NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

Master of all he surveys

Power, it sure would seem, puts back the spring in one's step, the spunk in one's stride, the steel in one's soul. Age may wither beauty and the beast alike, but a dollop of power is all it would take to bring back the magic.

And we in India, thanks to the gerontocracy that we have come to be comfortable with, have seen instance after instance of the old and the dutiful picking up the gauntlet thrown by Time, for the sake of the nation, the party, the people. But never for themselves.

The most memorable sight of the infirm batting for the nation was, of course, in 1991. When P V Narasimha Rao had packed up his bags to move back to native Andhra Pradesh, not even his closest journalist friends could have faulted him on the decision. With a youthful Rajiv Gandhi holding sway for as long as one can foresee it was sayonara time for the olden goldies till Fate, and a clutch of RDX wielding desperadoes, intervened to alter the script.

Rao, who had pleaded indisposition to justify his superannuation, bounced back with a vigour that would have left even P T Usha gasping at the sidelines. Gone was the ennui, the feeling of physical decline. In fact, I dare say that till the scams came home to roost, Rao provided what was easily the most remarkable administration in post-independence India. Such was the power of, well, power...

Sure, A B Vajpayee did not start off with reports of fatigue derailing him. Although no one believed that he would win the 100-metre sprint, he has shown that his endurance is no less than that of a long distance swimmer.

Mentioning the two prime ministers in the same breath does not do justice to either. Despite starting off in a minority, Rao, of course, did not have the pressures of a coalition fractious coalition, a restive party, a truculent parent organisation, or a bunch of associates who are easily lumped together as the 'lunatic fringe'.

To that extent, what Vajpayee has shown in the near one year that he has been prime minister for the third time round, is remarkable. Despite the numbers stacked against him in the Rajya Sabha, his supremacy over the administration is complete - and almost ranks alongside the near-deification that the members of the Gandhi family were subject to when they were in power.

Where Vajpayee scores over the Gandhi scions was that his hold over the party, the administration, and the nation was no thanks to a dumb but electorally fecund surname.

Remember his first stint, the 13-day wonder that bowed out before the crucial vote of confidence rather like Charan Singh did two decades ago. Those were the days of the BJP's splendid isolation; it had no friends, not enough votes to see it through in the Lok Sabha. But given the dynamics of the 11th Lok Sabha, all Vajpayee and his party had to do was sit back and watch the other aspirants self-destruct and then wait for the invitation from the electorate.

Finding new friends was easy, especially since the BJP had realised that its agenda was downright effete beyond a point. Ram, masjid and the like would take it only this far and no further, and were hence dispensable.

There was hardly anything to choose between the BJP of its second term, and its current, third term. Both are minority governments supported by allies. The dynamics of the 12th Lok Sabha were cruel; although the BJP and friends managed to only edge past the half-way mark, there was no way anyone else could have formed the government despite the best efforts of Jayalalitha and Co.

But it is Vajpayee's third term that is truly remarkable. He still heads a minority government, but the dynamics are less harsh this time. His party cannot still hope to get the magical numbers that will enable the prime minister to "establish a government of our dreams", but despite this he has achieved a level of hegemony over both party and administration that is remarkable.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which was reported to have misgivings about the 'non-Hindu' direction that the government was heading in, has been contained, that is if there had been any subterranean shifting in the tectonic plates in Nagpur in the first place. The BJP itself has a Vajpayee man as its chief, one whose 'flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood' speech about Muslims could only have come from the potboiler factories of Chennai. Better still, the RSS fully backs this new line, one that seeks to win over a community that has served as the BJP's whipping boys on the latter's ride to power.

The PM raises an eyebrow, and the party's most well known ideologue is sent to Coventry. The PM frowns, and a promising but intemperate woman leader continues in purgatory...

Much was made out of the unease between Vajpayee and his home minister. But it is clear that L K Advani has chosen to play second fiddle. If he is hurt by the subtle sidelining that he has been subject to, in the BJP's true tradition he is not showing it.

However, despite Vajpayee's unchallenged status in both party and government, what is unusual about the phenomenon is that there is no TINA factor in evidence. His council of ministers may not be easily identifiable to international press photographers even if they are regulars at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but there is no dearth of talent to take over if the need arises. But more about that later...

Saisuresh Sivaswamy