Wise men talking

A fictional exchange of letters between Congress President Sitaram Kesri and Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral.

File photo of former Congress President Sitaram Kesri (left) & former PM Inder Kumar Gujral (right) | YouTube | Commons

My Dear Kesriji,

I write this to you with the predictable sense of anguish. You’d recall how reluctant I had been to take up this job earlier this summer. I knew it wasn’t going to work. But you counselled me to think positively, and that with your instinct and my intellect we will manage to survive at least till the 1998 Independence Day. You would also recall that you made that solemn commitment in public also.

Mercifully, however, I trusted my instinct and not yours and never gave my Maharani Bagh house away on rent despite such pressures from the diplomatic circuit. I trust that you also took care to retain the DDA flat you had declared among your modest assets. There will be a problem if you have a difficult tenant. Earlier I would have recommended that you use Comrade Surjeet to mediate. But as you and I well know even that old man seems to be losing his touch now.

Never mind. In this difficult and traumatic hour, I do not particularly wish to shame you. I know exactly how you feel. Because I feel about the same way myself – irrelevant, ineffectual, bitter and betrayed. That is why this letter is more a reflection on the politics of our times and also on our rather brief tryst with real power, such as it was. I write to you also with a special empathy knowing that in 1990, when the Mandal fires were burning our cities, you were the only Congress MP supporting the V.P. Singh government on social justice. It must by now be a familiar situation for you because you again seem to be the only one in your party to be supporting me as well. My friend Jaipal (Reddy) is so right in describing you as the only social justice-wala in the Congress, as someone who has married one person but is carrying on with somebody else. Why it had to be me in this case, is what I am complaining about.

Kesriji, newspaper columnists and assorted intellectuals (you know these IIC types!) can go on arguing why you and I are like chalk and cheese. But the fact remains that politically we share more than our belief in social justice. We also come from a similar sort of a background. Except that I was a wise counsel within Indiraji’s cabinet while you were an equally trustworthy bagman. I also entirely understand your predicament because I too had to go when I couldn’t handle her younger son. Now you have problems with her elder daughter-in-law. I know some people will remark uncharitably that it is the inevitable fate of family retainers, but I had expected the times would have changed. At least from the way Narasimha Rao handled her over five years gave us all some hope. But either we didn’t have his skills or you were a bit complacent.

I cannot remember if Ghalib had said something to explain this situation. I am sure he did, a genius that he was in the ways of the cruel Dilli. But it is a pity I cannot check with his official biographer Pawan Verma who, as you know, is also the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs and is currently preoccupied with explaining away all the cancelled visits (mine as well as our foreign guests) in view of this political uncertainty. I am not complaining that I wasn’t able to go to Malaysia or Dhaka but please do understand our national embarrassment when even friend Yasser hit the headlines once again talking about Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. I must say, however, that the Americans persisted with their newly discovered maturity. Ms Albright made it clear at the very outset she had no intention of raising the Jain Commission issue at the talks.

But why am I digressing. Time and again at all the Steering Committee and Core Committee (you know, some of us even call it the shor committee) meetings, my UF colleagues have pointed out to me that our agenda should be domestic rather than international. That is how I intend to keep it in this brief letter and do a stock-taking of what we, two wise old men and the last of the long-marchers of our freedom movement, had set out to achieve in this joint venture.

Strengthening secular forces was the centrepiece of our agenda. I know you were furious that I lost you the control over the rump that remained of your party in Uttar Pradesh. But see what I gave you in return. I gave you Mulayam. Possibly even the BSP. You remember how keen the BJP was to go for mid-term elections when you brought down Gowda in your Third Miracle. Now they are running scared at the very prospect of a poll.

Unfortunately, we do not seem to have much else to write home about. It is time, therefore, that we began to think about what we will do once all this is over. Of course, I have my IIC and you your Lodi Garden. But maybe I can still go to Jalandhar and give it a shot at the mid-term polls. The Akalis have been reasonably friendly and the “first Punjabi Prime Minister” sentiment might just work there. I do, therefore, feel sorry for you. I wonder whether there will ever be any place for you in the Congress under the new dispensation.

Can I, therefore, make a suggestion entirely in keeping with the spirit of the times when we joined the prabhatpheris in our youth though a bit outdated in the current context? Remember you’ve been the treasurer of the Congress party for decades, the guardian of its family silver (no pun intended) and keeper of its darkest secrets. If the humiliation and betrayals of the past weeks can prod you into telling after decades of kissing, all I would say is, be my guest. With your memory and instinct, and my intellect and contacts in the media, we should certainly be able to teach these shifty bu…rs in your party a thing or two and also strike a telling blow for honesty in public life.

Yours sincerely,

Old man not in such a hurry.

 

Reply from Kesri (as told to Pranab Mukherjee):

My Dear Gujralji,

I just received your letter and must say I do not appreciate its tone which is impolite, if not downright impertinent. All I would reiterate at this moment is that I am a loyal soldier of the Congress party which is back on the trail of glory with Soniaji having accepted my long-standing demand that she take over the party. Thanks for the gift of Mulayam. I am still talking to Kanshi Ramji and with so much to do before the polls, can’t say very much more right now. But hopefully we will meet soon again, possibly when I come campaigning for my party in Jalandhar.

Until then,

I remain,

Still the old man in a hurry.

These letters are purely fictional and not the result of another leak. Any resemblance to originals that may subsequently surface is purely coincidental.