No One's Around to Fill Statesmen Par Excellence Vajpayee, Chatterjee's Big Shoes

Daijiworld Special Correspondent (SP)

New Delhi, Mar 13: The absence of two stalwarts, statesmen and politicians of the highest order, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Somnath Chatterjee will be greatly felt, when the 15th Lok Sabha is formed. These two gentlemen had participated, guided, stood for highest democratic traditions and values and decorated dignified posts during their presence in the national politics for about four decades. The knowledge, patience, oratory skills and leadership qualities shown by them have all along been exemplary, to say the least.

Both Vajpayee and Chatterjee, longest serving members of the parliament, have decided not to enter the election fray again.

Vajpayee, who became MP for the first time from Jana Sangh in the second Lok Sabha in 1957 and served twice as Prime Minister, from May 16 to 31, 1996 and from March 19, 1998 to May 13, 2004, has decided to bid adieu to active politics because of old-age and failing health.

On the other hand scholar and intellectual Somnath Chatterjee, who became a MP for the first time in 1971 after his father's death, has become a member of parliament nine times. He was defeated only once in 1984 by Mamata Banerjee. He had become the speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha unopposed on June 4, 2004 and brought honour and dignity to the chair. Chatterjee has taken a decision to quit, pained at the action of the CPI (M) which ousted him from the party for not toeing its instructions to resign as speaker during the trust vote on nuclear deal.

Vajpayee, born in Gwalior on December 25, 1924, was a member of the fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha. He had also been a Rajya Sabha member in 1962 and 1986. He represented Lucknow constituency five times and has the credit of representing four states as MP, i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

An M A degree-holder in political science, Vajpayee edited Rashtradharma, a Hindi monthly, Panchajanya, a weekly besides  dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun. A widely admired orator known for dropping gaps between words and having a fan following for his soulful poetry, Vajpayee’s oratory skills were very much liked even by his sworn political adversary, Indira Gandhi. He has published various works including 'Amar Balidan, 'Sansad Mein Teen Dashak,’ etc. He was a founder-member of the erstwhile Jana Sangh (1951) and had functioned as the president of Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party, had been the external affairs minister in Morarji Desai cabinet and was jailed in 1942 as a freedom fighter. He has remained a bachelor.

On the other hand, Somnath Chatterjee, born in Tezpur Assam on July 25, 1929, holds MA and Barrister-at-law degrees. Before becoming MP, he was a barrister of Calcultta High Court.  In the 14th Lok Sabha, he represented Bolpur constituency. Chatterjee won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award once and was strongly in favour of inviting foreign direct investments for the development of West Bengal.  Chatterjee is very much interested in sports, and is the executive committee member of Mohan Bagun Athletic club, Cricket Association of Bengal and Bengal Table Tennis Association. He is married to Renu Chatterjee and has a son and two daughters. Sadly, he was expelled by his parent party at the fag end of his political career.

With the exit of the two senior most parliamentarians, who respected each other in spite of holding opposite view points and ideologies, the country will find it hard to find a leader who can be said to be even close to the heights the two reached, in terms of elegance, leadership qualities, firm stance, oratory and communication skills etc.  The two brought an air of stability and good sense to the otherwise unruly Lok Sabha and only time will tell what affect the other senior leaders would be able to cast on the next Lok Sabha.

JD (U) leader ad ex-union minister George Fernandes and Giridhar Gomango of the Congress will be the senior most members of parliament, if they get elected and enter the 15th Lok Sabha. Out of the 543 members of parliament, 71 have got elected five or more times so far.