Vajpayee, Pandit Malaviya fully deserve honour
Both former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and freedom-fighter Madan Mohan Malaviya should have been awarded the Bharat Ratna a long time ago. That they were not, has to do with parochial politics more than anything else. Therefore, the Narendra Modi Government's Wednesday announcement to confer the nation's highest civilian award upon these luminaries corrects the anomaly. Both men contributed significantly to our freedom struggle as well to contemporary politics. In Mr Vajpayee's case, the fact that leaders from across the political spectrum have welcomed the decision to give him the Bharat Ratna, speaks volumes. Indeed, Mr Vajpayee is best remembered for his ability to rise above petty politics and emerge as a statesman. An old-school leader, he came to politics, not to grab power but because he was genuinely committed to serving the nation.
In his early political years, he participated in the national freedom struggle alongside the likes of Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Syama Prasad Mookerjee. His oratory skills, appreciated even by Jawaharlal Nehru, who reportedly predicted that Mr Vajpayee would become Prime Minister, quickly propelled him to the top of the Jan Sangh movement. Mr Vajpayee was among the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which paved the way for today's Bharatiya Janata Party, the only major political alternative to the Congress at the national level. Indeed, it is fitting that Mr Vajpayee was the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full five-year term in Government. But that achievement would have been a symbolic one had he not leveraged that opportunity to galvanise India's national potential.
He built on the reforms process initiated by Prime Minster PV Narasimha Rao, shaped an effective good governance model, and quite literally put India on the road (roads and highways were two of his pet projects) to achieving envious growth rates that has since lifted millions out of poverty and consolidated the country's position as a major player on the global stage. Two other important landmark events that marked Mr Vajpayee's tenure were India consolidating itself as a nuclear power and the lahore peace process. The nuclear tests led to global sanctions against India, while the peace process, which marked a rare high in the generally acrimonious India-Pakistan bilateral, was followed by the Kargil conflict. In both cases, Mr Vajpayee steered India through difficult times. His diplomatic skills are legendary, with even Congress Governments having sent him as an envoy on difficult foreign missions.
As for Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, it is distressing to see the manner in which some sections of the left liberal commentariat have painted him as an ‘orthodox Hindu leader’, when he was one of the most progressive figures of the independence era. Best known for establishing the reputed Benaras Hindu University, which remains one of the country's most esteemed institutions of higher studies, Pandit Malaviya opposed minority appeasement politics on the one hand, and did yeoman's work to lift Hindu caste barriers, on the other. A stalwart of the Indian freedom struggle, he was four-time president of the Congress and a crucial link between the party's moderate and radical factions.