At 84, Vidya Charan Shukla fought his multiple injuries valiantly for more than a fortnight. Eventually the veteran Congressman lost the battle of life bringing to an end a sixdecade-long career that had negotiated many humps, seen several highs but could never reach the pinnacle he always thought he was cut out for. But fate had another plan, or how else can one explain Shukla joining the convoy he was not initially supposed to be a part of.
It is premature to say if death of Vidya ‘b h a i y y a’ would have any repercussions on the Chhattisgarh polls, but one thing is sure: the politics of the state would never be the same again. Even from the margins he wielded enough influence, especially in Raipur, the city Shuklas had lorded over for nearly a century.
Son of Ravi Shankar Shukla, Congress’ tallest leader in Central Provinces, Shukla junior learnt the art of political machination at his father’s feet. Born in 1929, in his formative years Shukla had witnessed the Ravi Shankar Shukla vs N B Khare battle.
With the support of Congress leadership, including Gandhi, Shukla senior managed to edge out Khare. Rest of his political lessons was learnt watching his father and others debate for days on end in the Constituent Assembly. Barely out of his teens, Shukla used to be in the visitors’ gallery watching his hero Jawaharlal Nehru and others discuss the new Constitution. But Shukla conveniently forgot the principles of liberal democracy he learnt those days when he willfully became one of the feared faces of the Emergency.
For the past more than a decade Shukla had been fighting a similar battle with his bête-noire Ajit Jogi. Shukla saw Jogi as a Johnnycome-lately. But Jogi won the battle and like Khare, Shukla did party hopping from the BJP to NCP and eventually back to the Congress. In fact, Shukla could never regain the position of eminence – it turned out to be of notoriety – he had achieved during the Emergency. As Indira’s I&B minister he had the media under his thumb and film industry singing to his tune.
It would suffice to say that the Shah Commission appointed by the Janata government called him and others, all part of Indira Gandhi’s cabal, “medieval despots”. Shukla, known for his penchant for good life, stuck to Indira Gandhi during the trying Shah Commission days but could not find the same traction with her elder son Rajiv Gandhi.
From then on he became some kind of a political rolling stone with occasional big moments like becoming the external affairs minister in the Chandra Sekhar government and parliamentary affairs minister under P V Narasimha Rao.
Like all patriarchs in their autumn of life Shukla was scornful of the way Congress is being run but unlike his contemporary L K Advani he had made peace with his fate, limiting it to tiny Chhattisgarh. But life had its own plan.
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