Whom to respect?

D. Raja

I happened to witness a debate between D. Raja of the CPI and Renuka Chowdhary of the congress, moderated by Barkha Dutt of NDTV. The issue was of course the no confidence motion on the nuclear deal. As they digressed, D. Raja began to summarize his reasons other than the N-deal for withdrawing support for the government. While doing so he took exception of PM Dr. Manmohan Singh calling former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, “Bhishma Pitamah” of Indian politics. Renuka Chowdhary, defended it claiming as remark out of respect. Latter Burkha Dutt queried on the left’s love for BSP, on which D. Raja, starts his lecture about how Mayawati is a elected representative of the state and deserves utmost respect as a representative of the people.

On one hand D. Raja would say, Mayawati must be respected because she is representative of the people and moreover a chief minister of UP, on the other hand he would take exception to Dr. Manmohan Singh’s respect for a certain Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has also been elected by the same people and was also a former PM of this Nation? Maywati is vitually an unknown quantity outside UP, save a few pockets of the nation but Vajpayee is National Leader who was one of the most successful prime ministers of modern India, someone who was at the forefront of new peace process with Pakistan (which even acknowledges this fact). How hypocritical can you be Mr. D. Raja?