Vajpayee's swan song

As such Vajpayee's decision was somewhat least expected and he was likely to remain around for few more years. In fact, he would have been prime minister for the fourth time had his party and the NDA alliance won the national elections over one and a half years ago. Vajpayee was declared before polls to continue as next prime minister if the combine was voted to power again. But the NDA lost to the UPA led by the Congress and Vajpayee was content with being in the opposition again. Hardly anyone cheered at the national convention when he made the announcement because the BJP admires him and was keen to have his services for some more time -- especially at the present situation when the party probably needs him more.

Undoubtedly, this will be the virtual end of a long and eventful political career if Vajpayee really sticks to his decision. Once he had made similar decision over three years ago, as prime minister, but later rescinded it responding to demands from the party. The announcement that time was made out of disgust and frustration over certain events and behaviour of some party leaders. This time, the decision seems to be more carefully made rather than stemming from emotion or apathy. Till now, there was no clear indication that he was thinking otherwise.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's political life spanned more than six decades and is generally viewed as marked by both success and controversy. Certainly, the last decade saw him reach the zenith as it is during this period he was premier twice and seen as a successful and popular head of government. Beginning as the activist of Rastriya Sevak Sangha (RSS) before the partition, he emerged after the independence as a prominent leader of the "Jansangh", the political party whose main ideology was based on Hindu nationalism. Both Vajpayee and Advani are of same political breed, but their attitude to the issue of communalism saw some shift when the "Jansangh" merged with some other parties including the Congress of old guards like Morarji Desai in the mid seventies to form the "Janata Party" to challenge the main Congress which the new party successfully did by wresting power.

Vajpayee was the external affairs minister and Advani information minister. As foreign minister, Vajpayee was credited with drives to improve ties with India's small neighbours and also initiate reconciliatory efforts to normalise relations with big neighbour China soured since 1962 border clashes. But the Janata Party government collapsed before the term due to infighting and former "Jansangh" men set up a new party called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) once again taking a hard communal line. This party gain a phenomenal growth in record time and took its tally of only two seats in the Loksabha to finally in a position to rule India.

Vajpayee was prime minister of the BJP government that was in power for hardly twelve days. but later it allied with several parties to form the National Democratic Alliance(NDA) that ruled India for two consecutive terms and Vajpayee was premier on both the occasions. The first term was cut short due to majority problem in the parliament while the second one was short by six months as an over-confident NDA advanced the polls only to watch its own defeat. As the prime minister and main leader of the NDA, the decision reflected poorly on Vajpayee, who took a gamble that did not pay off. In the midst of many successes, this was certainly a blunder for him at the twilight of his political life.

Vajpayee's BJP is widely seen as communal, but he projected a moderate face in the party, which was dominated by hardliners like Advani, M.M. Joshi and others. Vajpayee often found himself walking tight rope on the communal issue within the organisation, but he was indespensible for the BJP and its allies as he enjoyed charisma and popularity that others clearly lacked. He had no rival as such within the NDA, which heavily rallied on his image for electoral fortunes. However, Vajpayee also blew hot and cold on the issue of communalism as he was conscious that he had to keep the issue close to his heart since BJP itself was based on broadly Hindu nationalism. Paradoxically, Advani himself has gone through noticeable change on the issue of communalism in recent times when he infuriated the hardliners by his Pakistan trip and appreciating its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. In the Mumbai convention both leaders struck a line that was close to secularism while the new president of the party Rajnath Singh is clearly a hardliner being a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh where Ayodhya is located. The party took a vow to build the Ram temple on the site of destroyed "Babri" mosque. However, Vajpayee and Advani could not distance themselves from the demand even though they are less enthusiastic on the communal issue.

Vajpayee's another seemingly failure is his unremitting crusade against Congress and present UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi terming her as a "foreigner" which the electorate clearly rejected. He also could not reach to the bottom of the much talked about "Bofors" arms purchase scandal allegedly done by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi even though he (Vajpayee) had long period as the premier to look into the issue. Now again, the BJP says that Rajiv, Sonia and Congress were involved in the pay-off of the deal. Whether there is truth in the allegations -- the NDA government under Vajpayee could not resolve. This is also telling failure on part of the administration he headed while the Bofors controversy raged.

In any case, India will be poorer in the political field without popular Vajpayee, a poet and a great orator who could mesmerise the audience during his prime time. Vajpayee said he will be out of "power politics", meaning he is retiring from active politics. His absence from active politics is a loss for the politicians not only in India, but entire South Asia and in a sense to all democracies. For, Vajpayee was a full time politician, who cared for probity in public life and welfare of people in addition to being a truly democrat even though there may be controversy revolving his basic policies and ideology.

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury is Senior Special Correspondent of BSS.