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ON WEDNESDAY, a daily carried the following paragraph in a report on the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party held the previous day: "After blowing hot and cold on the temple and the VHP, Vajpayee told the... meeting that, while he was not interested in clinging to power, he did have a responsibility towards the people. He could not be expected to abdicate this responsibility — in other words resign as the Prime Minister — midway". This is a noble sentiment and, to anyone who has not been following the tortuous course of Indian politics during the past six years, suggests quite clearly that the person referred to must be someone extremely principled and who has the interests of the people uppermost in his mind.

There is simply no doubt that Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee has the interests of the Indian people very close to his heart, as should be the case with every patriot, of whom, incidentally, India can boast quite a few in these troubled times. The problem with Mr Vajpayee is that he has been reported to have threatened to offer his resignation on more than one occasion in the past — the assumption being that the media has reported this truthfully, which is not always the case if politicians are to be believed — to have his way with his own party and, on a very recent occasion, with the VHP. Admittedly, nothing has come of these threats. On the contrary, Mr Vajpayee appears to have had his way on each and every occasion. But the fact remains that in every instance that he reportedly offered to resign, at least on the face of it he was prepared to "abdicate his responsibility towards the people", a step which he was not prepared to take last Tuesday at the BJP parliamentary party meeting.

The question that arises is: Which is the real Vajpayee — the one that has not hesitated to tender his resignation in the past, or the one who shied away from taking such a step earlier this week using as his moral plank the name of the "people"? To those who have been keeping track of the evolution of Indian politics ever since the end of the Rajiv Gandhi regime in the late 1980s, the answer is extremely difficult, which probably goes to measure the success of A. B. Vajpayee as the quintessential, wheeling-dealing Indian politician, who will draw you into a veritable maze of apparently conflicting interests, all the time working towards retaining his hold on the seat of power.

In Indian conditions (since 1947), such politicians tend to succeed for a longer period of time than those who are obstinate and "foolish" enough to abide by "principles" come what may. But, as history shows, the enjoyment of power always has a termination just as it has a beginning and, as far as posterity is concerned, it is usually the "unsuccessful", "principled" lot who have a longer life in the pages of history than their "successful" counterparts. Briefly, all people cannot be fooled all the time. There is still time for Mr Vajpayee to choose a course of action that will make him linger longer in the pages of the history of post-Independence India.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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