Deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh on Saturday said Hindi speaking politicians of the country were not given their due and the trend continues to persist even after the emergence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the country’s top leader.
Speaking at the Times Litfest on the topic — “Icons of Ideological Politics” — Harivansh highlighted the relevance of his book, “Chandra Shekhar, the last Icon of Ideological Politics", a biography of the former Prime Minister, whom he said was a man who practised politics with conviction as he started his career as a socialist and died a socialist.
“I have no hesitation in saying Hindi speaking leaders were given less importance in the country .. in fact there was an elite divide, which is relevant even today. I recently traced over 800-900 pages of Madan Mohan Malviya’s speeches but the country didn’t take note of them. Similarly, Acahrya Narendra Dev developed the Indian tradition of socialist politics. He was a Buddhist scholar too but there was hardly any appreciation for his works,” said Harivansh in conversations with TOI’s Nalin Mehta at the Silver Oak Hall, India Habitat Centre, where the two-day literary festival commenced on Saturday.
Harivansh, who argued that leaders like Chandra Shekhar, could not win the space they deserved as they had to face a “hostile”media thanks to their background said, “All kinds of allegations were made against Chandra Shekhar. However, there was hardly any debate about how he emerged as one of country’s top politicians despite coming from a poor background and one of the most backward regions of the country.”
Justifying the reason for calling Chandra Shekhar “the last icon of ideological politics”, Harivansh said the former PM was someone who always stuck to the ideology which brought him into politics and socialist ideals were central to his political belief. “There was an ideological conviction with Chandra Shekhar for which he stood throughout his political career. Even in 1991, he had opposed liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation,”he said.
The deputy leader in the House of Elders said after 1984, the politics of ideology got further diluted. “Earlier politics used to be determined by ideology but now technology determines it,” was his take on contemporary politics.
The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman said Chandra Shekhar never compromised on his values, declining several offers made by Indira Gandhi to join her Cabinet before and after Emergency was imposed. “Chandra Shekhar believed in the same ideology till the end with which he had entered politics,” Harivansh said.
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