If the present Indian elections were held this time last year, Pakistan would have rejoiced the results that uprooted BJP. But now that Vajpayee had become a friend - a harbinger of the peace process - his defeat at the hands of Congress is viewed with dismay in Pakistan. Of course we take heart from Sonia's statement that the drive towards friendship would continue. But the uneasiness prevails that it would mean starting all over again.
The Indian Congress ruled over India for long 45 years upto 1996 under the stewardship of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. In those days the Jehadis incursions into occupied Kashmir was not an issue and yet despite repeated moves from both sides no breakthrough was made in resolving the Kashmir conundrum. On the other hand right from the beginning, despite heading an anti-Muslim party wedded to Hindutva, Vajpayee has attempted to repair Indo-Pak relations.
He has taken initiatives time and again starting with what is called Bus-Yatra to Lahore in 1999 to call on Nawaz, followed by Agra invitation to Musharraf in 2001, and finally at Saarc Summit early this year in Islamabad, where there was thawing of ice and accord to build bridges of reconciliation. CBM (Confidence Building Measures) were proposed and accepted. Rapid progress was made in reactivating embassies, establishing air links and bus routes and people-to-people exchanges.
So much so that after a lapse of 14 years Indian cricket team came to Pakistan to play 5 ODIs and 3 Tests despite security apprehensions. Everything went off smoothly to remove doubts if any of genuine desire of people on both sides to bury the hatchets of enmity. It was Vajpayee who had prevailed upon the reluctant Board of Cricket in India and the players to visit Pakistan as ambassadors of goodwill.
On our side the officials, the players and the public in general hailed and regaled the team and the visitors from India who crossed over to watch the games, with open hearts and affection, cementing the emerging bonds of trust and friendship. The process of political negotiations that had just begun, were interrupted in April and May as India got engaged in general elections, and we were looking forward to Vajapyee's triumphant return to power to complete the task he had begun.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a politician of long standing in the Gandhian mould, is a bachelor, a philosopher and a poet. He has been at the helm of affairs in India with 3 stints as the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world. During the last 7 years he has grown from strength to strength leading National Democratic Alliance of 18 coalition partners. Always walking on a tight rope, he had earned laurels as a grand old man of India who brought economic prosperity and placed his country on the world map with ambitions of becoming a superpower. So all pervading was the aura of his achievements in national and international affairs that no one doubted his party's triumph.
The only question was whether NDA would secure a landslide victory to emerge as the single largest majority party with over 272 seats to form the government on its own without the need to look for partners. All the political pundits, the media and the opinion polls forecast a win for Vajpayee and his BJP. It therefore, came as a stunning shock and surprise when on final counting the hitherto struggling Congress secured 219 seats as against 188 for Vajpayee's BJP led coalition.
The leftist parties under different hues of Marxims with 3 seats, are expected to join hands with Congress to enable it to form the government. A gentleman that he is, Vajpayee promptly called on the President Abul Kalam to tender his resignation. He may now lead the opposition in the parliament, or physically enfeebled that he is, choose to hang up his gloves having played a long and illustrious political innings.
The unexpected election results would be examined and analysed for a long long time. Suffice it to say that it was a triumph of democracy. No aspersions are cast on Vajpayee except that he was the right man in a wrong party. Despite BJP's apparently secular stance the stigma of religious extremism attached to them could not be shaken off. Ayodhya Ram Temple issue and the anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat under Modi's BJP government, had disenchanted and antagonised the right thinking people across the country. Above all the poor and deprived segment of the population felt that notwithstanding the much trumpeted economic boom which had made the rich richer, no benefits had trickled down to them. Pro-Vajpayee people would argue that the middle class had expanded substantially which meant upward movement of some poor to better standards. But this was not considered enough.
Typical case in point was Andhra Pardesh where Chandrababu Naidu's Telugam Desam Party (pro-BJP) lost heavily despite IT induced prosperity which provided jobs aplenty to the technologically trained but to the exclusion of rural population whose lot had not improved an iota over the years.
It was the Congress government of the nineties which had started privatisation and later Vajpayee expanded, intensified and exploited it to accelerate GDP growth which was approaching 7%. It now remains to be seen whether the Left, an important coalition partner to be would allow the Congress to pursue the laissez-faire economic policies which enabled the outgoing government make the county shine and sparkle, but faild to win the heads and minds of the down trodden or fill their stomachs. The lesson to be learnt is that production of wealth even in abundance is not enough. What matters is its fair and equitable distribution - especially in a genuine democracy. In an overpopulated country like India in the final analysis it is the multitude of hoi-polloi armed with the weapon of vote in their hands make or break the governments. The slogan "Shining India" may have gladdened the hearts of the well-off who shared a piece of the pie, but had left the poor, the homeless and the hungry in the darkness of misery. Their resentment and dissatisfaction spelled doom for BJP.
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