Vajpayee: The BJP’s star, and his own person - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Vajpayee: The BJP’s star, and his own person

Dec 24, 2021 08:27 PM IST

He had a ghar — the BJS and then the BJP, in which he resided with several others. But he also had a gharana — of which he was the creator, the practitioner, of which he was the sole occupant

When Krishna Devi presented to her husband the school teacher Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, this day in 1924, a son, they must have wished the best and the most blessed for him, but could not have guessed his future. Or that of Gwalior where they were living, or of India. They could not have guessed by a long shot that the rulers of the fort-crowned principality, the Scindias, would one day cease to be rulers, would become part of a free Indian Republic’s new polity where elected representatives of the people, not kings, would govern the land in the name of the people. They could not have imagined that the new-born would one day be someone the Scindias would look up to, would need, would stand with, stand against, only to stand with him again. And with him rising taller and taller with each passing year, each election, each decade.

From the Opposition’s ranks, Vajpayee never spoke a word that hurt, though it reached its target. He never made a point at the other’s expense, never wanted to win a debate or even an argument. (Sanjay Sharma/HT Photo) PREMIUM
From the Opposition’s ranks, Vajpayee never spoke a word that hurt, though it reached its target. He never made a point at the other’s expense, never wanted to win a debate or even an argument. (Sanjay Sharma/HT Photo)

But they would not have been surprised to find Atal Bihari absorbing the history and cultural ambience of a place which had faced and repulsed an attack by Mahmud Ghazni in 1021, captured by Iltutmish in 1231, staying under Muslim rule till the Tomars gained control of it, inaugurating what was locally regarded as its golden age. There is such a thing as the atmospherics of one’s child mindscape. Atal Bihari knew, certainly, of the musical genius Ramtanu of Rewa better known as Tansen who attended a music school at Gwalior and was to become one of Akbar’s navaratnas.

A Tansen, I feel, slipped quietly into Atal Bihari’s psyche — with aesthetic genius, a sense of measured melody, infused like in the great man’s dhrupad with a thoughtful and carefully calibrated delineation of idea and expression and that genre’s gentle but undeniable strength. As Tansen was in Akbar’s court, his own person, so was this youth going to be in whatever he was to do, though in an organisation, bound by its rigid nostrums, its set views, its unalterable coda.

Atal Bihari was all of 14 going on 15 when, in 1939, he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a “cultural” organisation, but with an unmistakeable political voltage. He was 94 going on 95 when he died, on August 16, 2018. He had remained connected to that “address” all his life. But connected with a thread that was his own, drawn from his own mind.

Atalji had been in politics, therefore, counting from 1939 to 2018, for 80 years.

In politics, throughout; in power briefly.

He was minister for external affairs (1977-1979) for some two years and then prime minister (PM) over three spells, for a little over six years (1996, 1998-2004) , which makes a total of eight years. Eight out of 80 is a modest score. But a significant one, for being PM of India, is an extraordinary achievement.

Far more significant, in my view, are the 72 years that he spent in politics, but not in power or, to put it differently, when he was, so to say, outside office and inside the Opposition. Can the pre-Independence RSS be described as “Opposition”? Not strictly, for it did not oppose or challenge the Raj as the Congress was doing. But it was opposed to the Congress, which was the leading and growing political force at the time. He was, like his chosen organisation was at that time, a naysayer.

After 1947, he was, of course, frontally, in the Opposition. Of the five decades that he was in Parliament, he was in the Opposition for four and more, as a Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) Member of Parliament, indeed, its star. And in that role, the role of a dissenter of distinctive sparkle, an opponent with his particular style of speaking and debating, as an occupant of the Opposition’s bench in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha with a personal charisma that won friends across the political divide, Atalji became what he became — a national figure who was his party’s ornament, but, more, his own person.

He had a ghar — the BJS and then the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in which he resided with several others. But he also had a gharana — of which he was the creator, the practitioner, of which he was the sole occupant. If I was to give his gharana a name like Gwalior, Agra, Atrauli-Jaipur, Kirana, Patiala, to mark its flavour and its strength, I would not choose a place but a position and call it the Gharana Maryada — of dignity, decency, decorum, and honour. One in which there is a sense of what is right, what is not right, what is done, what is not done.

From the Opposition’s ranks, he never spoke a word that hurt, though it reached its target. He never made a point at the other’s expense, never wanted to win a debate or even an argument. Jawaharlal Nehru on the treasury benches and he on the Opposition bench exchanged friendship with frankness, courtesy with candour. Atalji as minister and PM defended his policies with ardour but never said a word that could injure the maryada of a single Opposition leader or party.

Atalji could, therefore, say what he said in Parliament at Nehru’s death in the most melodic and moving Hindi, which translates poorly as: “The sun has set, we now have to find our way with the help of star-dust” — dhrupad at its highest. But there was also a tough political message in his obituary speech: “His [Nehru’s] way of carrying his opponents with him, that sajjanata, that mahanata will perhaps be difficult to come by in the near future…”.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former administrator, diplomat and governor

The views expressed are personal

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch Now!

Continue reading with HT Premium Subscription

Daily E Paper I Premium Articles I Brunch E Magazine I Daily Infographics
freemium
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Gopalkrishna Gandhi read English Literature at St Stephen’s College, Delhi. A civil servant and diplomat, he was Governor of West Bengal, 2004-2009. He is currently Distinguished Professor of History and Politics at Ashoka University

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Friday, March 29, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On