Sunrise? No, sunset

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has spent the last two days in Gujarat but he has been campaigning only in the evenings. In fact, politi...

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has spent the last two days in Gujarat but he has been campaigning only in the evenings. In fact, politicians who have nothing to do with Gujarat such as Chaman Lal Gupta and Bhajan Lal have been tearing off to Ahmedabad, anxious to bask in the political sun of Gujarat. Yet they have mostly been campaigning after the sun has set. Why are so many rallies scheduled for the evenings? Only to ensure, beam the party spokesmen, that traders and shopkeepers have time to finish their work and then, in the leisure of the evening, surge in their eager millions to hear their beloved leaders8217; words.

Millions? Ah those elusive millions. Those millions who need the cover of darkness to convince their leaders and the gathered journalists that they do, in fact, exist. Those millions for whom the sun never rises as they sit in their drought-ravaged fields in Banaskantha or their earthquake-hit homes in Bhuj to hear the deputy prime minister drone on disconnectedly about Al Qaida and global geopolitics.

In Gujarat, the weary crowds are thinning. Party workers are relying on the setting sun to provide the mirage of large crowds. Atalji rides into the sunset, a lonely poet after this year8217;s darkness. Meanwhile in Uttar Pradesh, after Priyanka8217;s Dalit campaign, another son might also rise. Rahul might step out from the shadows to claim his place in the UP sun. Gujarat already has sonstroke. The sons of four former chief ministers, including the son of Shankersinh Vaghela, are contesting these elections. Has the sangh realised that these are the evening years of Hindutva? It doesn8217;t seem so yet. Most opinion polls predict that its still sunny side up for Modi8217;s personal fortunes. Not so for Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, though. When he landed at the wrong rally recently, he found that the crowd was far more interested in his helicopter than in him. Even in this most politically charged state, the sun appears to have set on the politician.