NEW YORK: Five days ago, Atal Behari Vajpayee had
arrived in this city looking glum, weary and a
shade too melancholic. He wore much the same
expression during the greater part of his stay.
To some of his interlocutors, he seemed to be
distant, even distracted. He wasn't all there,
they claimed but as he prepared to leave for
Paris on Monday, the Prime Minister appeared to
have undergone a metamorphosis. There was still
no spring in the step. The twinkle, however, had
returned to his eyes, as had the impish smile
which occasionally breaks into a guffaw and, from
all accounts, he had clearly recovered from
something more than a mere jet-lag.
One catalyst that brought about the change was
doubtless his public engagements on Sunday
afternoon. The ballroom on the first floor of the
Sheraton Hotel overflowed with NRIs and American
citizens of Indian origin. Most of them were BJP
supporters. Indeed, as Mr Vajpayee made his
entry, familiar slogans rent the air, Desh ka
neta kaisa ho? Atal Behari Jaisa ho. (What kind
of a leader does India need? A leader like Atal
Behari.)
The Prime Minister's opening remarks served to
contain this gusto. He asked the gathering to
ponder over the slogan. ``Which country's leader
are you referring to?'' he asked. ``Many of you
are American citizens. And I am the Prime
Minister of India.'' Then, immediately after the
gentle admonition, came words of reassurance:
``However, regardless of the colour of your
passport, I known that in your heart you bear the
colours of Bharat.'' The gathering responded with
lusty cheers.
What followed was vintage Vajpayee oratory
replete with patriotic references drawn from the
lexicon of the Sangh parivar: the mandatory
assertions about hoary traditions and a glorious
future, the matribhumi (motherland) and the
dharmabhumi (holy land) both in the service of
world peace, the challenges which will be
overcome, the strength that will be acquired not
for aggrandisement but to resist aggression and
so on and so forth. The audience lapped it all up
with great relish.
This was clearly the Prime Minister's moment of
triumph. These were by and large members of his
political family though, to be wholly fair, he
bent over backwards to project himself as a
statesman, not as a politician, as a poet and not
as a candidate seeking votes or funds. And while
he did not seem to mind the flattery heaped on
him, he was lucid enough not to be carried away
by the patriotic fervour in the hall. He knows
from experience that such fervour, when pitted
against pecuniary gain, does tend to be phoney.
Over and above this event, however, the Prime
Minister had other reasons to be satisfied. His
speech at Asia Society had gone down well. This
was a comprehensive overview of the challenges
India had met since independence and the ones
that lay ahead. He emphasised the continuity in
India's policies, articulated the nature of
Indian nationalism, defined the scope of India's
conduct with the international community. On all
these counts, Mr Vajpayee spoke with a serene
firmness and there are good reasons to believe
that he managed to whittle down some of the
scepticism of his audience.
Likewise, his meetings with influential business
leaders and mediapersons provided an occasion to
reiterate India's stand on the nuclear issue, on
Kashmir and on the potential of the Indian
economy. The road ahead is still long and the
pitfalls are many. But at least Mr Vajpayee will
have left New York secure in the thought that,
thanks to his exertions, India is being heard
with the attention it deserves. He has every
reason to wear his enigmatic smile again.