Prajaparishad Movement

He played an important role in the Praja Parishad movement from 1949 to 1953. This movement was launched by Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee to abrogate the special status of Kashmir for its complete assimilation with India. Amarnath Vaishnavi was sent to jail for nine months for his role in the movement while he was based in Pathankot and worked as a teacher in the government school.

Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who was the President of All India Bhartiya Jan Sangh announced that groups of people would be sent to Jammu in support of the movement. Posters were to be printed to make this announcement and no press was ready to print them. Amarnath was told to arrange the posters and Shri Sahabji who was a worker, came to him to say that the posters were to be pasted in the city the next day. Posters would read, “Utishth Jagrata” (wake up and get going), “Bharat Ma ka sir, Kashmir bachane ke liye, Jammu Chalo, permit tod kar” (March into Jammu, breaking the permit, to save Kashmir, the forehead of Mother India). Sahab ji was worried about how the posters would be printed. Amarnath assumed the responsibility of making the posters and told him that he would keep the poster ready the day after at 4 AM and that he should come and collect them through the window of his room which was at the back side so that no one would come to know about it. Two hundred posters were to be prepared.The same day he bought a chart and cut the stencil of the poster. He also bought warnish and applied on the chart. He left it for drying and went to school. While on his way back he bought distemper and glue. He had the drawing board and stencil brush. He came back early from school and also told his landlord that he would be away for a camp in Dhariwal. He picked a small bag with some clothes, locked his room and left leaving the back side window open. While everyone thought that he was away, he secretly entered inside the room through the open window. He shut the window and spread the curtains so that the light did not seep out. From 5 PM in the evening till 4 AM he prepared 200 posters. At sharp 4 AM Sahabji knocked the window, he had two more persons with him. They came inside quietly and Amarnath distributed the posters to them. They left and he followed them and went to RSS karyalay with his bag. He freshened up there and came back at 7 AM. He opened the door of his room, left his bag, made some tea and paranthas, had breakfast and went to school. In the morning, the posters had gone all over the city. Along with all other people he also read the posters as if he knew nothing about them. CID took off some of the posters from the walls. First Andholan was initiated by Shri Bishan Das. Pathankot swayamsewaks took up the responsibility for managing “Jail Bharo”. As per the plan, people would come from other regions to Pathankot and assemble to go to “Narot Jaimal Singh”. From there they would cross Ravi River and enter Jammu through Kathua and start Satyagraha. Thus the plan was to reject the permit system in J&K. Central government had made all arrangements to curb the movement in Pathankot. Many CID officers and the forces were deployed. Armed police was moving around on the horses. CID personnel were present on railway station and bus stand in plain clothes. Their agenda was to send all those people who would come for Satyagraha, back to their respective locations. However the agenda of Jana Sangh was to safely sneak in these people to Jammu and make the movement a success. Pandit Amarnath was given two responsibilities. Firstly, he had to seek help from students to take all the incoming visitors to a location in Jammu where the girls, as sisters would apply tilak on their foreheads before sending them off for Satyagraha. Secondly he had to get daily pamphlets distributed through kids. He himself escorted some people to Narot Jaimal Singh several times.