THE BIRTH AND DOOMSDAY OF CONGRESS RADIO
Usha Ben grew up highly influenced by Gandhiji and became one of his followers. She made an early decision to remain celibate for life and took up a spartan, Gandhian lifestyle, wearing only Khadi clothes and keeping away from luxuries of all types. Over time she emerged as a prominent proponent of Gandhian thoughts and philosophy.
As it is said " A guru is always able to find his true disciple even from the remotest corner of the world", Usha's father was a judge under the British Raj, therefore he did not encourage her to participate in the freedom struggle. When he retired in 1930 he shifted to Bombay to keep Usha away from the vibes of national movements but her father didn't know that the thoughts and ideologies from which he was trying to protect his daughter, was actually following him from behind.
When the second world war broke out, India was declared as a vigilant country much against her own wishes, the national leaders resented this very much and so did Mahatma Gandhi. Usha Mehta did a daring act by unfurling the Indian National Movement's tricolor flag at Gwalia Tank Ground, renamed as August Kranti Maidan, on August 9, 1942, when the entire congress leadership, including Gandhiji had been placed under arrest by the British.
She and her colleagues used to think how to spread Gandhiji's call of "Do or Die" when the press would be gagged and the news banned by the Britishers as they did in 1878 by passing the Vernacular Press Act. She came up with an idea that a transmitter could serve a good deal to serve the public with the facts of the happenings and in spreading up the message of rebellion in the remotest corners of the nation. From there the birth of the first underground radio station of India named Congress Radio took place.
They started the preparation of building the secret radio station but the major problem in their way was the shortage of financial resources. Their relatives volunteered to give their ornaments but Usha Ben was reluctant in doing so, finally after pooling their own resources somehow they managed to start the radio station. They approached a technician friend who was running classes in radio mechanics to build a transmitter, he made it ready by 13th August 1942.
" This is the Congress Radio calling on 42.34 from somewhere in India" uttered by Usha Mehta echoed throughout the country on 14th August 1942. That was the realization of her long cherished dream, depicting the signs of independence she said in one of her interviews " We had our own transmitter, transmitting station, recording station with a distinct wavelength of our own".
One fine morning Usha's uncle Ajit Desai delivered a note to her addressed by Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia which stated " I don't know you personally but I admire your courage, your enthusiasm and your desires to contribute to the sacrificial fire that is being lit by Mahatma Gandhi. May I request you to come and meet me at your earliest convenience". The meeting took place on 17th August among Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Babubhai Thakkar, Vithalbhai Javeri and Usha Ben , before that meeting they did not even know each other but after the meeting was over they decided to work together as a team.
They used to begin their transmission by the song " Hindustan Humara" and used to end with " Vande Mataram" . In between they had news relays, speeches, appeals and instructions for the workers who were involved in the freedom struggle to keep them charged like in one of the speeches Dr. Lohia said " So far we were conducting movements but now we are conducting a revolution and in a revolution there is victory or defeat, this revolution is not of a single party or a community but of the complete united nation". They used to broadcast in both English and Hindustani, the important speakers who used to give their voices to the Congress Radio were Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Miss Coomi Dastur who used to deliver the speech in English and Achyut Patwardan, Moinuddin Harris and Usha Ben used to deliver their speeches in Hindustani. Earlier they used to broadcast only once a day but after seeing the immense response from their brothers and sisters they started to broadcast twice, once in morning and once in the evening.
They used to gather the news from all over India by the help of special messengers, also the office of All India Congress Committee which was in Bombay then under the supervision of Sucheta Kripalani used to supply them with all important news materials. The Congress radio was the first to broadcast the news of Chittagong armory raid, happenings in Balia and the news of running parallel governments in Bihar and Maharashtra. When the newspapers did not dare to touch upon those subjects it was only the Congress radio which could defy the orders and tell the people what was actually happening.
They had to face a lot of problems in running the secret radio station like the shortage of finance, escaping notice of policemen, the detecting van and the most disgusting problem was when their broadcasts were jammed by the All India Radio and therefore her colleagues used to call it as Anti India Radio, but sooner they developed a counter trick where they used to jam the broadcasts of All India Radio. To overcome these problems they separated their transmitting and recording stations as they thought the division of work would prevent them from the hands of British army but after all these measures also they were arrested just after three months of their broadcasting sessions.
One of my friends used to say " Only that person can betray you who knows you better than you" . All Indians boastfully say by patting their chest that India is a land of patriotic soldiers and freedom fighters like Mangal Pandey, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many more in this limitless list but history also gives us the evidences that our motherland has also experienced the bitterness of traitors like Mir Jafar and Jayajirao Scindia. Whether we talk about Brihadhartha being assassinated by his own minister Pushyamitra Sunga or Jalaluddin Khilji being killed brutally by his own nephew and son in law Alauddin Khilji. In which incident of our history can we find the essence of ethics?, In the invitation letter written by Jaychand to Mohammed Ghori to come and capture our motherland or in giving the title of "Sikander" to a person who just to fulfill his own whimsical desires killed millions of innocent people mercilessly.
Once again history repeated itself when Usha Mehta and her colleagues were betrayed and made to arrest by their own Indian technician on 12th November 1942. However a bit prior to that the police had raided some of the important radio shops like the Chicago Radio shop and arrested many of the technicians from there. Following the information which they got from them police came to know that Babubhai Thakkar, Vitthalbhai Javeri and Usha Mehta were mainly responsible for running the secret Congress Radio.
British officials raided the office of Babubhai Thakkar on 12th November when Usha Mehta and two other colleagues were present in the office, they tried to remove some of the important documents and literatures which they collected for the Congress radio and were successful in that. From there Usha Ben immediately rushed to their recording station and told the complete incident to Dr. Lohia and Harris Bhai who were preparing their speeches for evening broadcast. Listening to all this, Dr. Lohia said " The fight for the freedom must not stop, the work must go on even if the circumstances are adverse".
In the evening Usha Ben went to the broadcasting station, the program went on as usual. They played Hindustan humara , read the news bulletins, just when they were about to end the program by playing Vande Mataram, they heard some hard knocks on the door and the Deputy Commissioner of Police, his military technicians and his troop of 50 policemen were standing and smiling triumphantly in front of them. They asked Usha Ben to stop playing the song but they did not obiliged them, the record was over and they wanted to announce the information of that particular raid and the betrayal but just then one of the technicians tampered with the MCB of that room and it was utter darkness everywhere.
Policemen were worried of their escape but they forgot that they were Gandhi's disciples who always taught them "Learn to face the consequences of your act". Next day Vitthalbhai Javeri and Nanka Motwani were also arrested, after prolonged investigation of two months or more police prepared a long charge sheet against them with the charges like possessing, establishing, maintaining and working illegally underground against the permission of the British Government, encouraging people to rebel against them and not to pay land revenues and taxes to them and many more.
Trials against them went on for 5 weeks and the judgement came in May with setting Chandrakant Javeri and Nanka Motwani free as there was no evidence against them, Vitthalbhai Javeri with 1 year rigorous imprisonment, Babubhai Thakkar with 5 years and Usha Mehta with 4 years of rigorous punishment. They were put in Yarwada Jail and Usha Ben was released in April 1946 when Congress Government came to power. After her incarceration, Usha's falling health prevented her from participating in politics or social work. The day India gained independence, Usha Mehta was confined to bed and could not attend the official function in New Delhi.
Although the betrayal by an Indian brother made her very sad but in one of her interviews she described it as her " finest moment".