People adore Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Soliloquy, with Atalji’s poetry

Mar 08, 2009

Taking dynasty out of democracy "Haar nahin maanoonga, raar nayee thaanoonga Kaal ke kapaal par likhata mitaata hoon Geet naya gaata hoon"

The poet who wrote these defiant and inspirational lines is now back at his home, after many days of hospitalisation. The news of his being admitted in New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences had caused concern all over the country. Now that he has been discharged from hospital, crores of Indians must be saying to themselves: “God is kind. Our prayers have been answered.”

People adore Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

India has produced many great leaders since Independence. Some were politically more powerful than him. Some were electorally more successful than him. But few have received so much admiration and adoration for so long a time as Atalji has.

Many have asked me in the past few weeks: “Do you feel Atalji’s absence in this election campaign?” The answer is obvious. This is the first parliamentary election, since the first one in 1952, in which Atalji will not be actively campaigning. He did not contest the 1952 elections. But since the 2nd Lok Sabha in 1957, he has had an almost uninterrupted innings in Parliament. He will not be a candidate in 2009. The 15th Lok Sabha will miss him and so will Indians miss his election rallies for the coming elections. In the past, people used to travel several hundred miles just to experience the magnetism of his oratory.

Memory helps us feel his presence in many ways. As India’s Prime Minister who ably steered the ship of the nation at a critical time; as the leader who made India a nuclear weapons power; as the peacemaker who, despite the betrayal in Kargil, left no stone unturned to normalise India’s relations with our unreliable neighbour; one who built those world-class highways to progress; one who is ajaatashatru, a man with no enemies.

But today I feel Atalji’s presence as a poet of extraordinary sensitivity and strength. After a long and tiring day in office, in the silence of the midnight hour, I open YouTube to listen to Jagjit Singh’s soulful rendition of Atalji’s ‘Kya Khoya Kya Paaya Jag Mein...’ and Lata Mangeshkar’s recreation of the magic of ‘Aao man ki gaanthen khole...’ Jagjit Singh’s music video, titled Samvedana, was the first-of-its-kind collaborative effort of a prime minister and several great names in Bollywood: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Javed Akhtar and Yash Chopra. Javed Akhtar, himself a great poet and lyricist, writes in his introductory lines that the distinction between the poet and the reader dissolves when one reads (or listens to) Atalji’s poems.
So true.