When a 20-minute speech was all Vajpayee needed to win over Odisha
On April 17, 1999 the Union government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost the confidence motion in Lok Sabha by a single vote. It was the narrowest defeat in a confidence motion in the history of the Indian Parliament. While that lone vote can be attributed to a few people, its main architect perhaps was the then Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, who had been the chief minister since two months and yet hadn't let go of his lower House membership. As a result, the Lok Sabha elections were scheduled in September-October that year.
Soon it was announced that Vajpayee would visit Talcher, a heavily industrialised, yet developmentally neglected, town in Odisha. I was in ninth standard then. Young and hailing from a politically well informed and moderately active family, I was, like millions of others, in awe of the philosopher, poet prime minister. So this opportunity of seeing him and hearing him speak was not to be missed. But there was a small problem. There was an important class test in school that particular day.
The crowd at Talcher College fields was swelling. We had seen the SPG sanitising the area the previous day. The objective was, however, to go as close to the podium as possible through several layers of barricading. It was a gloomy morning and it had drizzled the previous night. I reached the venue early accompanied by an uncle. Local BJP leaders were delivering speeches which perhaps not many were paying attention to. As a public speaking enthusiast, I must admit that there is hardly anything one can do to captivate the audience when one has to speak prior to someone like Vajpayee.
Late in the morning, the prime minister's chopper arrived. Sloganeering by the impatient crowd had reached a fervent pitch. However, the moment Vajpayeeji got behind the microphone, there was absolute silence. And then, one of the finest orators of Indian political history spoke. His opening sentence, etched in my memory, went like this:
"Saawan ka mahina hai, bahdro ka mahina hai. Is mausam mein aap logon ko yahan aane ka kasht hua. Aur ye kasht jiske liye hua (pointing finger afar), wo wahan baitha hai."
Roughly translated it meant that in this rainy season, the audience were inconvenienced to come for the rally and the one responsible is sitting there. It referred to the Odisha chief minister at Bhubaneswar.
The crowd was in rapture. Vajpayee then went on to recount how his government had been wronged and had all the moral rights to be in power. He shared his vision for India, for Odisha and for Talcher and wrapped his speech up in about 20 minutes. The BJP won the 1999 Lok Sabha elections and Vajpayee went on to become a statesman prime minister like no other. He was in the party, yet above the party, in the throes of hypernationalistic saffron endeavours, yet being the dispassionate Chanakya, in the turmoil of a coalition, yet being the glue that held it successfully strong.
Perhaps the mix of erudition, pacifism, tolerance, economic growth, international ties and desirable inaction made Vajpayee the colossus who walked the power corridors of New Delhi. Above all, he provided the acceleration that the nation needed, the might the nation needed, the hope the nation needed. In retrospect, I cherish that day I went to hear Vajpayeeji. Though as a teacher, it makes me feel odd to say this, but class tests, after all, come and go.
Ironically, in June this year, Gamang, the man, in a way, responsible for the fall of Vajpayee government quit Congress and joined the BJP.