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The Rediff Special/ A Ganesh Nadar

'I miss her spiritually too!'

Journalists were requested to speak one at a time. Every time a journalist got up, a mike was handed to him. And Vajpayee let loose a wide smile. The smile didn't quite work. The journos persisted with tough questions. They all harped on the special courts and J Jayalalitha.

After a bit, Vajpayee stopped smiling. But he didn't lose his cool, despite the blistering heat. Kumaramangalam started shielding his boss. Whenever a reporter asked a nasty question, he would say, "Don't talk out of turn, wait for the other to finish... that's not fair". He was effective.

Only once did Vajpayee's natural wit surface. When asked if he missed Jayalalitha's physical presence. He replied: "I miss her spiritually too" and then with a twinkle in his eye added, "Yesterday in Calcutta Mamata was also missing!"

All questions about JJ were passed off as sub judice. Bhagwat's allegations were dismissed as baseless. Before the press could finish, Kumaramangalam and the security decided that they had enough. The journalists weren't happy but they got up when Vajpayee got up.

"Sit," a reporter stage-whispered.

Surprise: All the journalists immediately sat down. Vajpayee looked hesitant. Kumaramangalam and the security hurried him away. One of the security guys in a safari suit glared at the reporter.

"It was meant for 15 minutes. We gave you more than 30 minutes," he said.

"Why don't you let the prime minister decide whether he wants to reply or not?" was the worthy's retort.

The security man shrugged. He must have realised that everybody wasn't impressed with the SPG, particularly not the media.

I went to retrieve my bag. The inspector concerned said he had lost it. He apologised to me. I complained to BJP state secretary Pon Radhakrishnan. He questioned the inspector. The inspector apologised again. I complained to a senior journalist. He also questioned the inspector. The inspector apologised to him too. This guy must have watched Clinton on TV. He kept on apologising. I left minus my bag.

At the collector's office, I got my press card and, with it, a dirty look from the clerk. "Everybody else collected this a day early," he cribbed. I gave him my sweetest smile.

The morcha, which supposed to start at 1400 hours, finally started at 1600 hours. Vajpayee saw it off from a specially erected dais. He waved for about 45 minutes. It was the first time that I saw participants in a rally being frisked. Though at a distance, they had to pass Vajpayee. Vajpayee left and the frisking stopped.

The morcha, which started of well, ended on a very sombre note. There was no noise, no dance, no slogans. I was reminded of Altaf Raja's line: "Thakay thakay hain, phir bhi chal rahein hai log (The people are tired, but nevertheless they move on)."

The morcha lasted for four hours. An exhausted man said he had been walking for four-and-a-half hours. He had come all the way from Gopi, six hours away. He came because he liked Vajpayee. Two others had come because they were Hindu Munnani members. Those who carried drums had refused to play them after the first hour. Quite a boring morcha.

The public meeting started even while the rally was meandering in. The Railway stadium was well lit. Kumaramangalam announced that they hadn't put "hooks on the main lines" but paid Rs 800,000 for electricity. He didn't tell us from where he got the Rs 800,000 from.

The venue was crowded. The MDMK and the Rajiv Congress workers complimented the BJP men for it. Many people were sitting on the road outside. They could hear the speeches, as there were loudspeakers there too.

A particular hoarding was keeping everybody outside happy. From one angle it looked like Vajpayee, from another like Advani and from a third, like Kumaramangalam -- so if you walked around, you saw them one at a time.

Some workers were fanning themselves with paper fans, sponsored by the Medimix soap company. Inside, there were huge cut-outs of Vajpayee, Advani and Kumaramangalam. The stage was designed like the Parliament House resting on a lotus.

Vazhapadi Ramamurthy launched an all out attack on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Whenever any of the speakers mentioned Vajpayee's name, the crowd cheered. Able or stable he may not be, but Vajpayee was certainly liked.

Three lovelies came and sat down with the press. They said there were no chairs in the VIP section. The PRO sent them away with three chairs. While the BJP conference had a lot of women, now women were barely two per cent of the crowd.

Vazhapadi Ramamurthy had his own workers to cheer him. Vaiko's speech was electrifying. He must come from the same line as Cicero, Mark Antony and Richard Burton. He spoke a few lines in English so that Vajpayee, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes and BJP general secretary Narendra Modi could follow. Then he translated it for the crowd. His was by far the best speech.

