Ajit Singh should learn to live without privileges, now that he is no longer in power
I vividly recall the first big culture shock, when I relocated to the British Isles in the mid-1970s. Travelling from london to leeds, I arrived at the rail station and lined up in the queue for a ticket. A few seconds later, a gentleman with a leather dispatch bag with the Government insignia arrived and joined the queue behind me. His profile looked somewhat familiar, but being new to the country, I could not place him.
I glanced at the newspaper which a lady before me was reading, and that revealed the gentleman's identity. He was Mr Denis Healey, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, the British equivalent of the Indian Finance Minister. I was to learn later that he was very popular and a colourful politician known for his excruciating vituperation. There were no security personnel in sight nor did he make any effort to jump the queue.
Those were the days of Emergency and it was inconceivable for me that a senior politician of his stature carrying himself without any pretentions. We were brought up to believe that we had inherited the culture of political pomposity from the British themselves, but clearly that was not true. I, gradually, became accustomed to observing the British politicians carrying themselves without any trappings of the office and I must say, I personally found it very refreshing. But there were further shocks in store for me.
Sometime later, I travelled to Reykjavik to attend a conference. One of my colleagues took me on a drive through the lovely landscape, and soon we found ourselves driving through the gateway of a nondescript house whereby we disembarked and rang the doorbell. It was answered by a strikingly good-looking lady in her mid 40s. I was introduced to Ms Vigdis Finbogadottir, the then President of Iceland.
Why am I narrating thisIJ Because India has been a witness to a revoltingly grotesque spectacle of yet another Indian politician, Mr Ajit Singh, resort to every trick in the book to stick to the trappings and baubles he is not entitled to. Having lost the recent election, he is no longer a Minister, but has absolutely no moral pangs about occupying a residence meant specifically for senior Cabinet Ministers. And the brazenness with which he has gone about the task is a measure of the megalomania the politician class has adopted. His goons went on a rampage creating a massive breach of peace, and they openly threatened to disrupt the water supply of the capital. The pretext they have used was patently disingenuous; they claim that they want a memorial for Mr Ajit Singh's father, who was the Prime Minister for a very brief period and has the unique distinction of never having faced Parliament during that phase.
To be fair to Mr Singh, he is not the first to demand a memorial for his forbear. There have been instances of Indian politicians using that ploy to retain commodious residences which they are no longer entitled to. The most shocking was the manner in which Prime Minister lal Bahadur Shastri's family continued to stay in the residence he used as Prime Minister, after obtaining Governmental permission for it to be used as a memorial. Shastri was one of the most upright and non-pretentious politicians, and it is anybody's guess if he would have approved of this move.
And it has also got to be stated that there are others as well who continue to enjoy the pleasures of accomodation way beyond their entitlement. Mr Abhijit Mukherjee is a second-time Member of Parliament who has not made any effort to bring any distinction to his position. Instead, he shall always be remembered for his deeply insensitive and sexist remarks following the unfortunate rape and murder in Delhi way back in 2012. Yet, that did not come in his way of wangling an accomodation meant for very senior Cabinet Ministers — way beyond his entitlement — and it is a fair guess that he shall continue to unashamedly enjoy the perks of being the President's son!
I had an opportunity to visit Israel. Its firebrand Prime Minister Golda Meir, a lady about no one could ever be neutral, had just lost the election. After having been in the limelight for so long, she did not hesitate to relinquish every trapping of power and retired to a one-bedroom apartment in a high rise. She insisted on being addressed by everyone as Golda, and used to take a bus to shop.
Years later, during another visit, I witnessed the mayhem when the Nobel Prize winning Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Once, the funeral formalities were over, the labor Party of Israel offered his widow leah a political position. Not only did she turn the offer down but she even refused to countenance security for herself and her family. And it is nobody's case that Israel's security needs are lesser than that of India. Moreover, leah Rabin asserted unequivocally that as the country had given her husband the opportunity to serve it, she and her family had been conferred all the legitimate honours — and maybe even more — through this benevolence.
Who can forget top politicians like Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Narendra Dev! Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was known to be hawkish whenever he used to observe any hankering for the trappings amongst his family and staff. Not a whiff of impropriety, fiscal or otherwise was ever even suggested. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was known to have asked one of his nephews to relinquish a position that he had supposedly obtained by using his name.