Many happy returns of those days, with some change

The other pillar 8212; the Left 8212; was present in full strength, with both CPI general secretary AB Bardhan and CPIM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury making it clear they would remain fellow travellers on the journey of social justice Singh began in 1990.

The 8216;Amrit Mahotsav8217; held on the lawns of Singh8217;s residence was also the occasion for the release of a book on his life 8216;8216;Manzil se Zyada Safar8217;8217; Travel Beyond Destination. And speaker after speaker underlined that the greatness of VP Singh lay not in the fact that he was once the prime minister of India but for the causes he has consistently championed 8212; rights of slum-dwellers, right to information, ideal of social justice 8212; despite more than a decade of failing health.

That the journey was far from over was underlined by Bardhan who recalled that Singh had described the Left as his 8216;8216;natural allies8217;8217; and remained a close ally over the years. 8216;8216;His leadership is acceptable to us, he never thrusts his leadership on anyone,8217;8217; said the CPI leader, indicating that Singh would continue to provide moral leadership to the nascent efforts to build a new front.

Yechury said there would be time 8216;8216;to talk about other things another day8217;8217; but stuck to recording Singh8217;s crucial role in the politics of the last three decades. Describing Singh as the 8216;8216;rajnitik sutradhar8217;8217; political narrator of the post-Emergency era, Yechury said he started the coalition era in national politics, took on the Left as natural allies, and ushered in a realignment of social and political forces.

On resigning as Prime Minister in 1990, Yechury recalled, Singh had said the agenda that he had set could never be reversed; the forces of social justice could only go forward 8212; and that prophecy had not been belied by subsequent events.

Former PM IK Gujral described Singh as 8216;8216;a symbol of social renaissance8217;8217;, former President R Venkataraman spoke of his rare qualities of integrity and honesty, Janata ideologue Surendra Mohan said he had deepened democracy by giving the poor masses of India a sense of 8216;8216;atma vishwas8217;8217; while Paswan said 8216;8216;Prime Ministers come and go, but VP Singh8217;s name will always be carved in the hearts of India8217;s poor and marginalised.8217;8217;

That compliment was echoed by social activist Aruna Roy who gifted Singh a banner imprinted with thousands of signatures of farmers and labourers of Rajasthan thanking him for his unstinted support for their struggle for the right to information before it became law.

While Congressman Vasant Sathe also spoke at the function and ministers Meira Kumar and Santosh Mohan Dev were present on the dais at Paswan8217;s dinner, no BJP leader 8212; Maneka Gandhi was present at Singh8217;s residence 8212; was invited to speak.

Singh, as several speakers pointed out, was an accomplished poet and painter. But today8217;s functions also made it clear that politics 8212; without the ostensible trappings of power 8212; remained a passion with him, and there was no place for the BJP or the SP and little enough for the Congress in his new scheme of things.