Vajpayee: The man who was ready to listen

He was the man who showed the saffron brigade its space under the sun.

- SHANTANU GUHA RAY

One of the most widely circulated videos of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on YouTube revolves around his speech in Parliament on intolerance and how a portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru was removed from the corridors of the Ministry of External Affairs. It was done by someone in the hope Vajpayee would be pleased. But that was not the case. Vajpayee—despite his animosity against India’s first PM—did not like the idea of the missing portrait. The following day the portrait was back in its place. Speaking about it in Parliament, Vajpayee said politics is all about tolerance and that is something Indian politics is missing. In some ways, a new biography titled “Vajpayee: The Ascent of the Hindu Right 1924-1977” by Abhishek Choudhary highlights some of the intricate characters of the person who had a mind of his own and even questioned the effectiveness of the much-publicised Quit India movement of Mahatma Gandhi (read Congress). I am told this tome is the first of a twopart volume published by Picador.

So how would you analyse this one, which the publishers are claiming as the most definitive biography of the former PM and BJP supremo, a man who showed the saffron brigade its space under the sun with his magnanimity and ideas? I remember having met him once briefly when the Indian cricket team was headed for Pakistan in 2004. Vajpayee posed with the cricketers and wrote on a bat that was meant to be gifted to Gen Pervez Musharraf. Vajpayee scribbled, Match Nahin, Dil Bhi Jitiye (Not just matches, win hearts also). I am told Gen Musharraf, who died in Dubai on 5 February 2023, had treasured the bat for many years.