Nehru’s birthday: Joshi is master of ceremonies for Chacha Vajpayee

A skit on the freedom struggle. A little boy dressed up as Nehru. Tributes to the first Prime Minister’s contributions to the nation.

The Ministry also flooded newspapers throughout the country with full-page advertisements to mark Children’s Day, outdoing the efforts of Congress governments.

It was all surely a marked contrast to the low-key celebrations of the past several years. In fact, this year, Joshi had drawn up an ambitious plan to get Vajpayee to devote the entire day to children. It was to start with the traditional function at Bal Bhavan in the morning, move on to Teen Murti House and end with a dinner for a group of children at Race Course Road.

When he put it to Vajpayee some three weeks ago, the PM must have been tickled by the profiling. But he was also a bit alarmed by Joshi’s eagerness. He agreed to the Teen Murti jamboree but scrapped the rest.

Joshi had got his window of opportunity. And he proceeded to make the most of it, using the occasion to present a synergy with Vajpayee that he has been at pains to project over the past several weeks.

His ministry put together a programme designed to showcase the image Vajpayee has cultivated for himself – Nehruvian moderate with a peep of saffron. Sare Jahan Se Achcha blended with Vande Mataram. A sprinkling of students from RSS-run Vidya Bharati schools, to keep the Sangh happy.

The difference between today’s function and the controversial Education Ministers’ Meet the HRD Ministry organised in the first year of the Vajpayee Government’s tenure could not have been more glaring.

Then, Joshi ruffled feathers by insisting that the Meet start with the Saraswati Vandana and the draft papers he wanted to circulate for discussion had the PMO foaming at the mouth.

The ‘‘new’’ Joshi first became visible when he slammed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a couple of months ago for criticising Chief Election Commissioner J N Lyngdoh. Two days later, Vajpayee also issued a statement rapping Modi and appealing for restraint.

Since then, Joshi has tried hard to position himself with Vajpayee on major issues, ensuring that even on a ticklish subject like disinvestment, he could not be accused of publicly criticising the Government.

BJP circles see Joshi’s efforts as an attempt to capture political space that he has lost to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani after the latter’s elevation.