The Hindu Business Line : A gentleman politician

WATCHING the spontaneous and overwhelming outpouring of shock and grief at the sudden demise of actor-politician Sunil Dutt on Wednesday brought back pleasant memories of a trip to Malaysia one had undertaken with the thespian in 1994. Indian Airlines had launched its inaugural flight between Chennai and Kuala Lumpur and had sponsored a visit to Malaysia of a motley bunch of MPs — most of them members of the standing committee on civil aviation — and journalists.

For this correspondent, it was the first encounter with the behaviour, eccentricities and often high-handedness of our MPs.

One high-profile Congress Lok Sabha MP, who shall remain unnamed, took the cake when it came to throwing his weight around.

Remember, 10 years ago, India had not opened up to international brand names, and South-East Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia were sought-after destinations for shopping; this gentleman thus set about his shopping with great gusto.

Sighting him walking towards the hotel with loads of packages in hand, one asked him if we could share a cab. "Nahi, nahi, hotel tau nazdeek mein hi hei (the hotel is near) let's walk," was his response. As he dived into another shop, one ducked into a cab, without offering him a ride, admittedly a mean act.

Later, at the Indian High Commissioner's home for the customary party for such a VIP group, the MP was heard complaining about how he had been cheated by a Malaysian shop-owner.

The gentleman had paid a traveller's cheque of $500 to settle a bill of 500 Malaysian dollars, or ringitt, which at that time must have been less than one-fourth the cost of a US dollar. Without being able to produce the bill or name the shop where he had parted with the traveller's cheque, he demanded that the High Commissioner should apprehend the "thief" who had cheated him and get his money back! At the inaugural bash thrown at the hotel by Indian Airlines, Vyjayanthimala Bali, then an MP, was invited on stage, along with, of course, Sunil Dutt, mainly because even then Bollywood stars were big in Malaysia.

As she entered the stage, people from the crowd started singing Mein kya karu Ram mujhe budhha mil gaya, the popular number from Raj Kapoor's Sangam. But a female minister in the entourage was livid that "a mere film star and not a seasoned politician" like her was put on the stage, and the IA officers had to do a lot of explaining to pacify her.

While almost every MP in the entourage expected the IA officials and staff of the Indian High Commission to dance to their tunes, only one parliamentarian stood apart. And that was Sunil Dutt.

Each time we returned to our luxury coach after a meal, he would make it a point to stop by the driver to ask him: "Have you had your meal?" While most MPs would disappear from the meetings scheduled for the day to follow their own agendas, turning up mysteriously at meal times, the soft-spoken Sunil Dutt participated in every meeting, and had no personal agenda to push.

A couple of years later, when I met him in Chennai for an interview on his having become an ambassador to the cause of cerebral palsy, he insisted on walking out of the sprawling guest house where he was staying all the way to the road where the car was parked and insisted on opening the door, saying with a gracious smile, "You have come all the way to talk to me; let me at least see you to your car." One doesn't easily forget graciousness... and of course chivalry.

Add to all this, the genuineness with which he played the role of a peace activist, the earnestness with which he would end up in the midst of communities pained and scarred by religious intolerance or communal violence, be it in Amritsar, Gujarat or Mumbai, his efforts to raise funds for cancer, which killed wife Nargis, the warmth and love with which he came forward with his troupe to entertain the soldiers at the front, way back in the 1970s, set him apart from the run-of-the-mill Bollywood actors or the dyed-in-the-wool politicians.

The affection with which the ordinary people in his Lok Sabha constituency spoke about his helping the downtrodden was proof that the razzle-dazzle of the tinsel world had not destroyed the human being in him.

The Congress(I) President, Sonia Gandhi, described him as "a very special human being" and recalled how after Indira Gandhi had lost power in 1977, and was being hounded and humiliated, Sunil Dutt stood by her, proving that he was not a fair-weather friend.

It is an irony that the same party and the family let him down badly when it recently took in Sanjay Nirupam after he had been thrown out of the Shiv Sena; the same man who had made personal attacks against Dutt during the last Lok Sabha elections.

Dutt was a man who was praised by his opponents... not only after his death, but even when he was alive. It was this special quality in Sunil Dutt that had made the Shiv Sena Chief, Bal Thackeray, stand by him, while his son Sunjay Dutt was incarcerated under TADA during a Congress regime under the chief ministership of Sharad Pawar.

Actor Om Puri, perhaps, gave the best tribute when he described the thespian as "a true soldier without a gun."

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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A gentleman politician