On the way out

An illustration of the proverb about a man chopping off his legs wielding an axe in his hands is what the National Demo-cratic Alliance, led by the BJP, is doing to itself. The principal axe-wielder is L.K. Advani, one-time its number-two man after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Other members of the sangh parivar were quick to denounce him and a few ditched the alliance in search of greener pastures. The Shiv Sena, one of the main allies, is on the endangered list. Bal Thackeray has been reduced to a toothless tiger. His son and nephew are snarling at each other to grab the gaddi. Neither is of any consequence. One can safely presume that the NDA now only exists on paper.

Though many people, including me, sighed with relief when the parivar was rejected by the electorate in the last general elections, we hoped it would regroup to become a viable non-communal opposition based on programmes for economic and social advancement shorn of inflammatory appeals to religious emotions. It has failed to do so.

So far its role has been negative. Its entire aim has been to sow seeds of discord between individuals and parties of the United Progressive Alliance led by Manmohan Singh. It has tried to belittle the prime minister as being a yes man of the real ruler, the Congress party president, Sonia Gandhi. It has failed in its attempts to provoke Manmohan Singh to show Sonia her proper place, as it has failed to shake Sonia?s confidence in the prime minister chosen by her.

Its next tactic is to try to break the government?s alliance with the leftist parties. Though the communists periodically indulge in a certain amount of arm-twisting, they are well aware that if they take things too far, they will lose the opportunity to become a nation-wide party instead of remaining confined largely to West Bengal. Despite the noises they make, they remain firm in their support to the government.

One can understand the frustration in the ranks of the NDA, but it is difficult to understand the way it acted during the last session of parliament. Rushing into the well of the house, shouting slogans and staging walk-outs was not the best way to refurbish its image. It had every right to criticize the inclusion of ministers tainted with corruption (it had its own quota of them when in power), but it would have been better done in a house functioning properly. Its behaviour further lowered its image in the eyes of the people.

It is time the NDA, particularly the BJP, seriously considered retiring aged leaders and replacing them with a younger set. It has quite a few able men and women of unquestioned integrity who could take over. There are Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie and Sushma Swaraj. Not all of them have a national image, but fostered by elder statesmen like Vajpayee and Advani, they could gain acceptance as responsible leaders of the opposition, and if the tide of fortune turned in their favour, as rulers of the country.

A reaper came one morning

?Wait for your turn and don?t jump the queue,? I told my one and only sister three years ago. She had been in and out of hospital with some ailment or the other and looked downcast most of the time. When she caught the meaning of my remark, a wan smile lit up her face. However, she ignored my advice and died on the morning of Saturday, 2nd of July.

Jumping the queue has become a bad habit among my siblings. The first to go was the youngest, Daljit. He was the best amongst us both in sports and studies. He had a promising career in politics and became an MLA in the Delhi legislative assembly before he was thirty. ?One day I will be like you in my car with a red light on top of the bonnet and the national flag fluttering on the side,? he told our mother. He was my mother?s favourite child. Perhaps she was missing him and sent for him before his time. My sister Mahinder Jaspal Singh was three years older than him. She was my father?s favourite. Maybe he was feeling lonely without her and persuaded her to jump the queue. That leaves the three elder brothers waiting patiently in line till their time comes.

Far too often we assume that the older go first, the younger go later. Unfortunately that is not so. Visit any Christian cemetery in the country and see the number of children?s graves with tearful epitaphs put up by their parents. A favourite remains embedded in my memory:

A reaper came one morning,

He came to gather flowers;

And from the lilies

He gathered some of ours.

My sister and her husband Jaspal (about the handsomest and powerfully-built sardar you have met) had a large number of friends in Chandigarh and other towns of Punjab where he served as an IAS officer. So has their daughter Raymon Nalagarh who inherits her father?s looks. Her brothers, Shivvy (father of film actress Amrita Singh) and Binny, inherited their father?s Jat muscles.

Though we were prepared for her departure before it was due, when she eventually left, we were devastated as any family would be when one of its members makes a final journey. She was a loving soul who never hurt anyone: that the reaper does not take into reckoning. Why she went out of turn, no one will ever know. Death remains a mystery which neither astrologers, palmists nor men of religion have been able to solve.