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VIEWPOINT: FIFTH COLUMN
Noble Mistakes
Is it magnanimity or myopia that makes Vajpayee so
generous to his opponents?
By Tavleen Singh
 Is
Atal Bihari Vajpayee overly blessed with the milk of human kindness or
is he just a goof? I ask the question in the context of two recent events
in which we saw the prime minister being resoundingly biffed in the nose
by two of his leading women opponents: Jayalalitha Jayaram and Sonia Gandhi.
Since these two ladies were directly responsible for bringing his previous
government down two years ago you would think that he would have shown
a certain wariness, even a shade of ruthlessness, while dealing with them.
But perhaps because poet-prime ministers are genteel creatures, unversed
in the evil twists and turns of politics, he continues to treat them with
generosity. So Jayalalitha, convicted of corruption, was allowed to become
chief minister despite being banned from contesting elections. And Sonia
was allowed to lead India's delegation to the UN without Vajpayee realising
that she would use the opportunity for political rather than national
purposes.
What could he have done about Jayalalitha, you
may ask, if the people of Tamil Nadu wanted her as their leader? Well,
if the prime minister was really concerned about criminals holding public
office he could have ensured that the Election Commission clarified during
the election campaign itself if it was possible for Jayalalitha to become
chief minister when she was banned from contesting polls. Had the issue
been settled in advance, voters might have thought twice about voting
for the AIADMK. But since this crucial point remained murky, it was easy
for Jayalalitha to use her sweeping victory in the assembly elections
to bully a pliant governor into appointing her chief minister at top speed.
Delhi watched in helpless silence without even urging the President to
order the governor not to swear her in. Surely something could have been
done to prevent Jayalalitha's appointment. If not, we may as well drop
that rule about criminals not being allowed to contest elections since
Jayalalitha has proved that it is meaningless.
Last week Jayalalitha proved that the prime
minister's generosity in not stopping her from becoming chief minister
was a grave mistake. If proof was needed that criminals should not hold
public office it has come in the rogue elephant manner in which the AIADMK
regime is rampaging through Tamil Nadu politics. After arresting two of
his ministers and a friendly former chief minister she thumbed her nose
at Vajpayee once more by ordering him to drop Murasoli Maran and T.R.
Baalu from his Cabinet on the absurd ground that they behaved like "goondas
and thugs".
Luckily, in these days of private television
channels we are ourselves able to judge who behaves how. Images of policemen
pushing M. Karunanidhi around as if he were the bandit Veerappan and not
a former chief minister will remain etched in public memory. As will the
fact that Jayalalitha still believes in the "midnight-knock"
method of policing. Why did a former chief minister need to be arrested
in the middle of the night? Why did he need to be arrested at all when
he could have simply been produced in court and charged with whatever
it is Jayalalitha thinks he did wrong?
The sordid episode underlines the Vajpayee Government's
failure to keep a convicted criminal out of public office. We are now
likely to see that office so debased that it is only a matter of time
before the people of Tamil Nadu realise law and order is only what the
chief minister says it is. Veerappan will continue to roam free in Tamil
Nadu while the state's chief minister focuses her energies on locking
up her political rivals.
The prime minister, meanwhile, goes out of his
way to promote his opponents. So, Sonia was sent to the UN General Assembly
as leader of our delegation to the special conference on HIV-AIDS. What
she had to contribute to the conference was forgettable but she used the
opportunity to project herself as India's future leader joking about there
being "no vacancy right now".
Sonia met Congressmen, Senators, senior functionaries
in the Bush Administration and NRIs. To the Congressmen she brought "greetings
and appreciation of my countrymen and countrywomen". Which country,
we could ask, but what would be the point now that Vajpayee has so graciously
given her the chance to project herself internationally as an Indian leader.
This was clearly such a defining moment in Sonia's political career that
she talked about matters of policy and foreign affairs with a confidence
she has never exhibited in India. She even managed to discuss our nuclear
policy, something she has been hopelessly confused about in the past.
There are now mutterings among Vajpayee's ministers
that sending Sonia to the UN was "a mistake" because she did
more for her own political image than for battling HIV-AIDS. But the prime
minister is a generous man, so generous that we need to perhaps worry
about what he will give General Pervez Musharraf as a farewell present.
Kashmir?
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