February 22, 2002. Copyright, 2002, Graphic News. All rights reserved

A delicate balancing act
By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, February 22, Graphic News:  ATAL Behari Vajpayee affects the air of a man who would rather be walking his dogs, reading a good book or cooking up a dish of his favourite seafood than running the worldÕs most populous democracy. ŌMy lord, Never let me climb so high that I can't bend down to embrace another human,Ķ he wrote in one of his many poems.

But the 77-year-old prime minister, for all his gentleness and erudition, is a political animal through and through. Briefly imprisoned as a student in 1942 for participation in the anti-colonial Quit India Movement, Vajpayee had a short career as a journalist and social worker before helping to found the right-wing Jana Sangh, forerunner of the modern-day Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1951. Elected to parliament six years later, he has been returned more times than any other Indian politician and has held numerous influential posts, including a stint as foreign minister in the late 1970s. Despite the Jana SanghÕs generally uncompromising views, Vajpayee -- well-versed in international affairs -- used his period in charge of external relations to attempt closer ties with Pakistan, the neighbour that thanks to the vexed issue of rule in Kashmir remains IndianÕs most fraught foreign policy priority.

Born on December 25, 1924, at Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, into a high-caste Brahmin family of modest means, Vajpayee studied political science and law, but later quit law school to edit the magazine of the militant Hindu group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Mellowing with maturity, he has long been considered the moderate face of the authoritarian BJP, standing notably alone in his condemnation of the destruction by Hindus of the mosque at Ayodhya in 1992. Charming and apparently scrupulous (though corruption in some quarters of the government has called his judgement into question), the hockey and soccer fan corrects his lack of dynamism with gifted oratory; his speeches in Hindi are famously eloquent and frequently stirring. Detained during the state of emergency declared by Indira Ghandi in 1975-77, he used the time to produce a volume of poetry.

An advocate of economic liberalisation, greater social equality and female empowerment, the bachelor politician practices a policy of inclusion -- an approach that has given him the perhaps unique ability to hold together (so far) the National Democratic Alliance, a BJP-led coalition of more than 24 parties.

The present government is his third attempt. After almost 40 years in opposition, Vajpayee first became prime minister in May 1996, leading a feeble coalition that survived less than two weeks. His return to power in March 1998 began with the ordering of nuclear tests -- a move, regarded by all but hard-line Hindus as hasty and populist, that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war -- and ended when a key politician withdrew her support for the coalition a year later. He was, however, re-elected in October 1999 with what appeared to be a more workable alliance, forged after the BJP agreed to drop some of its more inflammatory policies.

Regarded by Muslims and moderates as suspiciously tolerant of extremist Hindu elements -- and criticised by BJP hawks for being too soft with Pakistan, the balancing act has tested every inch of the premierÕs pragmatism. But three years on from the optimism that surrounded VajpayeeÕs historic bus ride into Pakistan, the nuclear-capable neighbours stand once again on the threshold of war.

A suicide attack on India's parliament in December, which New Dehli claims was committed by militants based in Pakistan, has prompted ever louder calls from the BJP for an assault across the border. The internationalist Vajpayee, who would rather be building IndiaÕs reputation abroad, has no appetite for armed conflict. But as the barbed rhetoric between his government and that of PakistanÕs General Pervez Musharraf intensifies, it may prove hard to hold on to power, and to hold off war.
/ENDS