It was not just an election campaign for Chandrababu Naidu and Om PrakashChautala. It was a sentimental journey back to a past of cherished memory forthe chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. It was an attempt torepeat history as well. And, above all, it was an emulation of the example ofelders of eminence on both sides. Of a father-in-law and a father, bothpoliticians of a conspicuously paternalistic and patriarchal kind. It wasover a decade ago that the then two living legends of the same two statescame together in an electoral Mahabharata in the land of Kurukshetra. N. T.Rama Rao rode into Haryana atop his famed Chaitanya rath to seek votes forChaudhury Devi Lal. The `Tau' enhanced his appeal to the kinsmen of Jatland,when he was joined in the anti-Congress and anti-Rajiv campaign by the`Anna' of AP. The Chaudhury, of course, struck a chord among his ruralaudiences (as proved amply by the poll results) with his Haryanvi-speak, butthe upholder of Telugu òf40óatmagauravamòf39ó didn't let the language factorhandicap him unduly. The kisans guffawed and their womenfolk sniggered asthe turbaned head of the clan taunted his targets with talk of the `videshibank, videshi bhasha and videshi bibi'. But they were also, however,thrilled as saffron-clad NTR thundered about New Delhi's raw deal to thepoor, specially in states beyond its political control. He didn't have tothrow away the Hindi script half-way and settle for extempore English as hisson-in-law now did. This, however, was not the only difference between the two political pairsand their performances. The ride of Rao and the helihopping of Naidu torallies in Haryana were, for example, exercises of very different kinds. Theòf40órath yatraòf39ó of the Telugu Desam Party's founder was intended as atrial run for the Bharata Desam of his dreams. Few would see such anambition behind his successor's foray into Haryana. Confronted with a choicebetween a leading role in national-level politics and satrapy in his ownstate, the AP chief minister clearly chose the second alternative. Hepreferred to continue undisturbed in office by an unfriendly Centre than asthe king-making coordinator of a Third Front of ever-insecure tenure. It isa dissimilarity of the same kind and degree between the Chaudhury andChautala. Devi Lal may have made history as the only Deputy Prime Ministerwith his own domestic cattle in his official bungalow, but his son knowsthat there is no part of New Delhi that is forever Haryana. Even morestriking is yet another contrast between the two combined campaigns. Coming together then were the `Tau' with his turban and three b's andthe`Anna' with his own saffron and a mystique born of mythological films.There is nothing in common between their combined appeal and that which canbe jointly attempted by the Chief Minister of a Chaudhury-less Haryana andthe CEO of AP that identifies its òf40óatmagauravamòf39ó today with itsCyberabad. Does that lend the campaign a modern content or make it merelycolourless? Another unanswered question. Widely emulated has been the `AyaRam-Gaya Ram' politics pioneered by Chautala's state. Will Naidu's be assuccessful in exporting its `IT revolution' within the country?
