Three stalwarts of Indian political scene passed away in the span of 10 days. Karunanidhi, Somnath Chatterjee and Vajpayee all are legendary politicians who contributed, who modified and who guided the country in their own way. Interestingly three of them belong to three different ideologies, born in three different corners of the country and belonged to three different political parties.
Karunanidhi passed away on 7 August 2018, at the age of 94 years, Somnath Chatterjee passed away on 13 August 2018 at the age of 89 years and Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on 16 August 2018 at the age of 93 years. Karunanidhi was an atheist, while Vajpayee supported Hinduism and moderate rightist but Somnath was leftist and was in CPI(M) party.
Somnath was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009 and he even defied his own party at a crucial juncture when the party withdrew support to UPA and asked him to resign from the post of Speaker. When he was Lok Sabha speaker, he discontinued the practice of paying for toiletries and tea from the national exchequer. On trips abroad, he bore the expenses of any accompanying family members. Such an idealist he was. Can we see any other such idealists in current generation of politicians?
Vajpayee also differed with his own party during the Babri Masjid incident, which was also considered a crucial event from the point of view of BJP. Vajpayee also an idealist. He never involved in horse-trading of MPs and he allowed his government to fall when he lacked just one vote to survive the government. Where can we find such honest politicians now?
Karunanidhi was the key person who propagated Dravidian ideology and he was the one who rebelled against unitary policies of central government and was a pioneer in fighting for federal spirit in the country. Karunanidhi and Vajpayee contributed for literature too.
All the three leaders have specific ideologies in their lives and they lived a life that is committed to their ideologies.
