Being the Other: The Muslim in India

by Saeed Naqvi

My association with Vajpayee was spread over his two spells in government. He was external affairs minister in the post-Emergency Janata Dal. That is when he revealed his admiration for Nehru. K. K. Katyal of The Hindu and I were in the external affairs minister’s room in South Block waiting for a word with Vajpayee on his first day in office. ‘I am overwhelmed with emotion,’ he said. ‘I remember with reverence that Pandit Nehru once sat on the chair I am about to occupy.’ This was his first spell at South Block as Minister for External Affairs from March 1977 until July 1979. Vajpayee was receptive to the Indo–Pak, Hindu–Muslim, New Delhi–Srinagar triangle when I first sketched it for him in the course of the conversations his helpful press secretary, Ashok Tandon, arranged for me. Even during the bus journey to Wagah (advertised as the ‘Lahore bus journey’), he whispered to me, ‘Do you think one line of your triangle will have been addressed on this visit?’ The triangle, in my view, is a pithy metaphor for the mess left behind by Partition. India–Pakistan, New Delhi–Srinagar and Hindu–Muslim are essentially one set of issues. Not one line or an angle of this triangle can be tinkered with without affecting the other two. ‘It is a law of triangles that if one line, or angle, is addressed, the other two will be correspondingly affected.’ He relapsed into one of his lengthy, intimidating silences. Vajpayee did make a real bid for improved ties with Pakistan. His visit to Min...