Race Course Road

India Today
September 21, 1998

RACE COURSE ROAD
Flexing his Muscles

Vajpayee is out to prove that he isn't too old, too tired

Prabhu Chawla

Driving and drinking don't go together, neither do speed and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. His detractors attribute his not-so-quick reflexes to his failing health. Close aides place the blame on the prime minister's mental framework of only need-based intervention in national affairs. By delaying action on crucial economic, political and international issues during the past six months, Vajpayee allowed the perception of non-performance to persist. He was just fighting a losing battle against his forced transformation from a reclusive Vajpayee to a highly visible and accessible prime minister.

Ageing and tired he may appear, but Vajpayee seems to have decided to prove both his detractors and admirers wrong. He has set for himself a gruelling 16-hour daily schedule of political and administrative meetings. For example, in the week after he returned from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in South Africa, the prime minister kept over a hundred appointments, chaired two cabinet meetings, attended over a dozen official and private functions and signed about 500 files.

Where earlier Vajpayee was accused of avoiding senior political leaders, civil servants and the media, he now seeks them out for personal interaction. The decision to discontinue the daily durbars at Race Course Road was seemingly aimed at making it more rewarding for the genuine petitioners. It was brought to his notice that over 30 per cent of the people attending these morning meetings were habitual durbaris. Vajpayee has now left instructions that only those with genuine grievances be allowed in so that the Prime Minister's Office is able to give them instant redressal instead of consigning their representations to the files.

Unlike in the past when he avoided leaving Delhi on the flimsiest of excuses, Vajpayee has now directed his staff to be liberal with politically correct invitations seeking his presence: to lay foundation stones, visit flood-affected areas and distribute sundry awards in various parts of the country. The electronic and print media, which he scrupulously avoided during the past few months, are also being given free access for photo ops, interviews and sound bites.

This belated flirtation with opinion makers and others who matter is seen as an attempt to effectively dispel the propaganda that Vajpayee is suffering from serious ailments. Repeated media speculation on his health and indecisiveness, some of it inspired by a section of his own party, has apparently angered the prime minister enough for him to hit back with a vengeance. His rebuff to South African President Nelson Mandela's highly provocative remarks on Kashmir at the NAM summit was essentially meant for consumption at home. He flexed his muscles and displayed his authority enough to extract an apology from the South African leaders, thus saving the day for his Government.

Back home, he lost no time in taking on the steel-framed bureaucracy by asking Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee to fix bureaucratic responsibility over the fiasco relating to the transfer of Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah. It is the first time that a purely administrative action is being probed by an outsider. If speed and Vajpayee can synergise, it may put the BJP Government back on track.

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