By D N Singh
It is a fabulous mix of sorrow and pleasure that, yesterday we celebrated the 75th Independence Day and today, on Aug 16 is a day of pain when India lost one of its most illustrious politicians and Prime Ministers.
Such a great leader that, who kept saying in his poems that ..azaadi abhi adhoori hai..What did he mean by that observation?
Then he goes on to say that, go and ask the man living on the footpaths of Kolkata who negotiate between half dry and half wet space, ..what is azaadi..he cannot say.
Then he gets down to the earth to say, that the hungry gets a crumb if given and a naked individual is covered with words of glory after his death…azaadi abhi…
He always preached to safeguard whatever we have got not to lose and think about what we have lost.
This author was fortunate to accompany Atal Behari Vajpayee, then leader of opposition, to communally disturbed Bhadrak, with a small motorcade of other leaders and few media people.
A young police officer looking after security stopped the vehicles and told the leader that, only his (Vajpayee) vehicle can go to Bhadrak. Vajpayee, with a smile asked the officer, ‘why, are you trying to hide something from media? But the office was unrelenting forcing Vajpayeeji to sit on Dharna on the highway.
Parliament was in session, and some people tried to convince the cop about the fallout of such a ‘Dharna’.
The officer somehow agreed and they went into the town. When having lunch at a local BJP leader’s house, suddenly Vajpayeeji recollected and asked ‘ where is that police officer? Outside, he was told.
Please invite him for lunch with us, he said. Reluctantly the officer came in and excused himself saying he cannot. Vajpayee looked up at him and said, “ abhi, is umra mein itna goosa thik nahi hai, baithiye”. Removing his cap, the officer had his lunch and after the lunch, to everyone’s surprise, Atal ji told him, ‘now please lead us back’ . For the first time the officer had his face writ with a smile of gratitude.
