Patna, Dec. 25: Out of sight, birthday boy Atal Bihari Vajpayee is out of mind as well. Even for his partymen.
The questions asked in a quiz organised today by the BJP on the life of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were bouncers for participants — all school students. The same proved to be chin music for some prominent leaders of the party. They were caught clueless all ends up.
Students from Rajkiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya, Rajkiya Saraswati Vidyalaya and New Harijan Academy participated in the quiz organised to mark the 88th birthday of the BJP patriarch. The organisers had set 12 questions — all related to Vajpayee’s political life. The tricky queries simply bounced over the participants’ head.
When The Telegraph fielded six of the 12 questions asked in the quiz to some senior BJP leaders, they too failed to come up with the correct answers (see graphics). Be it the party’s national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy, BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, MLA Nitin Navin or state-level spokesperson of the party MLA Prem Ranjan Patel, none could give correct answers to all.
Perhaps it was out of sight, out of mind syndrome. The three-time Prime Minister has been away from politics for some time now.
A minister under Vajpayee, Rudy was unaware of the parliamentary constituency from where the BJP patriarch had won for the first time. Nor did he know the name of Vajpayee’s father. He was clueless on his year of birth also.
Rudy got worked up after a while. When asked in which state Vajpayee was born, he said: “Google it.”
When asked about Vajpayee’s first portfolio in the Union ministry, he said: “Give me 10 minutes to reply to these queries. But why don’t you see the answers on the Net. They are all available there. If you want to get a reply from me, furnish me the questions and give me 10 minutes.”
Cut to Navin. He had been to Delhi to wish Vajpayee on his birthday with deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. But he too fumbled.
“I cannot give replies as of now. If you give me time, I will check and reply,” he said.
“Today, I met Atalji on his birthday day and I feel that I have been blessed. Vajpayee is such a great leader,” he added.
A second-generation leader, Nitin’s father was also an MLA for two terms.
Patel was also confused. After every question, he mumbled.
Sanjay also had no idea about the answers to the questions asked in the quiz for students.
“It seems you are checking the IQ of the BJP leaders. I can smell something wrong in it. Why are you asking these questions to me? I do not think anybody would be able to give the answers in such a short notice,” said the MP.
But his party thought the questions were easy. Even students would answer them in a jiffy.
The state party president, C.P. Thakur, backed the children.
“The questions were really tough. One should not expect the school students to answer them. I will suggest the organisers to ask the school students something else,” he said.
Thakur also expected his partymen to be aware of the facts and figures related to Vajpayee, the man who made the BJP a national political force to reckon with.
“He (Vajpayee) is our party’s veteran leader. It is disappointing that many leaders are not aware of the basics of his life and achievements,” Thakur signed off.
