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Our man in Delhi

Night of June 25, 1975. The middle-class neighbourhood of Naraina Vihar was asleep. Abruptly, at 2.30 am, the calm was shattered by police vehicles screeching to a halt outside the house of an innocuous 60-year-old lawyer. The family scrambled awake. Perhaps the old man had expected it: He motioned to his young son, quietly walked to the front gate, and engaged the policemen in an argument. What are the charges against my son? Do you have a warrant for his arrest? He is not a criminal. This is a democracy; you cannot pick up people arbitrarily. He isn't home, anyway.

The son had slipped out from the rear of the house. He walked a distance to a pre-defined spot, where his friend waited with a scooter. They sped away; there was work to be done: What had brought on the extreme measure? What was going on? What could they do? They called a newspaper office. No one there. They called another. Ditto. Then another, and another, and another... The electricity connections of all had been cut off. By the government. Emergency had been declared at midnight...

The next morning, the campus of Delhi University was abuzz. Woh Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ka bundha has been arrested. No, he escaped. No, he was beaten up. No, he's disappeared. No, he's here! He's organising a protest against the imposition of Emergency... At 9 am, the lawyer's son led a demonstration and burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. By noon, the situation became tricky. The police surrounded and tried to overcome the large throng of agitating students. The young man asked his friends to disperse and turned himself in.

That student leader was Arun Jaitley, spokesman of the BJP. Our man in Delhi...

Fade out... Fade in: "The articulate lawyer-politician spokesman of the Congress, Mr Kapil Sibal, seems to have lost his court room touch when dealing with the media at the daily press briefing at the AICC headquarters... His 'MacCarthyist' approach landed him in controversy when he sought to single out a report in The Pioneer as the handiwork of the government... Mr Sibal's attack on the Press backfired with the volley of protests from the reporters present. It was pointed out that Mr Sibal had no business to vent his gripes with a newspaper from the party forum." ~ The Pioneer, 18 September, 1999.

Tch, tch, tch... such things, we assure you, will never be said of that other lawyer-politician, our man in Delhi. True, Arun does have a streak of temper: He screamed at us for asking too many questions. We really don't understand why we can't get fundies to fall in line! Oh, but we have to rewind a bit...

A recent ORG-MARG poll of 3,208 respondents aged between 18 and 21 years threw up a picture which ToI considers "rather surprising" (we wonder why). Almost all of them want to join the army if war broke out; 66% want India to adopt an aggressive Pakistan policy; 68% want India to develop its nuclear programme; 65% do not want caste-based reservations; 79% don't want to settle abroad; 80% want top posts to be reserved for native Indians, and, 56% will consider voting for the BJP. A fundie future...

Therefore, we decided to pick from the second tier of saffron leadership the man we've warmed to since after his decimating Jairam Ramesh in debate. Too, since we are totally shorn of it, his art of understatement is like a blossom to our bee. Thing is, after the venerable ji's glide away to the Ayodhyan Fields, fundie life will still go on, and this is as good a time as any to spotlight a future honcho that even the urban young could relate to.

Arun Jaitley fits the Young India profile to the T-shirt in other ways, too. He's sharp, he's sassy, he's sleek, he's suave, he's very camera-friendly, and he's packed with punch-lines. In short, all the stuff that good VJs are made of. Question is, can he *make* the music? We can't say. But of one thing we're dead certain -- and we can't tell you the circumstances since it'll only incriminate us -- Arun will NOT lie or quibble to further himself or his party. For him, the end does not justify the means. On one level, we find that annoyingly nonrealistic; on another, we respect it tremendously. It's why we have this love-hate thing with swayamsevaks. Arun is one.

He also has two teenage kids who attend Public schools and who, Arun admits, "do not speak the kind of impeccable Hindi I speak." Meaning, he won't slam the next voter who doesn't know what vishwavyaapi mukta vyapar means (we don't). We don't know the colour of Arun's eyes, either -- we didn't gaze longingly into them since he stops an inch short of our requirements: he's 5 feet, 11 inches. Another defect: "I agree with ABVP's no alcoholism environment. In my family, teetotalism is a virtue." The v-word produces a cataleptic effect on us. Too, "former Additional Solicitor General of India" can be a major damper on coquetry.

So, no. All was above board. Er... are we protesting too much? Wel-l-l... there was one moment, as we were recalling his nocturnal escape tale: Intrigue can be an aphrodisiac. We ventured, Are you a harmless flirt? Reply: "I presume I am not." Which, of course, is high Jaitleyism, the kind that makes us go weak-kneed. It could mean: he's not a flirt; he's a wicked flirt; he only supposes he's no flirt. In the nick of time, we remembered that the man is used to lecturing research institutes on "50 years of the Indian Constitution" and let it pass...

