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By Harish Khare
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, being felicitated by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, at a function in New Delhi on Wednesday. — AFP
His remarks were immediately seen as potent and significant, especially in the context of the last few days' confusion created by the party president, Venkaiah Naidu's conflicting statements. Mr. Naidu had first said that the party would project Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani as co-mascots in the next Lok Sabha elections. A day later, he retracted his statement and observed that Mr. Vajpayee would be the party's sole standard-bearer. A close prime ministerial aide described Mr. Vajpayee's remark this evening as "a googly". It was also pointed out that they were made "half in jest". The remarks came towards the end of Mr. Vajpayee's reply to a felicitation Mr. Naidu had organised (for the Prime Minister on his "successful diplomacy"). The NDA convener, George Fernandes, Mr. Advani himself, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, as well as Union Ministers and party office-bearers were present. It was believed that Mr. Naidu had organised the get-together only to make up with Mr. Vajpayee for having made the "co-mascots remarks". But Mr. Naidu was given no comfort. Instead, Mr. Vajpayee made "a clarification" which further confused the issue. In fact, as soon as the Prime Minister made his remarks, Mr. Naidu himself was the first to assert that the "next elections would be contested under Mr. Vajpayee's stewardship". As Mr. Naidu put it: "Vajpayee was the party's leader, the NDA's leader, the Government's leader and the country's leader.'' Mr. Naidu made a similar clarification later to newsmen outside the Prime Minister's residence. He reiterated his earlier election campaign mantra, "Vajpayee ka naam; vajpayee ka kaam" (Vajpayee's achievements, Vajpayee's face). He added that there was "no confusion in the party in the matter" and that Mr. Vajpayee would lead the party in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, who was present, appeared before television cameras to caution newspersons against "over-reading" Mr. Vajpayee's remarks. The media, according to him, had similarly over-interpreted Mr. Vajpayee's "retirement'' quip. All that was meant was that Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani respected each other.The party general secretary, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, was even more categorical in his interpretation of the remarks: "Mr. Vajpayee will lead the campaign; he will be the Prime Minister of the BJP-led Government after the next election. And as usual, Mr. Advani would devise and guide the election strategy.'' By the end of the day it was becoming obvious that the Prime Minister and his advisers were enjoying the turmoil and confusion after Mr. Vajpayee's enigmatic comments. One aide firmly insisted that the PMO had no plans to issue any kind of clarification.
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