"Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dum nikle, bahot nikle mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle (...thousands of desires, each worth dying for...many of them I have realized...yet I yearn for more...) -  Ghalib

Controversy’s favourite child Babulal Gaur died in Bhopal rather a disillusioned man. Gaur, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister lived well , winning his Govindpura assembly seat for ten times.

89 year old Gaur was first elected to Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha in 1974. He won again in 1977 and kept on winning till 2018 when he was benched due to age factor. Gaur had not given up ambition after getting dropped from Shivraj Singh Chouhan ministry in 2016. Gaur kept beliving his astrologers who told him that he had “raj-yog” in is kundli (horoscope). Each time a Jagdish Mukhi, Banwarilal Purohit, Kesrinath Tripathi (all BJP veterans) was given gubernatorial term, Gaur would say his astrologers’ prophecy come true. “I am not in a hurry to write my memoirs,” he would say.

Born as Babu Lal Yadav, he became Babu Lal Gaur after one of his teachers in Class IV in a Pratapgarh school of Uttar Pradesh praised his powers of concentration and renamed him. “You read everything with gaur (concentration), so you should be called ‘Gaur’.” [meaning concentration in Hindi]

In 2016, Gaur faced a rather unusual and awkward loyalty test. The central BJP leadership reportedly asked him to part with 25-odd full length, hand written personal diaries. Gaur had admitted a senior BJP union minister had told Gaur that these diaries belonged to the party. The minister, known for his proximity to both RSS and BJP reportedly pointed out to Gaur that his ten terms as MLAs, ministerial posts and chief minister’s  office were all result of a single “virtue” – of him being a disciplined soldier of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and its earlier avtaar, the BJP.

The octogenarian leader, who was dropped as a minister in Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet on grounds of his age in July 2016, was reluctant to “gift” his diaries to the party.  “I have been writing these diaries for decades.. when I was a labourer in a mill and then as Jan Sangh activist...I have poured my heart and feelings in these personal notes. Parting with them is like parting with a part of me,” Gaur had confided to this correspondent. Gaur says his style of writing has been simple. “I have chronicled each and every event of the day that I considered significant. I wonder how my observations are of any interest to any institution or individual?” he had wondered.

A cursory look at his personal diaries shows Gaur’s keen interest in national and international politics. Some pages had pictures of world leaders along with press clippings and Gaur’s observations in Hindi. At one instance, Gaur, originally a Yadav from Uttar Pradesh wrote how a lift operator at Petronas Towers mistook him for Atal Bihari Vajpayee because he was sporting a dhoti.

There was another incident that Gaur did not forget till his death. In September 2014, BJP president Amit Shah had turned to him at the Bhopal airport asking his age. Gaur who had served as BJP chief minister in 2004-05, said: “Mein sirf 84 saal ka hoon (I am only 84).”

Subsequently, Gaur kept refuting the argument that age should act as a cut off mark in politics. The otherwise rustic politician would go on reeling off names of Winston Churchill, Morarji Desai, Ronald Regan, Nelson Mandela and others to marshal his argument that thrust on age should not be a factor in politics.

When axe fell on his ministerial berth, Gaur claimed he had received feelers from Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Kamal Nath to switch sides. “I told them flatly that I have no intention to cause embarrassment to the BJP leadership. Explaining his predicament, Gaur quoted Urdu poet Momin, “Umar to sari kati ishq butan mein Momin,Akhiri waqt mein kya khak musalman hongey  (roughly translated as: you spent your entire life loving idols, How then would you become a Muslim at the end of life).

Gaur used to wonder if age factor in politics was democratic? “The question is whether such a “rule” is valid. It goes without saying that the constitution and law makes no barrier on grounds of age. A cursory look at old age leaders in India and abroad will tell a story on age and experience actually bringing an added advantage,” Gaur said.

Gaur had replaced Uma Bharti as Madhya Pradesh chief. During his  14 months rule  between August 2004 to October 2005, the BJP’s central leadership had got upset with him when it learnt that Gaur had given Madhya Pradesh government –owned B-200 King Air aircraft to the then union minister for commerce and industry Kamal Nath to attend the G-20 ministerial conference at the Murree near Islamabad. BJP leaders of that era were more furious to note that the Congress union minister had returned the gesture by taking Gaur to Chicago to address investors. However, a full body search incident at US airport had spoilt Gaur’s mood so much that for weeks he kept giving a graphic account of how women security personnel had asked him to remove clothes.

Gaur loved sharing anecdotes and courting controversies. He once regaled audience in Bhopal sharing experience from his trip to Russia. A Russian leader's wife, Gaur claimed, had asked him how his dhoti remained in place without a belt or a zip. Gaur, a minister then, said he could teach her the art of draping a dhoti, but in private.

Gaur's memories of his trip to Russia did not end there. He recalled being kissed on the forehead by a woman there. "If that had been noticed, I would not have got a ticket for the election at home," he joked.

In June 2014, he described rape as a "social crime", professing "sometimes it's right and sometimes it's wrong." The BJP had dismissed his comments as an expression of his personal views, and not the party's. Months before that, he had remarked that there are fewer cases of rape in south India because women there dress more "decently" and are more religious.

Gaur had also remarked that rapists “never reveal their intentions”.

At the height of the outrage in the country over the December 2012 gang rape in Delhi, Gaur had sought to cite “provocative dresses” worn by women as a factor. Speaking at a programme in Bhopal, Gaur had said: “‘Western values, films, television and provocative dresses are leading men to commit sex crimes.”

On 29 June 2015, Gaur gave another the statement, "Drinking is a fundamental right and it is a status symbol too. In January 2014 when he returned from Chennai, he remarked that crime rate against women in Tamil Nadu capital was low as women in Chennai prefer “full clothing.” In 2011, he had told a gathering, "What should be done by Shudras is being done by a Brahmin,’’ while referring to the founder of Sulabh International toilets, Bindeshwar Pathak, as an upper-caste Brahmin from Bihar.

(Author-Journalist Rasheed Kidwai is a visiting Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). He tracks government and politics and considered a specialist on Congress party affairs.)

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