Prime-time Gujral

Dateline: 7 Race Course Road. Byline: Inder Kumar Gujral. Surprised? In this age of McLuhan Unbound, power flows from the angle of the camer...

Dateline: 7 Race Course Road. Byline: Inder Kumar Gujral. Surprised? In this age of McLuhan Unbound, power flows from the angle of the camera. And Gujral, the accidental prime minister, re-born politician, the most favoured chat-show guest, has redefined power in accordance with the camera. Inevitable. When you are a non-resident politician in a politically Balkanised India, when your own parivar can8217;t provide you with a safe seat, you seek out the realm of images.

Also, for a while you forget your own image. When Gujral inaugurated the Star News Channel, at his own official residence, he forgot about the ethical impropriety of the event. Perhaps the arclight affected his senses as well: for the currently Starry-eyed Gujral, the parent company of the channel was once undesirable and anti-national. Today, the medium is the message, Gujral is the twinkling star of a prime minister, his voice is part of the new channel8217;s promos. Prime Marketeer? Stay tuned: next time a shoe polish ad appears on your TV, youare likely to miss Charlie Chaplin, for I.K. Gujral seems to be quite serious about a post-retirement career. What foresight. Remember Gorbachev? Before getting the lucrative lead role in a Pizza Hut commercial, he had to go through a rather unimpressive career route of newspaper columns and art cinema. The Russian started a bit late, after he lost his job in the Kremlin.

Perhaps Gujral is breaking the archaic laws of prime ministerial behaviour.

It is the age of free market, and he is free enough to rent his voice 8212; so what if it happens to be the prime minister8217;s voice? to the first bidder.

Very modern, and redeemingly trendy. Again, it seems that there is a vast gap between Gujral the salesman and Gujral the prime minister. Free market, for instance, is a cautious, conditional term in the vocabulary of the Gujral regime, the economics of which is not always as white as Chidambaram8217;s dhoti. Sometimes it is as red as Comrade Surjeet8217;s flag.

Sometimes it has the colour of social injustice palepink. Gujral, the consensus-meister, a leader among bigger leaders, was quite happy to lead from the middle safe and secure, never threatening. For Rao, the middle path was part of his philosophical sophistry. For Gujral, it is a political life insurance. Don8217;t blame him. He has no choice. It is the politics of social justice, and for the politician Gujral, only the benevolence of BJPAkali Dal can provide justice.

This evolutionary tale of Gujral is rather strange. Once a socialist. Then a socialite in political suit. A beneficiary of the Janata Dal tradition of first job for the last choice8217;. Prime Minister Gujral: let me do it as you wish, my friend. As Janata Dal egos clashed in his prime ministerial presence, he put his own ego in the inner pocket of his suit. It was the spectacle of the leader being led by notorious leaders of the unruly Janata parivar. The house didn8217;t collapse. It took a few letters from Kesri to finish the job. That time, Gujral didn8217;t care: I8217;m fed up, I8217;ll rather go home.Suddenly, after all this, Gujral is at home, Gujral is very political, Gujral is less than secular. At this rate, yesterday8217;s consensus junkie can be tomorrow8217;s consensus candidate for any job. He has singlehandedly reduced the ideological distance between the Hindutva of the BJP and the communalism of the Akali Dal and the secularism of the United Front. How? Stay tuned. He will explain it all from his favourite channel.