Vajpayee’s sangfroid in Paris

Vappala Balachandran
Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat

Shorn of pretensions, Vajpayee had no issue squeezing in the back of a car with Balram Jakhar and Bansi Lal, or being dragged to a museum much against his will!   

The year 1983 saw many visits to Europe by our parliamentarians. Some came independently while others came as part of delegations. One such delegation to France was led by the then Lok Sabha Speaker, Dr Balram Jakhar. It was a delegation to the European Parliament located in Strasbourg. Other members were senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress MP Bansi Lal, who did not hold a Cabinet post and was the chairman of the Estimates Committee. But he was the erstwhile ‘strong man’ in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet and also the ‘face’ of the Emergency. 

We did not know how seniority was counted among parliamentarians in our country. In the US, seniority is counted on the length of time a Senator or Representative serves in the committee. The UK follows nearly the same principle. ‘The father of the House’ is the longest, continuously serving member. The date and time of swearing in decides the seniority. Based on this, Vajpayee should have been the seniormost among the three, as he was elected to Parliament in 1957. Bansi Lal, although a chief minister since 1968, was elected to Parliament in 1980. So was Dr Balram Jakhar, who became an MP only in 1980. 

I was deputed as the liaison officer during their visit to Paris for two days. But the protocol formalities connected with this high-level visit caused jitters. The embassy had only one car to spare. In those days, the government did not allow hiring of cars except for prime ministerial visits. How could the three powerful visitors be herded into one car? Here was a powerful former foreign minister who, although  not No. 2 in seniority in the 1977 Cabinet, was the decisive face for external relations in the Morarji Desai Cabinet. We also had to count on the past ranking of Bansi Lal. No doubt, Dr Jakhar would be the leader as Speaker. 

I was apprehensive how I would handle these titans together, especially because of their personal stature and opposing political alignments. I also knew that Dr Jakhar always took time off to visit art museums in Paris. Once he missed his flight to Madrid since he lingered on at the Louvre, despite the embassy official’s warning on the traffic congestion on the Boulevard Peripherique in the afternoon. 

But all my apprehensions vanished when I received Vajpayee. He was the first to arrive. He put me at ease with his modesty and warmth. He had no aides with him and travelled alone. He did not resent that he was being received by a middle-level officer when he was always received earlier by ambassadors, as the highly visible foreign minister of the Janata government. I told him frankly that he would be sharing the car with Dr Jakhar and Bansi Lal. He did not mind. He told me that they were his good friends. 

I had expected some protests from Dr Jakhar and Bansi Lal because of their official stature. I had also expected them, being from the ruling group, to treat Vajpayee as the junior member of the delegation in view of the small size of his party in the Lok Sabha. But it was not so. I was pleasantly surprised that they happily squeezed in together in the rear seat. Not once did they complain about this arrangement during their stay, fulfilling all their engagements, including meetings at the Palais Bourbon (National Assembly) and lunch at the ambassador’s residence. 

They were happy together as schoolboys out on a picnic, forgetting their politics, cracking jokes at one another and regaling with funny anecdotes. I had never expected politicians, who were at the throat of one another in Parliament, to be happy and comfortable with one another during private visits. 

As usual, Dr Jakhar decided to spend a few hours visiting art museums after lunch and asked me where they should go. At that time, the centennial of the famous French Impressionist painter, Edouard Manet, was going on in the cavernous halls of the elegant Grand Palais. Without consulting Vajpayee and Bansi Lal, he asked me to drive them there. The place was teeming with hundreds of visitors. Vajpayee, who had difficulty in walking long stretches, asked me how long the walk was in the Palais. He let out a groan when I told him that it would be a 2-3 km walk to see the whole exhibition, with hundreds of paintings like ‘The Olympia’, ‘Concert in the Tuileries’, ‘The Dead Toreador’, and ‘Luncheon on the Grass’. 

To the amusement of the other two, Vajpayee vehemently protested why they should see the exhibits at all. Dr Jakhar told him that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That did not convince Vajpayee who went on protesting, but still slowly walked all the way behind them. All throughout, the other two were teasing him for his slow pace. He would constantly protest at Dr Jakhar for dragging him to the exhibition. I kept company with him while the other two went ahead. Back in the car, the three had a hearty laugh over the whole episode.  

Compared to the present times, politics in those days was a dignified affair. Vajpayee was a sterling example of that era.