The Hindu Business Line : Preparing for the polls

EARLIER this week, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, painted both Dilip Singh Judev and Ajit Jogi with the same brush, thus negating in one stroke the defence that had been mounted for the former by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, and the BJP chief, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu.

What message was he trying to send and to whom? The common assumption is that Mr Vajpayee was trying to regain the "moral high ground" for the BJP, the image of which appears to have been smeared somewhat by the attempt to defend Judev, a former Union Minister, by using the argument that Jogi, the former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, had set up the operation to get mileage in his poll campaign, an election which, incidentally, he lost ignominiously.

This is easily acceptable, particularly in view of the fact that the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner and the BJP's overall image requires to be refurbished as much as possible before the final test. That in the process the Prime Minister has adopted a stand quite at variance with that taken by two BJP stalwarts (which cannot but lead to speculation about intra-party problems) is, of course, an entirely different matter.

The important thing about the entire episode, however, is what Mr Vajpayee said about the state of the nation, in a manner of speaking, a message which does not augur well for the future of the country and, perhaps more importantly, which does not speak well of Mr Vajpayee's own stewardship of the nation during the past four years.

Among other things, he said (as reported): "It is true India is progressing. But we have become hollow from within. The incidents involving Judev and Jogi are a warning to us," adding, "Which way is our country headed? Two prominent leaders of two prominent parties are under a cloud of suspicion and humiliation. What kind of effect will it have on the nation and its youth?"

Remember, it is the Prime Minister who is saying all this, and that too after being at the helm for nearly a full term of five years. If the nation was not "hollow from within" before, then Mr Vajpayee will have to shoulder a major part of the responsibility for the development, which does not speak well of his Prime Ministerial capabilities.

If the hollowness had already set in before he took over the reins, then it must be acknowledged that he has failed in his primary task of improving the state of affairs in the country, which in fact is the most important mandate he was given when he was made Prime Minister by the NDA.

The point is that if Mr Vajpayee is drawing attention to what, in fact, the Opposition should be saying in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, then, clearly, the stage has been reached where the nation is beyond redemption!

Or, is it that corruption, as we know it today, is no longer an important hurdle in the way of the nation's "development," ethically or otherwise, and that it would, therefore, be patently unfair to pull up the Prime Minister for not being able to rein in corruption in the way envisaged by those who gave us our freedom from British rule?

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