Though he made a name for himself as a socialist-secularist, very few see it as ironical that Chandra Shekhar's last political decision should be a call for the presidential candidature of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, whose "RSS roots" have touched the "secular-communal" faultlines.
For, Chandra Shekhar, who rose as the Young Turk in late 1960s to back Indira Gandhi only to take her on during the JP agitation, had an uncanny ability to straddle different shades of the political canvas with a disdain for prevailing political values of the time. The bottomline was that he carried off his image, whatever his action.
What critics called the contradictions of the man was explained by friends as the "bewildering autonomy of a great leader". So, despite Ballia figuring nowhere on the development map, he kept entering the Lok Sabha, with the tacit support of BJP at times and with the backing of Samajwadi Party at other times. He lost just once — in the 1984 sympathy wave, post-Indira Gandhi's assassination.
While he stood and spoke for propriety all his life, he saw nothing wrong in his association with Dhanbad-based mafiosi Suryadeo Singh.
And having led the fight against the Dynasty, he, in the twilight of his life, stood slammed by friends for falling to family interests and handing over the management of the massive JP Trust to his nephew against all norms.
The eternal 'young turk', who took the political plunge in his student days to occupy centrestage during a crucial time of national politics, was a personality of contrasts. Between the mundane and the extraordinary. Of strong
principles and a streak of pragmatism. Charges of greed were hurled at him as he split the Janata Dal, after BJP withdrew support to the V P Singh government in the thick of an incendiary Mandal-Mandir conflict in 1990. With 50-odd MPs, he took the biggest U-turn to power.
Not only did he accept support from Rajiv Gandhi's Congress — whose removal was Janata Dal's war cry in the 1989 polls — but he also had no qualms in mocking the Bofors scam, which had scripted one of the biggest successes in anti-Congressism. Responding to sceptics on monitoring of Bofors case, he, as PM, dismissed it as "an inspector's job". This Chandra Shekhar, too, bowled a googly.
To many, he was selfishly pandering to a long-held wish to be PM while also settling scores with V P Singh, who had managed to upstage him through a coup with 'tau' Devi Lal. With many firsts to his credit, he, inadvertently, laid the foundation for a future day farce — the 'Madhu Koda phenomenon'.
And yet, despite the plots involved, observers recall the brief, four-month regime for the boldest attempt made to solve the intractable Ayodhya dispute. A panel of chief ministers, including Sharad Pawar and Shekhawat, nearly cracked the conundrum. Just then, the government fell, comically over alleged spying of Rajiv Gandhi by two Haryana Police constables.
Since his initiation, Chandra Shekhar was made for rebellion. Barely in his 40s, he shot into limelight as part of a pressure group with Mohan Dharia and Ram Dhan to push for socialist policies in the Congress.
But his political journey came full circle early in life as the Congress supremo threw him in jail for criticism of Emergency. At 50, he was heading the biggest anti-Congress experiment in Janata Party.
Pragmatism, however, never left his espousal of principles. As prime minister, he went out of his way to dismiss the DMK government in Tamil Nadu despite governor's refusal to endorse Congress view that LTTE was active in the state. But he held his ground when pressed to sack a friendly O P Chautala regime after the "spying" episode.
He undertook Bharat Yatra — walking 4,260 km from Kanyakumari to Rajghat in 1984 — to highlight the masses' problems. But the marathon effort got mired in controversies with charges of landgrabbing in Bhondsi Ashram. On Sunday, however, leaders from across the political spectrum came together to pay tributes which sounded more honest than political condolences normally do. That said a lot about Chandra Shekhar and the place he had carved out for himself in a political journey over 45 years, which culminated on July 8, 2007.