Now if you're wondering if our purpose was an interview -- it was not. We simply wanted to check him out. For instance, would he go off the deep end at the mention of hamburgers? Apparently, not. He wears jeans and flashes a Rolex; he loves shopping abroad; he collects expensive pens; he's defended PepsiCo... "Yes, I'm non-veg. I eat at McDonald's and other places. I was passionate about eating out several years ago but lately I've cut it down." Ahh... a barrier against the Swadeshi Jokers Manch... But then, "I do not eat beef and I agree with the VHP to ban it." So Ok, everybody's allowed to have some nit.

Birth control? "I strongly feel the issue is linked to population control. A strong consciousness on this front is required." Fine. Censorship? "I believe censorship should be limited to absurd nudity and national security. Otherwise the choice must be with the viewers." Cool. Music? "I sometimes listen to rock, Hindi film music and the latest bhangra pop. I don't mind my children watching Channel [V] or MTV... It doesn't matter how one dresses up so long as it is sober and smart. But I think nudity has to be avoided in public display and on television." Acceptable. The Web? "It's my regret that I haven't taken to the Internet. I do intend to do so." Ok, so nobody's perfect.

By then, we had tired of probing what we call the Bombay Times Culture. It was time to move forward. Or, backward: Arun Jaitley entered Delhi U in 1971, when the Left movement was raising its foul head. But every cloud has a silver lining: As a reaction to campus Marxism, there sprang a strong ABVP. "When I joined college, for the first few months I was a student of Marxism. It looked attractive to start off, but the attraction was lost very soon... It was a great place and time for an ideological debate, particularly from 1973 onwards when JP's [Narayan] movement picked up."

Arun was in prison for 1 year, 7 months. And he still doesn't know the exact reason for his arrest. "I incurred their wrath because of the ABVP and JP connection. I was barely 22 when I went to jail. The 19 months was a great period for one to get to learn a lot. I read a lot. There was a period when fearlessness in one's temperament grew." Also confined were Sushil Modi, Laloo Yadav and Sharad Yadav, his contemporaries from student politics. "Amongst my other friends in jail was one of your columnists from Rediff, Virendra Kapur." No wonder Capital Buzz has such a fatal sting.

When the Janata Party was formed, Arun became the youngest member of its national executive. And then -- he quit. "The ABVP thought that I should contribute a few more years [to activism] before joining politics. I did not disagree with them; I was too disciplined to take any other line." Stop the Press!

So, what about the fundies attracted him? "It was the nationalism content of Hindutva rather than the religiosity which inspired me. I don't believe in rituals. I consider Hindutva more as a cultural mascot of this country. If cultural nationalism and Hindutva are changeable, yes, it's a political fight." Welcome to the ever-expanding club...

And what would the Beej do for the urban young? "The under-30 voters in the urban centres have two characteristics: They are highly competitive and work for success, and at the same time, they're highly cynical. I think we need to alter the second component of their thinking. Also, we have to improve the quality of politics and men in politics to impress them." Then, shouldn't people like you think of politics full-time...? No reply. Then came the scream. It was time to wind up. But of course, we still managed to elicit a few zingers fit for prime-time television:

Dr Karan Singh --- "He is fairly mobile in his political movement."

The DD exit polls discord --- "When the exit poll do not suit us, we question their validity."

The IGNCA controversy --- "It is a typical case of annexation by technicalities. A government trust is now a de facto private trust. It involves 23 acres of a costly piece of land on a central vista of India Gate and a government grant of Rs 134 crores. For the Congress, it is indeed immaterial since India, according to them, is a family business of the Gandhis."

At Jyoti Basu's 'To defeat the BJP we have decided to support the Congress. The question of political morality does not arise in such a situation' --- "The CPI-M does everything on a matter of principle. Its friend, the CPI supported the Emergency, on the principle of upholding the dignity of authoritarianism. The undivided Communist Party supported the British during the 1942 movement, for there were imperialist principles involved. It supported Mr V P Singh's government along with BJP, on the principle of opposing corruption. It is now a pillion rider to the corrupt and dynastic Congress, for the principle involved is to avoid communalism. Individuals have been influenced to defect, but, the common Indian communist's ideology defects. There is a greater immorality involved in this."

Sonia Gandhi --- "Her ideological perceptions on our nuclear programme, national security and economic growth are best-kept secrets. She has no experience, and as PM, she would be an embarrassment."

To Dr Karan Singh's 'I am more experienced than him [Vajpayee]' --- "Certainly. You have experience of more political parties than anyone in India: the Congress, the Congress (U), the Virat Hindu Sammelan and Independent candidate supported by BJP and National Conference."

Arun, in a line, the Congress Party is...? "Nothing but a crowd around a family."

Varsha Bhosle