Old Guards of 'Young India'

They have never believed in hanging up their boots. The ‘old guards’ of politics are all out to stamp their authority in ‘Young India’. If some say it’s to retain their lost glory, others attribute it to their “over ambitiousness”.

With former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat creating a political storm of sorts by claiming that the issue of picking up NDA’s Prime Ministerial candidate was still wide open, the limelight has yet again shifted to the country’s political veterans - all asking for their pound of flesh.

From BJP’s Kalyan Singh to Congress’ K Karunakaran; from National Conference’ Farooq Abdullah to Janata Dal (Secular)’s HD Deve Gowda, each one of them has his own different reason to seek a place under the political arc lights. Interestingly though, all these veterans have a striking commonness: They all have been Chief Ministers, and they are all on the wrong side (or right side) of 70. If Shekhawat is aged 85, then Karunakaran is 90; if Kalyan is aged 77, then Farooq is 73.

Still, the most amazing story has been the “awakening” of Shekhawat. The man, who started as a sub-inspector with Rajasthan Police and gradually rose to become the Vice President of the country, is now waging a war against the party that he nursed all these years.

Some in the BJP question the timing Shekhawat chose to launch a tirade against the party. His “outbursts” against former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and “expression of interest” to contest the Lok Sabha elections have come at a time when the Central leadership was struggling with several internal conflicts.

It is now common knowledge that Shekhawat believes he was “consciously” sidelined by his colleagues in the party to end the competition for the top job - Prime Ministership.

It was perhaps this feeling that agitated Shekhawat when BJP president Rajnath Singh rebuffed him saying those who have taken a dip in the Ganga do not think about taking bath in a well. “I entered politics when Rajnath was not even born,” Shekhawat retorted, and strongly at that.

Shekhawat is, undoubtedly, much elder to most of the active BJP leaders. Still his call failed to evoke much response. His proposed campaign against corruption (that he claims was rampant during last BJP government in Rajasthan) has apparently more to do with personal rivalries with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. She had stopped listening to the Rajput veteran from Rajasthan.

“Will he led a similar campaign against his friends outside the BJP? Many of those who have been in the good books of Shekhawat are accused of swindling public money. Why is he not speaking against them?” A BJP office bearer wonders, echoing the prevailing subdued feelings within a section of the party.

“There has also been a dark side to Shekhawat’s politics. It has revolved around caste considerations. Shekhawat’s biggest strength had been his friends (most of them were from his caste) outside the BJP. They are the one who are understood to have convinced Shekhawat to contest the Presidential election in 2007 despite little chance of winning the race,” BJP sources said.

Shekhawat has mostly relied on his friends outside. Even this time around he is enjoying more support from outside than from within the BJP. The Nationalist Congress Party was quick to welcome his decision to contest elections and so was the Samajwadi Party. From within the NDA stable, Shekhawat’s call found an instant support from the Janata Dal (United) quarters. With Thakurs from outside the BJP thronging his sprawling bungalow on Aurangzeb Road of Lutyens’ Delhi, Shekhawat is surely pinning hopes on non-BJP leaders to take up his cause.

It was perhaps for this reason, a BJP insider said, that Rajnath had no option but to side with Advani when Shekhawat challenged the NDA’s decision to anoint him as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the alliance. Perhaps, this was also to dispel the impression that Shekhawat’s “misadventure” had Rajnath’s support.

Shekhawat apart, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh too is now giving the BJP a serious headache. Singh, who is a serving vice president of the BJP, has been at odds with the party’s central leaders, many of whom are much junior to him, for reclaiming the same status he enjoyed a couple of years ago.

But for Kalyan, dubbed as a “sulking soul” always asking for “something more”, his biggest problem is Rajnath Singh, his competitor from Uttar Pradesh, who rose to become the national president of the party even after starting as his junior colleague in the state.

Speculations have been rife that Kalyan was hobnobbing with many rebel leaders of the BJP and with his friends in the Samajwadi Party to deal a severe blow to his party in case it decided to tie up with former union minister Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal against his wishes.

Then, there is a common thread uniting JD (S) chief HD Deve Gowda and National Conference mentor Farooq Abdullah. The veterans from the South and North of Vindhyas have refused to call it a day even after passing on the baton to their sons.

Farooq Abdullah recently made way for his son Omar Abdullah, but not before expressing his own ambitions of becoming the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. No doubt, Farooq was the Chief Ministerial candidate of his party before elections, he, however, had to give in to the pressure from within the party and his own family to allow his son to take over.

Deve Gowda was not left with much to do with Karnataka politics after his son HD Kumaraswamy started calling the shots in the party after becoming the Chief Minister of the BJP-JD (S) dispensation. Kumaraswamy is now assigned with the responsibility of rebuilding the party in Karnataka, the state that BJP snatched from the Congress and the JD (S). But he continues to harbour the dreams of a Third Front and a major role in the central politics.

With “son rise” in the JD (S) and the NC - Omar Abdullah as J&K Chief Minister and HD Kumaraswamy in full control of the party in Karnataka - Farooq and Deve Gowda have found reasons to prepare for a fresh innings at the Centre.

Farooq has decided to take charge of the National Conference that will tie up with the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. Deve Gowda, who suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP in last year’s assembly elections, has reasons to rejoice with the results of the by-poll for over half-a-dozen seats, which proved he is still a force to reckon with in the southern State. Congress would surely like Deve Gowda to be on its side.

But the Grand Old party of India has its own problem, further down South. Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran Congressman K Karunakaran, ‘leader’ to his supporters, has been giving sleepless nights to his party leaders ever since the Congress went ahead with making AK Antony as the Chief Minister. His antics of leaving the party to form the Democratic Indira Congress, only to merge it later with NCP and then leave it to rejoin the Congress, have left the Congress perplexed. It can now never hazard a guess when it comes to the Kerala veteran. But at the same time it also cannot do away with him.

Their age notwithstanding, the grand old men of Indian politics continue to register their presence in the billion-strong nation, over 65 per cent of which is below 35 years of age and half of it below 25 years. Its time for the voters to SPEAK OUT