August 17, 1998

The prime minister's detractors say he is ill, and that a palace coup is imminent. His supporters say he is fighting fit.

By Saba Naqvi Bhaumik

A prime minister's sneeze can shake an entire government. Take the metamorphosis of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, described only the other day as wise, witty and charming. Barely five months in the hot seat and the adjectives have changed to tired, exhausted, listless. Combine this with a whisper campaign that the 73-year-old prime minister is seriously ill, possibly suffering from cancer of the prostate gland, and the damage may be difficult to undo.

The campaign began in mid-June, during the summer recess of parliament, when Vajpayee had taken a five-day break at his summer retreat in Manali. Stories about the prime minister's illness began to mysteriously appear in obscure dailies, forcing the BJP to issue a formal denial. Just as suddenly the rumours died away.

Vajpayee had lost a kidney in 1985 and like former prime minister I.K. Gujral wears a hearing aid. But unlike P.V. Narasimha Rao, who had a heart bypass surgery before he became prime minister, Vajpayee has no cardiac trouble and his blood sugar levels are normal. He works from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m, tries to snatch a half-hour afternoon nap, walks for exercise whenever possible and is not particularly fussy about food. An average health condition for a man of 70-plus.

If rumours of ill health have gained some credibility it is partly due to Vajpayee's style of functioning coming under intense scrutiny. Political observers have suddenly realised that the master orator is actually a man of few words who avoids meeting people, has not given a single television interview, walks slowly and has the habit of striking a meditative pose with his eyes firmly shut. To make matters worse, he recently cancelled some public functions.

The situation was therefore ripe for known Vajpayee-baiter Subramanian Swamy to again stoke the fires last week. A multi-edition daily, The Asian Age, led with stories attributed to Swamy which claimed that

Vajpayee was being treated for prostate cancer at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research in Delhi and would soon travel to New York's Sloan-Kettering Institute of Cancer Research for treatment. Swamy also claimed that Home Minister L.K. Advani would stage a coup d'etat and take over from Vajpayee when he goes to New York. "I'll produce documentary evidence of Vajpayee's condition very soon," says Swamy.

In spite of government and BJP denials, Swamy had succeeded in making Vajpayee's health a matter of speculation. His charges were largely based on a trip Vajpayee made to the Sitaram Bhartia Institute. Vajpayee's foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya reveals that Baapji has been having an annual checkup at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for the past decade. As prime minister, it is now mandatory that he do so. "He went for these routine tests over two days in mid-June and all the results were absolutely clear."

Inquiries reveal that Vajpayee visited the Sitaram Institute on a Saturday morning in mid-June for a bone scan, one of the tests compulsory for the prime minister. Vajpayee's old radiologist at AIIMS had shifted to the institute and his personal physician recommended that the scan be done there. A bone scan is done to rule out malignancy and takes a couple of hours. Vajpayee did not want to combine it with the other diagnostic tests scheduled for the next day at AIIMS. S. Mukherjee, the administrator of the Sitaram Bhartia Institute, merely says, "All I will say is that the prime minister came just once, is unlikely to come again and his results were absolutely clear."

As for charges that the prime minister is travelling to New York for treatment, he is indeed headed for the Big Apple for a five-day trip starting on September 24. It is an official visit to address the UN General Assembly. No visit to any hospital has been scheduled.

While it is easy to rubbish Swamy's charges, what makes the rumours particularly insidious is that they are spread by a section of the RSS and BJP itself. It is an old ploy used to undermine a leader. Complains an aide in the Prime Minister's Office: "This is not the first time rumours about health have been used to damage him." BJP President Kushabhau Thakre vehemently denies this: "There are certain elements who spread such rumours but it is another rumour to say that the BJP or RSS is involved."

Clearly, the sneeze does not merely mean that a cold could be coming on.

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