The Hindu : Where Vajpayee stole the show

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 06, 2003

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National

Where Vajpayee stole the show

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI JAN. 5. Being his birthday, the day rightfully belonged to the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Murli Manohar Joshi, But, by the time the show drew to a close, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had stolen the march over him.

Indeed, with all the special invitees to the grand celebration, organised this evening to felicitate Dr. Joshi on his 69th birthday, singing paeans to the `birthday boy' and making him out to be a man of a `hundred hues', it was left to the Prime Minister to liven up the show. And that he did.

In his characteristic style, Mr. Vajpayee turned his wit on Dr. Joshi, his political opponents and himself; endearing himself to the gathering, which for well over an hour had patiently watched speaker after speaker shower praise on the Minister.

Though Mr. Vajpayee lauded the efforts of his Cabinet colleague in the field of education; he did so after taking a dig at Dr. Joshi for not accepting his call when he telephoned him this morning to greet him on his birthday.

"I was told he was doing pooja and he would call back on finishing his prayers. I know Dr. Joshi offers pooja regularly, but I also know that people cite prayer as an excuse when they want to avoid somebody!''

While speaking about the efforts made by Dr. Joshi in the realm of education, Mr. Vajpayee saw no sin in the allegation that the Minister had "saffronised textbooks", as saffron, after all, represents sacrifice.

As for the Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan, which has been launched by the Government under the stewardship of Dr. Joshi, the Prime Minister said the country should have taken up such a mission 50 years ago.

Organised by the Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Felicitation Committee, the celebration saw the hosts try to portray the Minister as a "multi-faceted personality" who represented the "essence of India" as against the predominant image of him being a Hindutva hardliner.

The two-hour function began with a short film — `A Hundred Hues' — on the man, in which his daughter strung together some `momentous' moments of her father's life. The function also saw the release of a book titled `A Hundred Hues'; the recurrent theme of a celebration that surprisingly did not attract much attendance from either the BJP or its fountainhead, the RSS, of which Dr. Joshi is said to be a particular favourite.

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