Lucknow Santa Claus is not well

By Dilip Awasthi
Lucknow’s own Santa Claus is not well. The winning smile has turned into quizzical wide-eyed gaze. The eloquent, witty orator who could hold huge crowds across the country spellbound now makes futile attempts to mumble something but then raises his hands helplessly and quietly slumps back into his wheel chair. This Christmas, Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be 86.

All those politicians and friends, who are still in touch, recall their recent meetings with him to remember him fondly. Says Lalji Tandon, who succeeded him as the local BJP MP, “ He takes his time to recognize you but cannot talk coherently.” Tandon, his campaign manager in all elections, met him just a fortnight ago. He stared at Tandon for a while and then just laughed. “Doctors don’t allow many meetings unless senior leaders turn up”, says Shiv Kumar, his private secretary for 40 years, who still runs the ex-PM’s residential office. “There are 20-30 visitors each day,”says Shiv Kumar.

Lucknow has been dear to him always. Here he won five consecutive elections from 1991 to 2004. Just a couple of public meetings on each occasion fetched him huge victory margins. In 2004 he won with a margin of 37% votes against Samajwadi Party’s Madhu Gupta. His electoral opponents have been heavy-weights like Dr Karan Singh, Raj Babbar and Muzzaffar Ali. In 1996 he won from Gandhinagar (Gujarat) also but retained Lucknow as his seat.

As an MP from the state capital and as the Prime Minister, Vajpayee indeed proved to be Lucknow’s Santa Claus. Developmental works worth over Rs 25,000 crore guaranteed a new sheen to Lucknow. Most foundation plaques would display his name most projects including four to six-laned highways development, metro or memo rail concepts and projects, a web of power substations, several beautification schemes bear his stamp. For almost two decade (1991-2009) Atalji, as he was fondly referred to, has been integral part of Lucknow’s life.

Rajesh Pande, a former BJP MLA and Atalj’s election manager in Lucknow, fondly remembers his famous repartee during 1996 Lok Sabha election campaign. When somebody presented him a garland during his election campaign, “Arey bhai haar nahin, mai jeet lene aayaa hoon…” Vajpayee could devastate his critics with his oratory skills. During 1998 elections Jan Sangh leader Balraj Madhok called Vajpayee a “dual-faced politicians”, a “slippery person”and a “liar” in a campaign meeting in the city. Journalists rushed to Atalji for his reaction. There emerged the well-known mischevious smile, a pause and then, “….wo mere bahut senior hein….” And everybody in the room broke into laughter.

Atalji last visited Lucknow in October 2006, this time on a wheel chair. His health was failing but he still campaigned for BJP mayoral candidate Dinesh Sharma, His visit did turn the election in Sharma’s favour. Recalls Mayor Sharma, who met him a month ago, “I will always be indebted to him that despite his physical condition, he campaigned for me.” Present Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon contested and won the 2009 elections on Atalji’s signed appeal to Lucknowites.

These days, Atalji’s days, tells Shiv Kumar, are restricted to his Delhi house. Doctors are in attendance of the former PM throughout. He goes through a physiotherapy session in the morning and a general check-up in the evening. He watches TV for a while in the evening a meets senior leaders if there is an appointment. Shiv Kumar says L.K. Advani, Nitin Gatkari, Rajnath Singh keep visiting Atalji. But for infection he suffered in February 2009 for he was put on the ventilator in the ICU of AIIMS, there has been no serious cause of concern. He has lost weight. His responses are dulled and senses are failing. It all is age-related, says Tandon. But the legendary statesman, who could praise Nehru or Indira Gandhi and upset the RSS-BJP cadres, can still smile….

Growing old but not wiser

By Dilip Awasthi

1934, 1936, 1941 and 45 are not the participating models of a vintage car rally. In a world obsessed with youth, these are the entries in the year column of the frontline state BJP leaders.

Like in case of women, never ask the age of a BJP state leader. It will be a waste of time as a truthful answer is unlikely to come. In this age of information, it took a collective effort of three days to figure out the dates of birth of senior BJP state leaders. The reactions in the party office ranged from a confused “but what has happened….?” or a panicky “Is everthing allright?..” to the lame execuse “we don’t maintain such records…”.

At a stage when the Congress is celeberating the rise of 1971 born Rahul Gandhi and even Mulayam Singh Yadav is pinning hopes of his party’s future on his son Akhilesh (1973), who has been made the state party chief , the BJP seems to have run out of young blood in its ranks. Its playing eleven has proved infirm and incapable and the benches in the dugout are empty.

