Who gets the Bharat Ratna is decided by the government of the day and the political imprint on the choice has generally been unsubtle. It’s no surprise, then, that the Modi-BJP government has conferred the honour on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and, posthumously, on Madan Mohan Malviya — distinguished figures, both, who belong to the same political tradition and pantheon. Yet, the award to Vajpayee and Malviya also celebrates values that have a wider resonance, that need to be retrieved and reaffirmed.
While Malviya will be remembered as a freedom fighter who was among the first leading lights of the Hindu Mahasabha, he was also the founder of Banaras Hindu University. BHU has “Hindu” in its name but it is an institution built on an idea that was encompassing and ambitious. Educationists today have much to learn from Malviya’s vision of the university as a self-governing emancipatory space, independent of the state. Similarly, to celebrate Vajpayee is to honour a spacious view of politics that is all too relevant today.
As prime minister, Vajpayee seemed to belong to his party while reaching across the political divides to create a growing cache of trust and goodwill. At a time when the BJP’s post-1992 edges were still sharp and it was being seen by many as a political “untouchable”, he was the “right man in the wrong party”, who almost single-handedly made it look a more affable and coalitionable political force. He did not just nurture the NDA as an accommodative space for, at one time, as many as 24 parties, he was also the leader who drew crucial lines between parivar, party and government. In the late ’90s, Vajpayee used his masterful oratory — and his crafted silences — to restrain the RSS and compel it to backtrack when its attempts to impose its regressive agenda on his government became too bold. As he did this, Vajpayee did not have a decisive majority to back him, only his irrefutable stature and statesmanship. The ability to take the wider view, and to rise above his own party and government, was also mirrored in his promise to Kashmiris that their concerns would be considered within the ambit of “insaniyat”, not simply the Constitution, and in the historic bus journey he undertook to Lahore.
In the aftermath of Gujarat 2002, Vajpayee reminded Narendra Modi, then chief minister of the state, of his “rajdharma”. Vajpayee’s inability as PM to enforce it will remain a blemish on his record. But as the Modi government honours the statesman now, it must ask itself what Vajpayee might think of the noise that surrounds his birthday celebrations this year — from the HRD diktat to organise official events on Christmas Day to the RSS-VHP’s “ghar wapsi” campaign that has stoked minority anxieties. Amid the clamour, this is something we all need to reflect on.
