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Journalism of Courage
Two years ago, when his supporters wanted to greet him on his 68th birthday, they found UP BJP leader Lalji Tandon at Gomti’s Gulala ghats. He was overseeing work on a recreation centre there. Yesterday, he was at the same ghats, in a show of mourning for those killed in a stampede for free saris on his 70th birthday.
For Tandon, this April could be his cruellest month—and he has himself to blame. More than the Opposition, he is being seen as the one who dented the Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s feel-good, and that, too, in his constituency. The last thing the BJP wanted in Lucknow were images of bodies piled up in buses, of weeping women and children, of Tandon distributing free saris arranged for by a history-sheeter.
If Tandon is feeling snubbed at what some BJP leaders call the Judeo-treatment, he has ample reason to.
Read his biography Satah se Shikhar Tak. ‘‘I have got so much affection from Ataji that he is my elder brother, father and friend.
My personality is like his shadow,’’ Tandon wrote.
For, Tandon has been one of Vajpayee’s oldest aides. Going as far back as 1957 when Vajpayee ate all his meals at Tandon’s house at the famous ‘‘chowk’’ of Lucknow. And ever since he shifted base from Gwalior to Lucknow, Tandon has known no full stops.
From being Vajpayee’s election agent, in-charge of his constituency and even his MPLADS funds, Tandon has had a say in the selection of every chief minister, be it Kalyan Singh or Ram Prakash Gupta. But he himself could never become CM — he once admitted he wanted to — because of what is key in UP: caste
He is a Khatri which, given the political equations in the state, doesn’t count much.
But you will find Tandon in the Limca Book of Records for installing the largest number of foundation stones in a day: 1001. It’s another matter though that only half of these are up and running. Some of his aides say that resentment against Tandon was simmering within the party and the stampede was when push came to shove. When he failed to mobilise even 20,000 people for Vajpayee’s rally on April 5, he is said to have been asked to explain. The last time there was a meeting of BJP workers, only 1,500 turned up instead of the expected 10,000.
And this despite the fact that Tandon’s lies not in his oratory or organisational skills but as a ‘‘good manager.’’ In fact, he is known as ‘‘dhoti-sari’’ politician, able to drum up a crowd anytime. Ironically, his biography recounts his visits to slums—when he was barely in his teens—to distribute clothes during festivals. Born in the city in 1935, Tandon joined the RSS when he was seven and was one of the founding members of the Jana Sangh in 1952. But he has never professed national ambitions—he has often said that he loves ‘‘Lucknow, the magical city’’ too much to move to Delhi.
A graduate who went to law school but couldn’t complete the course, Tandon entered public life as a corporator in 1962. Then Governor Akbar Ali Khan is said to have remarked that if every city had four Tandons, the state would get transformed. In 1974, he contested from the Lucknow (West) seat but lost, though his CV says he polled the highest number of votes then. And like many of his colleagues in the party, he was in jail during the Emergency for 19 months.
Since then, he has been a key player, holding several party posts. He won his first election in 1996 although became Minister for the first time in the Kalyan Singh government in 1992.
As Minister for Urban Development and Housing for seven years, besides flyovers, commercial complexes that he built in the city, he also set up a network of contractors and builders. Prominent among them are Abhay Sethi, Corporator Munna Mishra and Annu Mishra and, of course, Brijendra Murari Yadav, the man behind the free saris.
First, he was christened ‘‘Lalchi Tandon’’ by an angry Mayawati when she ditched the party and now dissidents within have floated ‘‘Lalji hatao, BJP bachao.’’ Eyebrows were being raised at the way he ran the city unit BJP — no elections have been held for the last three years and sources said that because of his proximity to the PM, he ensured that access to the top-level leadership was his exclusive preserve.
‘‘My opponents have tried to tarnish my image,’’ Tandon is quoted in his biography, ‘‘but it is my image that is my biggest wealth.’’ That asset is his liability now and although in politics, you are never sure, one thing is certain: for this scorching season, at least, Lalji Tandon will remain in the cold.
