ven
though he had an appointment for dialysis at the Apollo Hospital in
South Delhi, a health ritual which has become an essential part of
his courageous life, the former Prime Minister, Raja Vishwanath Pratap
Singh, was kind enough to spare more than an hour for The DayAfter
team of Editor-in Chief Sunil Dang and Think Tank Director
Yogendra Bali. In his clear, soft-spoken and emphatic style, he tried
to hide nothing. He gave his views about the future of India, the
follies and foibles of those whom he scoffed at for being merely
political Hindus and gave his update on the Mandal Commission for
which history shall always give him a place to reckon with.
He commented that there were political
profit-seekers who wanted to "convert Hindus into Hinduism" and also
asked: "Who was a greater Hindu than Gandhiji?" He felt that the
secular forces would, in the long run, find ways of coming together
and would release new political initiatives. Known for the traumatic
social change which he sought to bring about with the implementation
of the Mandal Commission Report and the daring coalition experiment in
the formation of the National Front, which celebrated its silver
jubilee this year, he did not exhibit any loud-shrieking anger and
fire-spitting frustration of the prototype politicians.
Despite his physical constraints and discomfort, to
a very personal question about himself, he answered with a wide smile,
"I am happy." There was no tension as he talked about political titans
from Sonia Gandhi to the ruling political giants. He saw them all with
his cold, rational and sometimes smilingly cynical gaze.
Referring to the Hindu card played by some of the
political parties in the country, V. P. Singh said: "This is only a
political version. Who was a greater Ram bhakt than Gandhiji,
Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhans? They were the real Hindus. They
raised the prestige of the country the world over. They raised the
prestige of Hinduism. The other people are not Hindus. This version
they are giving is only a political version. It is not Hinduism. They
are not Hindus." He was reminded of his crusade for the socially and
economically deprived sections of society during his days as the Chief
Minister of Uttar Pradesh and later as the coalition Prime Minister of
India.
He recounted some of his decisions and experiences.
He said: "I had passed orders that all the quotas for petrol pumps,
gas agencies and all, which had been taken by the moneyed people and
the chamchas, should be given to youth from the universities on the
basis of merit so that caste and community don’t come in the way. And
they would have some satisfaction and one could earn as much as an IAS
officer. I made it clear that this entire quota should be given on
merit and not on discretion. All applicants, therefore, came from the
universities. If I had just one more month in office, I would have
implemented the programme in totality and much of the anger of the
youth would have gone."
Sunil Dang asked why was it that the tenures of
coalition Prime Ministers like V. P. Singh himself, Chandra Shekhar,
I. K. Gujral and Deve Gowda, were all very very short? He said:
"Because we were like learning to cycle. The duration of such cycling
is very short. One falls. But over a period of time you can cycle for
a longer time. That is what happened to the country."
First there was an attitude of confrontational
politics, not coalition. No one was mentally prepared for coalitions.
Any amount of reform you talk about, the people indulged in the same
brinkmanship and the government would fall. When the country had to
repeatedly go for elections then wisdom dawns." In a casual reference
whether he had recently met Sonia Gandhi, among other political
leaders, while discussing the affairs of the nation, he said crisply:
"Not recently. I had met her during the Uttar Pradesh elections. I am
not involved in the Think Tank for her. In Gujarat, I went on my own
and without interacting with the Congress, asked for support for the
Congress because I thought it was the Congress which was in a position
to take on the BJP-VHP conglomerate. I went to Gujarat, held a press
conference and gave my opinion. There are many things I do on my own.
I do not consult. In U. P. I felt I should resign so I resigned. I did
not consult."
Discussing the issue of political Hinduism, he said: "It is the
greatest threat to both Hinduism and the unity of the country.
Hinduism has been much respected all over the world. Hindu philosophy
says that all living and non-living beings are the same. The soul and
God are the same. It is an all-embracing philosophy. We have never
needed conversion because there was no "otherness." When you talk of
the whole as a family there is no otherness. We never went on
crusades. They now want to change all that. They want to regiment
Hinduism. I do not know what they want to do. Woh to Hinduon ko hi
Hindu banana chahte hain. Their only agenda is to hate other
religions and then only you are a Hindu. And this hate-agenda they
wanted for political purposes, not religion. As Hitler used racialism,
they are using this for communal purposes. "Asked whether that kind of
attitude might affect even the Indian Diaspora abroad where people
belong to all castes and creeds, he said: "No, no. They want only the
Hindu Diaspora. I asked them: Can you take the philosophy of Togadia
into the World Forum?" V. P. Singh was firmly of the opinion that if
there was mobilisation on people’s issues, like hunger, poverty,
illiteracy and development, then communalism would not grow."