HVK Archives: Advani and Vajpayee repeat history
Advani and Vajpayee repeat history - Indian Express
Neerja Chowdhury
()
April 13, 1998
Title: Advani and Vajpayee repeat history
Author: Neerja Chowdhury
Publication: Indian Express
Date: April 13, 1998
Though comparison is odious, there are many similarities between
the Nehru-Patel team and the Vajpayee-Advani duo. The most
obvious one is that poet and Prime Minister Vajpayee, like writer
and Prime Minister Nehru, has decided to retain the External
Affairs portfolio. This is not just a coincidence, but also a
matter of inclination.
Fifty years ago, Sardar Patel was the natural choice to head the
Home Ministry. So is Advani, who opted for it in preference to
the Finance portfolio.
Nehru could be delightfully vague and indecisive. So is Vajpayee,
who dislikes having to deal with the nitty-gritty of governance.
Patel, on the other hand, was known to be brutally precise.
Advani, too, is a man of few words, and what he says is carefully
enunciated. He once said that in his early years, he shunned
public speaking because Vajpayee was such a powerful orator. He
began to speak only when he entered Parliament.
Nehru had the support of the masses, the intelligentsia, the
minorities and the leftists. Vajpayee has a wide appeal for the
masses and the intelligentsia. The left does not exercise the
sort of influence it did in the post-Independence years. The
minorities make a distinction between Vajpayee and the BJP, and
find him acceptable.
Sardra Patel was the strong man of the organisation. So is
Advani. He can relax with party colleagues over dinner unlike
Vajpayee, who prefers to spend his evenings with family. He is
also capable of taking tough decisions and sticking to promises.
He had assured Som Pal the Baghpat seat when the Jat leader
joined the BJP. But subsequently, Ajit Singh demanded it when he
was negotiating with the BJP and Kalyan Singh was keen that he be
given it because of the BKKP MLAs whose support he needed.
Advani, however held fm.
Sardar Patel was also the darling of the civil service and
Kripalani called him "the greatest administrator we had". Soon
after the interim government took over in 1946, Patel called a
meeting of civil servants to reassure them, following demands
that the Indian Civil Service be abolished.
Officials in the Home Ministry already look upon Advani with awe.
Files sent to him in the morning, they say, are returned within
the day. His predecessor often failed to take a decision for
months.
Crucially important is the respect that Advani and Vajpayee have
for each other, despite their differences. Patel's many
differences with Nehru, like referring the Kashmir issue to the
UN, are now part of the prized correspondence between the two.
But these were never made public.
The two came close to parting company several times for instance,
on the election of Purushottam Das Tandon as Congress President
in 1950. Tandon, Patel's candidate, defeated Kripalani, Nehru's
nominee. It was over this episode that Patel told Nehru, "I have
known you for 30 years, but l haven't been able to enter your
heart."
Tandon finally resigned, for it became difficult to run the
party. Nehru could assert himself at that time because like,
Patel, he had a following in the organisation. While Vajpayee's
appeal goes beyond the organisation, he has not acquired a hold
in the party.
While the regard that Nehru and Patel had for each other was born
of a shared commitment to freedom, with the Vajpayee Advani team,
it is the byproduct of a camaraderie created over long years in
the opposition.
Patel and Nehru were lucky to have Gandhi as an arbitrator and
both accepted his mediatory role. Vajpayee and Advani have no
one like Gandhi to turn to.
Advani (like Patel) has agreed to work under Vajpayee. He had
emerged as numero uno after 1990 and the party took giant steps
under his leadership. When Advani declared Vajpayee, the party's
acknowledged mass leader, as the BJP's prime ministerial
candidate at the Bombay session, he too had come to acquire an
appeal among the Hindu masses. The idea at the time was to
project an alternative Brahmin leadership to Narasimha Rao. But
Advani never went back on it, not even when the courts
absolved him of the hawala charges.
This would be unthinkable in today's Congress, whereas 50 years
ago Patel accepted it with grave, though not without difficulty.
It was after Gandhi's death that Patel referred to Nehru as his
leader in a moving speech on Gandhi's birthday in 1950. "I have
been referred to as the Deputy Prime Minister. I never think of
myself in these terms. Nehru is our leader. Bapu appointed him
as his successor... I know only this much, and am satisfied that
I still am where Bapu posted me." (From Patel: A Life by Rajmohan
Gandhi).
The essential difference between the scenarios then and now is
one of political culture. The leaders then had to give a public
explanation for their actions. There was no scope for decisions
behind closed doors. But now, both Vajpayee and Advani have
effortlessly glossed over Ayodhya. The country still does not
know whether they regretted the demolition of the Babri mosque.
Once Nehru had taken over Patel who was 14 years older, was not a
contender for the top job because of his age and ill-health. As
of now, it cannot be said whether Advani will be the successor to
Vajpayee or his replacement.
Their complex relationship has been marked by an unstated
restraint and, magnanimity, and this has helped them transcend
the many differences they might have had. At one level both arts
detached, though both are practical politicians. But then, power
does strange things and it remains to be seen how they deal with
its problems. It might be recalled that the challenges to the
Patel Nehru team had increased after the Congress formed the
government.
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