HVK Archives: Atal Bihari is today's Syama Prasad
Atal Bihari is today's Syama Prasad - The Times of India
L. K. Advani
()
December 25, 1997
Title: Atal Bihari is today's Syama Prasad
Author: L. K. Advani
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 25, 1997
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee entered Parliament for the first time
in 1957, after the second general elections. Addressing party MPs
recently at a training camp organised for them at Jhinjholi in
Haryana, Atalji quipped that elections was for him a three-in-one
experience! The Jana Sangh had set up Shri Vajpayee from three
different constituencies of Uttar Pradesh - from Mathura, from
Lucknow and from Balrampur. In Lucknow, Atalji recalled, he lost
the battle. In Mathura, he not only lost, he forfeited his
deposit as well. But in Balrampur, he scored a single triumph,
and became leader of the four-member Jana Sangh team in the Lok
Sabha.
I do not know what precisely prompted the party leadership at
that time to make Atalji contest from three seats. But looking
back, I guess it was Deendayalji's judgement that was responsible
for the decision. Evidently, Deendayalji was keen that Vajpayee
must reach the Lok Sabha, even if that meant trying his luck in
three places. Panditji clearly perceived that if anyone in the
party could ever fill the gaping void left behind in the
fledgling party by the martyrdom of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji, it
was the 31 -year old youth, gifted with wisdom and maturity far
beyond his age.
Surveying the political scene in the country forty years later,
and the remarkably unique. place Vajpayee has come to occupy in
national politics, one cannot but be impressed by Deendayalji's
foresight. Atal Bihari is without doubt the Syama Prasad of
today. And, I dare say, Atal Bihari means much more to the India
of the ninetees than Syama Prasad did to the India of fifties.
When I say this I am not at all comparing the two personalities
in question. I am only contrasting the circumstances in which the
two were functioning.
Dr, Mookerjee was an outstanding educationist. In Parliament and
in the politics of his days he was reckoned a titan. But there
were several other stalwarts also at the time, both in the
Congress as well as in other parties.
Today's politics, on the other hand, abounds with pygmies.
Atalji, therefore, towers above contemporary political leaders
like a colossus. No wonder, the hopes and expectations that the
people have come to have in him are enormous. Every opinion poll
conducted in the country during the past one year or so amply
bears out this fact.
My own proximity to Atalji also dates from 1957. Until 1957, my
field of activity was Rajasthan. But in 1957 after Atalji's
election to the Lok Sabha, party general secretary Shri Deendayal
Upadhyaya had me shifted to Delhi. I was to set up the Jana
Sangh's parliamentary office and assist the MPs in their work.
Ever since, we two have been working closely in the party, and
later. when I was elected to Rajya Sabha, also in Parliament.
Today in the country, Atalji has millions of admirers. Most of
them may have become his fans because of his matchless oratory.
However, knowing him from very close quarters, I hold that his
superb eloquence and masterly command over language only add to
his innate qualities of leadership which essentially stem from
his deep concern for the country and its people.
An earnest commitment to egalitarianism and a poet's natural
empathy with the weak and the neglected impart to his
individuality qualities that endear him to one and all including
those who disagree with the ideology that has motivated him all
his life.
For the greater part of his political career, Atalji has been on
the opposition benches. Most politicians who remain in the
opposition for prolonged periods tend to become cynical critics
and chronic castigators. Negativism often becomes part of their
psyche. One reason why Atalji has succeeded in developing a
universal supra-party appeal is that he is singularly free from
any such negativism. I have heard him make trenchant attacks on
the treasury benches. But his criticism is rarely personal, and
even when it is, there is no malice in it. His witty and
satirical barbs may make the victim squirm with discomfort, but
they do not cause wounds and so leave no scars behind. The final
upshot is invariably constructive.
Shri Vajpayee's RSS links have been subject matter of
considerable comment, both in the media as well as outside. I
well remember the rumpus raised by some members of the Janata
Party when Prime Minister Shri Morarji Desai proposed to entrust
Atalji with the External Affairs portfolio. After all, he is an
RSS man, these members protested; our relations with Pakistan
would be irretrievably soured, they cautioned Shri Desai.
Disregarding their unsought of counsel Shri Desai made Atalji
Foreign Minister in his government.
Students of India-Pakistan relations now readily concede that the
period 1977-79, namely the period when Vajpayee was the External
Affairs Minister was the best the two countries have ever
experienced since independence. I have heard the Pakistan Prime
Minister Shri Nawaz Sharif himself testify to this. This was in
1991 when Shri Sharif (at that time also he was Prime Minister)
came to New Delhi to participate in Shri Rajiv Gandhi's funeral.
At his invitation Shri Vajpayee and I called on him at his Ashok
Hotel suite' And the first remark that he made after he greeted
us was:
"Mr. Vajpayee, I have not met you before. But I have no
hesitation saying that Pakistan's relations with India have never
been as warm and cordial. as they were when you were your
country's Foreign Minster."
During Vajpayeeji's tenure there may not have been- a hotline
between Desai and Zia. But there weren't these unending bomb-
blasts either that the country is having to suffer during the
past nineteen months.
Most media comments about Vajpayee qua RSS are ill-informed.
Quite a few are motivated. For a section of the press BJP-
baiting has become a chronic malady.
In 1980, the Janata Party raised the "dual-membership" issue, and
sought to force us (those who had come to the party from the Jana
Sangh) to disown the RSS. Their mistaken assumption was that
Atalji may not resist the move.
At the meeting of the Janata Parliamentary Board where this
matter was discussed, Shri Vajpayee was literally furious. "We've
come to the Janata Party only three years back. Our association
with the RSS is since our childhood! And you want us to snap our
ties with the RSS! Do you understand what you are saying?" Shri
Vajpayee's commitment to the RSS and its ideology of cultural
nationalism has always been unswerving. But he is also conscious
of the fact, and rightly so, that in a country as vast and
variegated as ours, representative democracy warrants that
ideology should provide idealism and a value-base to the party,
and a direction for policy-formulation; it should not become a
strait-jacket constraint on political and governmental decision.
Along with the-rest of my countrymen I offer my hearty greetings
to Atalji on his birth anniversary. The nation is eagerly looking
forward to his assuming the reins of office in March next and
leading India into the twenty first century on a crest of hope
and confidence.
(Mr L. K. Advani is the BJP President)
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