It all starts at the top with 1927 born LK Advani, who certainly would not like tobe referred to as prime minsietr still-in-waiting in 2012. It percolates down to Uttar Pradesh, the state which brought the BJP in political limelight in the late 1990s. The age list of party’s torch-bearers reads Keshari Nath Tripathi (1934), Lalji Tandon (1936), Kalraj Misra (1941), Om Prakash Singh (1945), national president Rajnath Singh and state president Dr Ramapati Ram Tripathi (both 1951) and Vinay Katiyar (both 1959). The list of state-level leaders virtually ends here.

They all are having a slippery relationship with time. Some of them are already puffing and panting. The rest would be knocking 55-60 and will join the superannuated club by 2012 when the state will have Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections together. The party office will be reminiscent of a geriatric ward by then. “An old head doesn’t always mean a wise one”, reflects a BJP well-wisher.

What is sad is that no one in the party seems to admit this. In a stock-talking meeting to analyse the Lok Sabha debacle, the state leaders concluded that the party had increased its voteshare. Just look at the figures to appreciate this audacity. The party could win just 10 seats and polled 17.5%, which is 0.5% more than 2007 Vidhan Sabha elections. They are celebrating this but convieniently choose to forget that the party polled 22.1% in 2004 Lok Sabha elections for a similar number of seats.

The party’s dismal performance is also proved by the fact that only 11 of its candidates finished as runners up and 30 were at number three whereas as many as 32 forfeited their deposit. In 2004 as many as 21 BJP candidates were runners up and 31 finished at number three whereas just 20 lost their security money.

That the party has run out of ideas and young state level leaders is proved by the decisions which it has been taking at crucial junctures. In 1999 when it had to replace towering Kalyan Singh as the chief minister, the best they could manage was 1923 born late Ram Prakash Gupta, who was 76 then. Yet again after the 2007 Vidhan Sabha humiliation when the party wanted to replace Keshari Nath Tripathi (1934) as the state president, the saffron archives could only yield Dr Ramapati Tam Tripathi, a 1951 born homeopathic doctor, who had been an unsung party general secretary for 11 years.

Now again a reshuffle is said to be in offing. In the absence of a second line, how many candles will be on the cake is anyone’s guess.

What a vulture and what a Ram

Lucknow: All is fair when it comes to battle of ballots. Even it amounts to lampooning Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But the Kanpur unit of BJP might find the going tough this time. The alleged indecent portrayal of the two top leaders in posters put up by the saffron brigade in run up to Lal Krishna Advani's Kanpur rally on Friday, has sent UP Congress leadership in a huddle.
An upset UP Congress Commiittee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi is already on a revenge trail. On Thursday she told journalists that UPCC is hold legal consultation. "We will take to task leaders named in the offending posters, whatever be their rank in BJP," she said. The UPCC will also aprise the election commission by lodging a formal complaint against the launch of highly defamatory campaign by the BJP prime minister nominee. The party will also petition president Pratibha Patil on the same issue, she added.

Several hoardings appeared in Kanpur at strategic locations en route Phoolbagh - the venue of the BJP rally. They show Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on the wings of a monstrous vulture. The same poster presents LK Advani as lord Ram aiming an arrow at the vulture. The top of the hoarding has snapshots of BJP leaders Raj Nath Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani, while the catchline emblazoned across reads "mahangai ke vadh hetu manniya Atalji ka sandesh, Advani ji ke hath mei saunpo Bharat desh" (To eleiminate inflation here is a message from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, hand over India to Lal Krishna Advani).
"This is no way to refer to national leaders," Ms Joshi said. "We have had our share of differences with Vajpayee, but Congress, during the election campaign in Lucknow or else where, never stooped to such levels as to demonise him. We will not take this humiliation lying down."
As if on cue, Congress workers in Kanpur launched an offensive by burning effigies of Advani in Kanpur on Thursday. The district president of Kanpur Congress unit, Mohammad Aseem Khan, was quoted in a section of the press saying that as a mark of protest against the disrespect shown to their leaders, the Congress workers would burn Advani's effigies in all Parliamentary constituencies whenever Advani takes to the podium.
But BJP remains unrepentant. State BJP president Ramapati Ram Tripathi said the motive was not to hurt anyone. "They should not take things personally. In any case, I have not seen the posters and will consider taking the next step only after viewing them," he said. However his fire brand colleague and former UP BJP chief Vinay Katiyar ruled out any compromise. "These people are bleeding the country dry and we can't even point it out", he said . They are welcome to the court if they so want, he said.