The original Congressman

His son,filmmaker and cameraman Prashant recalled how Dad was there when Gandhiji was shot dead at Birla House in 1948.

The death of freedom fighter Shashi Bhushan,88,yesterday virtually draws the curtain on a certain Congressman prototype,one who was vocally ideological and proud to be protecting the freedom-fighting legacy of the party.

He was part of the ginger socialist group that supported Indira Gandhis move to insert socialist in the Preamble after her 1971 majority,progressive and active with all sampradayikta virodhi causes.

His son,filmmaker and cameraman Prashant recalled how Dad was there when Gandhiji was shot dead at Birla House in 1948. That deeply influenced his politics and stood in opposition to communal fundamentalists all through.

Shashi Bhushan was born in 1924 in Gwalior state as Shashi Bhushan Vajpayee,but he never used his caste name. He worked as a Dabur sales agent and then in the Army as he functioned undercover as a freedom fighter. He was jailed during the Quit India movement.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha twice,in 1967 and 1971. He lost in 1977 to A B Vajpayee in the Janata wave,but remained an Indira loyalist even after the Emergency.

Shashi Bhushan remained an invisible,reconciliatory force between the various ideas and streams in the Congress,especially after the party was floundering after its first defeat in 1977. He played a big role in keeping several disillusioned progressives within the party and helped Indira contain their political aspirations within the partys boundaries.

A close associate,veteran journalist Devdutt describes his role as one that was always that of a troubleshooter,so important in the party,but never visible much.

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He did not leave behind a legacy in terms of organizational machinery but people who watched him in the 1960s say he played a great part in radicalizing the Congress,pushing it down the secular,social democratic path. Even if that meant over-reaching at times,like when he went to the extent of calling for a limited dictatorship to fix the countrys economic problems backing the idea of a limited Emergency.

He was a fiery campaigner,much sought after for campaigns and for his pithy,sharp political attacks on the opposition. Active till the very end,except the last one month when he was in Apollo hospital,Bhushan set up the Institute for Socialist Education four decades ago in Delhi and won the Padma Bhushan in 2006.

His last rally was when Anna Hazare was in the capital in August,when he organised about 4,000 freedom fighters to visit spots associated with Mahatma Gandhi and emphasised that corruption was not limited to public officials and that introspection was the need of the day.