R.S.V.P

A year ago, with a looming national election, Mayawati was being wooed with desperation. Sonia Gandhi walked across to wish her a happy birthday. Lesser politicos trooped through hoping to barter bouquets for a BSP alliance.

This year, with no election around and the BSP in a trough, the birthday was the preserve of the party faithful.So, in our very political, power-packed capital, is a birthday party ever just a birthday party? Can8217;t it be a simple anniversary of the day one was born on. It can, if you8217;re the rare contrarian.

Like Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP and one-man Congress think tank. He calls birthdays 8216;8216;accidents of the Gregorian calendar8217;8217;. 8216;8216;I have never, ever celebrated my birthday,8217;8217; he insists, 8216;8216;for me, my birthday is like any other day, work and office, nothing else.8217;8217; April 9, Jairam says, is the day he was born. As it happened, it always fell 8216;8216;in the middle of the exam season8217;8217;.

Even after he abdicated a normal existence for politics, Ramesh remained in denial. On April 9, 2004, for instance, he was too busy planting stories, drafting manifestoes, and juggling telephones for the Congress. Somewhere in the midst of that madness, the birthday came and went.

But not all in Ramesh8217;s party think like him. For the Congress, the birthday is the supreme event, particularly if it8217;s the Birthday of the Supreme Leader. As such, on December 9, party workers pencilled in Sonia Gandhi8217;s birthday as Tyaag Divas or Renunciation Day. Lots of festoons, banners and newspaper ads followed. Never was so much spent to celebrate sacrifice.

Since there8217;s nothing more useless in politics as yesterday8217;s leader, there were no Congressmen around, a fortnight later, to mark Sanjay Gandhi8217;s birthday.

December is actually a pretty loaded birthday month. Atal Bihari Vajpayee8212; prime minister this time last year8212;plays birthday boy on December 25. In 2004, he travelled with family to Gwalior, while his party organised sit-and-draw competitions for Delhi8217;s schoolchildren.

If it was low key, blame it on the electorate. It8217;s a fair guess that if Vajpayee was re-elected in May 2004, the BJP would have made his birthday a Congress-style personality cult anniversary. Someone once did a count and realised the BJP had actually celebrated Vajpayee8217;s 75th birthday three years in a row.

As the month leading up to it, November is packed with VIP birthdays. November 8 is Lal Krishna Advani8217;s big day. In 2003, he observed it by inviting friends to a session of hymns and a devotional recital at home. In 2004, it was a recital from the Guru Granth Sahib. It happened a few days after his birthday, on a date marking Advani8217;s birth tithi by the Indian calendar and his wife8217;s birthday by the Western calendar. And shortly before that, on November 5,

Arjun Singh cut his cake. Older politicians often complain they grew up with no concept of a birthday as an occasion. Younger politicians are different. A few years ago, Jai Panda, the BJD8217;s best-known face in Delhi, threw a grand party at his farmhouse in Delhi when he turned 40.

Celebrating a birthday can sometimes become a political minefield. In January 2001, Amar Singh8217;s birthday party seemed incongruous to some, given the Gujarat earthquake. Singh, smart cookie that he is, explained that the party was a fund-raiser for the victims. Last month, Arun Jaitley faced a similar dilemma. Born on December 28, Jaitley8212;who shares his birthday with Ranjan Bhattacharya, Vajpayee8217;s foster son-in-law8212;hosted an elegant lunch in 2003. This time, even with the cards printed, Jaitley cancelled the birthday party. The tsunami and its devastation would have rendered it too politically incorrect. But then, there8217;s always next year.

Ashok Malik