Kumaramangalam started in his lilting voice. Soon everybody was asleep. After Vaiko's speech, a section of the crowd started leaving. Though Vaiko woke up the crowd, BJP's K L Lakshman put them back to sleep. He even helped drive a few away. The Tiruchi folks kept away, thanks to the action of the cops in the past week. A STD booth-owner told me that on Friday night they had forced people to close shops at 2230 hours.

Dr Ramdoss of the Pattali Makkal Katchi spoke very softly. Couldn't believe that this man leads a party that can turn violent at the drop of a hat. The voice was deceptively soft. Couldn't finish his speech without referring to a topic dear to his heart: Eelam Tamil in Sri Lanka.

Narendra Modi spoke in Hindi. He was the first speaker who didn't address everyone on stage. Only Atalji. He went on and on about Atalji's golden qualities. He called Vajpayee Mahatma Gandhi's ancestor. I think he meant heir. It seems Gandhi's vision of educating women was being followed by Atalji. The speech was a lesson in sycophancy. Deserved a PhD, I thought. Much of the effect was lost in translation to Tamil. Thank god for small mercies!

The new moon had risen. The cops were looking tired and restless. Modi had put most of the women to sleep. The men were chatting among themselves.

Fernandes was brief. He spoke in English. The translator was at sea. Fernandes sounded like a priest. He mentioned the Jhabua rapes and under-linked the fact that the rapists were Christians. Sadly, he ignored the other attacks on Christians. He mentioned Dr Sreedharan, who was recently murdered in Tiruchi.

In the crowd, the men sat on the ground and the women on chairs. Truly a strange sight in rural India. Many women were leaving. Now only 10 per cent of the press were around. People were requested to sit because Vajpayee's speech would start in five minutes.

The BJP's Bangaru Laxman said the Congress was depending on three swamis: Chandra Swamy, Subramanian Swamy and now (Mohan) Guruswamy. Kumaramangalam stood in the wings of the stage, looking extremely happy.

There were a lot of cellphones in the stadium. Wonder how they got past the security. Unlike H D Deve Gowda, Vajpayee had not fallen asleep even though the sofa looked very comfortable. Only 200 women were left now. The rest had gone home.

TV cameras came alive. Photographers came alive. The crowd cheered. Vajpayee spoke in English. Thanked the workers for the rally and the public meeting. Thanked the crowd for electing 30 MPs from their alliance.

The crowd started to leave. There were less than 100 women left. Men were moving out slowly. After waiting so long to hear Vajpayee, it was surprising that they were now leaving. May be they didn't understand English. The translation was bad.

The prime minister didn't say anything new. Pokhran I and Pokhran II. The bus to Lahore. The PR man supplied mineral water. Vajpayee said the BJP didn't believe in votebank politics. He said the Cauvery solution should be credited to the four chief ministers, not him. Everybody cheered. He touched upon the year in office he just completed.

Half the journalists, by then, had walked out. Vajpayee repeated the line he had used in the morning. "As Opposition we never jumped into the well, we didn't disrupt Parliament."

Only 50 women were still sitting. Vajpayee said he was secular. The BJP's media-in-charge Tirumalai pulled off his badge.

This is the first time I have seen people leave during Vajpayee's speech. He is among the best orators in the country. During the 1998 Madhya Pradesh election, he had kept the crowd roaring with laughter in Gwalior. None of the stories for which he is famous were related today. Now only the people who had been paid to come sat obediently. He finished at 2030 hours. Nobody listened to the vote of thanks.

Vajpayee and company waved to the crowd -- or what was left of it. I counted 25 women. The prime minister left in a convey of white Ambassadors.

The road to the bus stop was crowded. Many people were sleeping on the road. Men and women. The last two days had exhausted them. The vans and lorries and buses that had brought them were moving out slowly.

The bus home wasn't crowded. The crowd for the conference, rally and public meeting certainly weren't travel by the public transport. I watched vans racing past with BJP flags fluttering. People were sleeping on the road. The man they had all come to see, meanwhile, had left in an Indian Air Force Boeing.

The Rediff Specials

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