Pandit Deen Dayan Upadhyaya?
Here, it turns into crucial to revisit what many analysts and consultants have mentioned concerning the demise of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay up to now.
There are many conspiracy theories about Upadhyaya’s demise. Balraj Madhok, one of many founding members of Jan Sangh, has mentioned categorically on many events that Upadhyaya’s was a homicide, not an accident. In his memoir, he had written concerning the involvement of sure senior Jan Sangh leaders within the homicide. In 1977, the Janata Party authorities had initiated a contemporary inquiry, nevertheless it yielded no outcomes.
The BJP had straight blamed Congress for the demise of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. The get together believes that the rising recognition of the Jan Sangh chief was a risk to Congress, and was the principle cause for his demise.
There are some movies on youtube during which many individuals have straight focused the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru whereas speaking about Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
In a video posted by The Quint, when political analyst Rakesh Sinha had mentioned Panditji, he claimed that when he entered politics, Jawaharlal Nehru started focusing on the Jana Sangh. He was nicely conscious that this particular person wouldn’t solely alter the political panorama, but in addition the standard of politics.
In 2015, BJP chief Subramanian Swamy had demanded organising a multi-disciplinary particular investigating workforce to re-investigate the “conspiracy” behind the mysterious demise of Jan Sangh founder Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
He claimed that Upadhyaya’s shut companions, together with Nanaji Deshmukh and Dattpant Thengadi, by no means accepted the CBI’s findings that he was pressured out of the practice by thieves.

The BJP chief had additional argued that if that was the case, how was Panditji’s physique mendacity upright? Why did he have a 5 rupee word in his hand? Saying that each passenger current that day within the practice had booked tickets by offering faux addresses, Swamy had claimed that Panditji’s homicide was all nicely deliberate, which was by no means investigated correctly.
MJ Akbar had additionally concurred that the thriller behind the demise of Panditji stays unsolved.
Mughalsarai Junction renamed as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya
As a tribute to certainly one of its tallest leaders, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Uttar Pradesh authorities had renamed the enduring Mughalsarai railway station to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction within the 12 months 2018. The Uttar Pradesh authorities had despatched a proposal in 2017 concerning renaming the Mughalsarai station and the proposal was authorised by the centre on 4th June 2018.
The station is inextricably hooked up to the historical past of one of many tallest leaders of Jan Sangh, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, who’s an icon for a lot of nationalists even as we speak.
Mughalsarai railway station renamed as Deen Dayal Upadhyay station in 2018 by the Yogi govt
The Yogi Adityanath-led UP authorities had proposed altering the title of the station in 2017 after it rose to energy within the state. Though the Centre had given its in-principle approval in 2017 to the state authorities’s proposal to rename the station, the transfer to rename Mughalsarai received a leg-up after UP Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June 2018.
The resolution had not sat nicely with the opposition because the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party had protested in opposition to the choice in 2017.
Who is Upadhyay, whose imaginative and prescient was hailed by PM Modi
On, February 11, 2021, on the event of Panditji’s 53 demise anniversary, PM Narendra Modi had paid tribute to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, saying the nation is realising Panditji’s imaginative and prescient of constructing a self-reliant India.
“Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Ji‘s thoughts are equally relevant today and will continue to be so. In 1965, during the Indo-Pakistan war, India had to depend on foreign countries for weapons. Deen Dayal Ji had said at that time that we need to build an India that is self-reliant not just in agriculture, but also in defence and weaponry,” PM Modi mentioned.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was the second high Jana Sangh chief, the primary being the outfit’s founder, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who additionally died mysteriously on June 23, 1953. Mookerjee too was 52 on the time of his demise.
Politics wasn’t nearly gaining energy for Upadhyaya. He had insisted on a politics based on values and rules. Upadhyaya grew to become president of the BJS on the get together conclave in Kozhikode in December 1967. However, this association was solely momentary. On February 11, 1968, two months after changing into president, Upadhyaya’s physique was discovered the aspect of the railway monitor close to Mughal Sarai station in Uttar Pradesh. He was solely 52 years previous. His demise created a void in Indian politics that took years to fill.