N.M. Ghatate recalls that even when they travelled together, the politician used to remain reclusive, choosing to read books over conversation.
New Delhi: In the sombre light of the lamp, one can see that N.M. Ghatate’s eyes are moist. Atal Bihari Vajpayee would hold 12 meetings a day without any breaks, he recalls, “but would never miss his afternoon nap”.
“Well, not mostly,” Ghatate adds with a slight smile.
In December 1995, a prominent newspaper carried an interview with Vajpayee, where he was asked who his closest friend was. Vajpayee took Ghatate’s name. “This was just a few months before he was elected Prime Minister. It was only for 13 days, but if you go back and hear his speeches, you will know how passionate he was,” Ghatate recounts.
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Ghatate, who is 13 years younger than Vajpayee, was often assumed to be older than he is because of their close friendship. A senior Supreme Court lawyer and former vice chairman of the Law Commission of India, he was friends with Vajpayee since 1957.
“I came to study law in Delhi in 1957. I would visit Parliament only to hear him speak. His first speech was about international politics, I still remember that,” he says.
Ghatate was the driving force behind the compilation and publishing of Four Decades in Parliament, a collection of Vajpayee’s speeches. “I started compiling them in 1991. Back then we had no computers. It was a task, but it was well worth it,” Ghatate says.
Poet, foodie, recluse
Ghatate remembers his closest friend as “witty, humane and jovial”, and mentions that Vajpayee was known for his love of poetry and food.
He was very fond of a special kind of trout, which would be flown all the way from Manali or Srinagar for him. “We often had dinner at each other’s homes. He had two Lhasa Apso dogs. Whenever I visited him, they would charge at me. They even bit me a number of times. I would often ask ‘why me’; he would laugh it off and say he didn’t know either,” Ghatate adds.
Ghatate and Vajpayee travelled together to campaign for various elections in the 1970s, when the Janata movement was at its peak. “The party didn’t have much money. He would live with party workers; travel in second class, third class. Nothing would deter him,” recalls Ghatate.
Even when they travelled together, the friends shared many silences — most of the time would be spent reading books instead of talking. “He was a recluse; we both preferred it that way,” he says.
Vajpayee’s birthday was an intimate affair that included just three or four friends and family members. Ghatate recalled taking a cake for him once. “He looked at me accusingly and said, ‘Et tu, Brute (You too, Brutus)’, as if I had betrayed him by bringing him a gift,” he said.
However, once Vajpayee took the stage during his speeches, he could rouse the crowd with just a few words. Thousands would throng to listen to the charismatic leader.
According to Ghatate, Vajpayee decried politics based on religion. “L.K. Advani in his book writes that there were only two things that he and Vajpayee disagreed about — the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and whether Narendra Modi should continue as chief minister after the 2002 Gujarat riots,” he says.
Wit and humour
Vajpayee was one of many political leaders jailed during the Emergency. As a lawyer, Ghatate was one of the few people who had access to him. Advani once asked him to carry woollen clothing to the jail in Hyderabad. After Ghatate reached, he noticed Vajpayee was already dressed in warm clothes.
“We won’t spend a penny of our party’s money on any of this. Indira Gandhi has sent us to jail. She will pay for the food, she will pay for the clothes,” Vajpayee told Ghatate.
He was then transferred to a jail in Delhi due a condition with his spinal cord. There, one of his advisors asked Ghatate to tell him that a Parsi doctor could fix the problem with a simple kick. Vajpayee laughed and told Ghatate: “I think I’m already receiving my fair share of kicks.”
The RSS organised a strike to oppose the arrests and censorship, and although Vajpayee wanted the strike delayed, due to disrupted communication channels, the strike proceeded as planned. Vajpayee told Ghatate: “Ours is a car without brakes. Let it go.”
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Eventually, once the Janata Party came to power in 1977, Ghatate asked Vajpayee about Indira Gandhi’s attitude towards him. Vajpayee quipped: “Aaj kal hamari taraf bade pyaar se dekhti hain (She looks at us with much love nowadays).”
After the Bhiwandi riots of 1984, Vajpayee gave a fiery speech in Parliament about how Hindus would not cower down to pressure anymore. According to Ghatate, Indira Gandhi responded to the speech by stating: “Behind this parade of beautiful words, I see the hands of a fascist.”
Vajpayee chuckled and told his colleagues: “From now on, I shall not even raise my hand in Parliament, or Mrs Gandhi will see Hitler.”
Fond remembrance
Ghatate has had time to reconcile himself to Vajpayee’s death, given that he was in a vegetative state for over a decade now. He said the leader could’ve prevented the stroke that left him in this state, but “a few weeks before his stroke, he refused to get into the ‘tube’ for a CT scan”.
But he refuses to dwell on it, choosing instead to talk about happier memories.
“It is difficult to think of him in the past tense,” Ghatate says.
“His greatest quality was that he was humane. He would never criticise anyone behind their backs. Even when he did in Parliament, he would never hit below the belt. He will be missed.”
I am very thanks to him. He is great and very nice person. Thanks & Regards to Mr. Gh at ate.