Ex-PMs in the springtime

Blame it on the advent of spring. Surely this can now be safely declared the season for Lutyen's Delhi's grey eminences to stir out of the...

Blame it on the advent of spring. Surely this can now be safely declared the season for Lutyen8217;s Delhi8217;s grey eminences to stir out of their post albeit forced retirement regimens and attempt to reclaim a measure of relevance in an India fast latching on to other leaders. It is a hypothesis too tempting to be suppressed: the more rapidly New Delhi8217;s still abundant clusters of trees break out into a spectrum of verdant hues, the more intensely do our former prime ministers crave the adrenalin-soaked activism of their salad days. A year ago, as spring delivered its annual whiff of hope and rebirth, this newspaper expressed perplexity over former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda8217;s sudden, and utterly uncharacteristic, exertions to cobble together, what else, a third front. Where were the traces of sleep-deprivation that marked his days in South Block? And why did the man who would be prime minister of the state of Karnataka suddenly submerge himself in the goings-on in Indraprastha?

Whatever it is that makes Gowda fidgety at this time of the year appears to be highly contagious, and anyone soldiering on with the burdens of ex-prime-ministership had better watch out. P.V. Narasimha Rao may be bravely holding out, but the streets of Delhi are abuzz with the quot;collective viewsquot; being forged by Gowda, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar and I.K. Gujral.

It makes the mind boggle. Issues of immense gravity are threatening the nation and the foursome, who could never even agree to disagree during their sporadic stints in power, will now take a collective view in their avatars as senior citizens. Accordingly, Singh has sought to become a messiah for Delhi8217;s slumdwellers, a cause taken up by his three mates with alacrity; they rushed for a patient hearing to Atal Behari Vajpayee the fragility of whose government last spring had given them visions of resuscitated relevance and whom they would have welcomed to their club of ex-prime-ministers with open arms if he had capitulated.

If this reads like a request that footloose former prime ministers be packed off to more salubrious climes every March, it is not so. However ephemerally or accidentally these honourable men may have graced the office of India8217;s prime minister, that very fact ties them inextricably to the affairs of the country. It, however, also begs from them a measure of sincerity. Yes, former prime ministers must strive towards solutions to their country8217;s myriad travails; but if that be their intent, they must rise above petty politicking and forge a collective view not only among themselves, but among vast chunks of the populace, whatever be their political antecedents.

Reinventing the Saturday Club is certainly no solution to any of India8217;s problems.