A cake is cut for VP’s birthday, knives are out for Mulayam

Today, it was an older and mellower ‘VP’, who has battled cancer and kidney failure for a decade without ‘‘surrendering’’ to the disease, in evidence and and yet it was the same consummate practitioner with all his fine political instincts intact.

This time, Singh has already kicked off his political outfit Jan Dal and an alliance Jan Morcha made up of small groups in Uttar Pradesh, which is going to contest elections next year. It includes CPI, RSP, CPI-ML, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Jan Shakti and several other outfits. RLD leader Ajit Singh toured with him through parts of the state though he has not joined his alliance yet.

Singh’s ire has been directed at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government and to the extent that it damages the SP’s prospects—which the Jan Morcha is expected to do—it will help the Congress in UP. It is early days still to say whether the Congress will join hands with him overtly, and if it does, it could make the going tougher for Mulayam, given the appeal Singh has amongst the Muslims, OBCs and the farming communities.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at Paswan’s residence today specially to greet Singh and this was not without significance. For many years, there was no love lost between Singh and the party he quit to form the Janata Dal in 1987. Besides Manmohan Singh, other Congress leaders present at the occasion included Meira Kumar, Santosh Mohan Deb, Vasant Sathe and Natwar Singh.

That he has been mending fences with the Congress was clear from his words. Earlier in the evening, Singh went out of his way to put the record straight on what he had said about Sonia Gandhi’s decision to decline the prime ministership in 2004. All day, TV channels had put out the story citing the book on him by journalist Ram Bahadur Rai released today, Manzil Se Zyada Safar, that Sonia Gandhi had given up premiership because of a threat to her life.

He saw this as an attempt to create a wedge between him and the Congress leadership. He clarified that it was half a story. ‘‘Kahani poori kariye, adhoori kahani mat kahiye,’’ he said. What he had said in the book was that M L Fotedar had come to see him just before Sonia Gandhi’s decision and told him that there was an intelligence report about a threat to Sonia Gandhi’s life if she took up the top position. ‘‘I didn’t believe it thinking it may be just some officers in the previous government at work. That day I went to see Sonia Gandhi. She said nothing to me about the security threat. She told me three things, that if she became Prime Minister, the government and the party would be constantly under a threat, it would give a big handle to the BJP and that it may not go with the grain of the country. She was genuine about what she said and I agreed with her.’’

Singh also spoke about Rahul and Priyanka having been there that day and said that he was touched that the family had reposed their trust in him.

Also significant was the presence of CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury at the celebration, for the CPM is not a part of the Jan Morcha in Lucknow. Nor has the CPM severed its links with Mulayam’s SP. While CPI leader A B Bardhan talked about accepting VP’s leadership, Yechury recalled VP’s words in 1987 that the Left was his ‘‘natural ally.’’

Singh, who has been wooing he CPM to join hands with him, turned to Yechury and quipped, ‘‘Others may be your political allies, and I am your natural ally. But political alliances cannot break natural alliances.’’ His reference was to Mulayam’s party. His Jan Dal and Jan Morcha are both headed by Raj Babbar who parted company with Mulayam.

Singh touched a chord in many when he spoke about his battle with cancer openly and naturally. He was in New York in 1994 when he was told he had multiple myeloma. ‘‘My wife was accompanying me and my first thought was what was going to happen to her. Dil bhari hua but then my feudal upbringing came into play and I thought, ‘Maain iske samne ghutne nahin taekunga. It can take away my body but not my dignity and I will not break before it,’’ he said.

‘‘When I used to sit by the seaside in Mumbai, I would think to myself how long would I be there to see all these things… Then came an acceptance. And I felt that if I brood over it and think why did this happen to me, I would take away from the time that was left to me. It was then that I started to give appointments to people during my dialysis and writing poetry and painting,’’ he said.