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Vajpayee - the right PM candidate, in the wrong party - The Afternoon Despatch and courier

Tavleen Singh ()
30 June 1997

Title: Vajpayee - the right PM candidate, in the wrong party
Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Afternoon Despatch and courier
Date: June 30, 1997

Last week I travelled to Lucknow with Atal Behari Vajpayee. He was going
on a routine constituency visit, he goes twice a month, and I was going
with the idea of doing a television programme on him visiting his
constituency. We travelled Ist Class A/C, he in a coupe and me in one of
those four-berth numbers, which, while we were still at New Delhi railway
station was awash with his safari-suited security men and their
walkie-talkies. It gave me a moment, I have to confess, of complete panic.
Was I going to have to spend the night with three armed men? Mercifully,
after chatting relentlessly about his exact location in the city they left
as we pulled out of the railway station.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I finally had a few moments to examine the
ultimate luxury in railway travelling and allow me to tell you that luxury
it was not.

The sheets were cleanish, but looked as though they had been washed in
Jamuna water, which fm those of you who live outside the environs of our
capital city means brown water, The blanket, I would not have touched even
if it were winter, thank God for small mercies, it was June. The
wall-to-wall carpeting was grubby and the toilets... well, they met our
usual Indian standards. How is it that our leaders do not notice that this
would not be considered Ist Class travel in any other country? Do they not
travel by train when they are abroad? Do they get special sheets, blankets
and toilets?

I did not have much time to think these thoughts, because no sooner had we
started to pull out of Delhi than another 'neta' arrived with a gunman in
tow. From his conversation with the gunman and the ticket collector (he
bought his ticket on the train after paying a penalty for being
ticketless), I gathered that he was a Bihari legislator. He was going to
Lucknow to lend support to his 'neta' -- the famed Laloo Yadav, who was
scheduled to be in that city to garner votes for his campaign as Janata Dal
President. The 'neta' from Bihar ate his dinner on his upper berth, the
gunman left will his share of railway bread and cake, and everyone passed
out for the night.

At Lucknow's squalid, chaotic station a small crowd of BJP workers had
gathered to greet their leader. They came with marigold garlands and
shouts of 'Atal Behari Vajpayee Zindabad'. Other travellers stared and
jostled to get a closer look. Ironically, there were no shouts of 'Jai Sri
Ram'. Ayodhya seems to be a thing of the past for the BJP In any case this
was one BJP leader who would have been unlikely to be impressed by this
kind of greeting.

A convoy of white ambassadors, bristling with gunmen, took us to Lucknow's
VIP Guest House where we passed through metal detectors and a posse of
safari-suited security men to enter the leader's chamber. There was
already a crowd of people waiting to see him, Who were politely dismissed
so that the interview could be conducted in relative tranquility.

Vajpayee seemed to be in a reflective mood. We talked about the
possibilities of his becoming prime minister again and I asked what he
thought his priorities might be if he was given a second chance. He gazed
into the distance, clearly beyond the tiny room in which we sat, before
saving that it was hard to answer a question like that, since much would
depend on the circumstances and the political situation at the time, when
such a time came. Then he said, "I think one of my priorities would be to
try and restore people's faith in politics, politicians and democratic
institutions." Whose fault was it, I asked, that this faith had been shaken
and this time he did not hesitate. "It is the fault of the politicians" he
said lit is they who are to blame. They seem to have no ideals left, no
vision, no new dream... their attitude seems to be to get power at any cost
and then make the best use of it for their own aggrandisement'.

Talk turned to the country's economic problems, would it not he one of his
priorities to do something about them? I)id he not think that we had got,
left behind by the rest of the world mainly because we had taken the wrong
road? He did not agree. He believes that the mixed economy Jawaharlal
Nehru started us off with, war, by far the best road we could have taken.
The public sector could be run successfully, he said, if it was run in the
right way. But, yes, the government should be more interested in tackling
problems of health and education rather than in running factories.

"When I first became an MP in 1957, I remember a discussion in the. Lok
Sabha in which Panditji's government was talking about setting up the
Ashoka Hotel and I said surely it was the government's job to build
hospitals and not hotels. I remember he got quite angry and said we were
too young, too new in politics, to understand these things."

So, why, I asked did BJP governments in states like Rajasthan continue to
run hotels instead of privatising them? The reflective look returned, grew
deeper as he struggled to rind an explanation before he finally said, "It's
very difficult to change these things until there is a change at the Centre
and this will come, I am sure about it. I think people want a stable
government in Delhi and they will vote for whichever party can provide them
with one."

Then the inevitable question, can the BJP win a majority in the Lok Sabha
without Muslim votes? He said that he did not think that the Muslims were
as averse to the BJP any more. He said he believed that they had got
beyond the Babri Masjid and wanted the same things other voters did. jobs,
schools, stability a better life,

Did he still believe that the tearing down of the Babri Masjid was wrong,
did he blame his party for what had happened? "I still believe it was
wrong. I, think it happened because other parties did not understand the
sensitivity of the issue. No, I don't think the BJP was to blame. Don't
forget that It was Rajiv Gandhi who allowed the locks to be opened, he who
allowed the foundation stone (of a temple) to be laid. He who started his
election campaign from Ayodhya with the promise of 'Ramrajya' . We came
into the picture much later."

We talked of other things, too many other things to fit into a column this
size and at the end of it, in my Ist Class A/C compartment on the way back
to Delhi, I could not help thinking that people were right when they said
Vajpayee was the right prime minister for India in the wrong party. Can he
win while still being In the wrong party? Only time and the next election
will tell.

COMMENT

From,
Ashok Chowgule
Kanchanjunga,
72, Dr G Deshmukha Marg,
Mumbai - 400 026.

30th June 1997

Sir,

When Smt Tavleen Singh says that Shri Atalji is a good man in the wrong
party, she echoes what others have said of many of the BJP leaders. Looks
like there is a need for Smt Singh to re-evaluate her opinion of the party.

In a parliamentary democracy system, a person becomes a Prime Minister
only when he is elected to lead the parliamentary wing of the party. So
the person has to be considered a symbol of the party. Therefore, it is
axiomatic that if a person is good the party is good.

What Smt Singh has said is the same thing that Shri Nani
Palkhivala, noted jurist in India, said at a public meeting in Shri
Atalji's presence. At the time Shri Atalji gave a fitting reply to Shri
Palkhivala.

In formulating the present policies of the BJP, Shri Atalji has had an
important role to play. Also, when the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the
precursor of the BJP) was formed in the early 1950s, one of the first
pracharak deputed by the RSS to the party was Shri Atalji.

Yours sincerely,

Ashok Chowgule

To,
The Editor
The Afternoon Despatch and courier
Afternoon House,
6 Nanabhai Lane,
Fort, Mumbai.


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