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A meeting with the PM

Tomorrow noon at the residence,'' Shakti informed me about my meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. ''But that is Sunday.'' He said in reply, ''We work seven days a week.'' It must be so because I found Brajesh Mishra, the prime minister's secretary, also present at the residence.

''It was a long campaign, too long,'' Vajpayee said. ''I must have addressed more than 100 meetings in different parts of the country.'' But he had no doubt about the outcome from the day he initiated the election campaign. I reminded him of his forecast in 1980 when he said it would be difficult even for him to win. He scraped through from the New Delhi seat at that time.

The prime minister, wearing, a maroon jacket over the well-starched kurta and dhoti, looked relaxed and confident. It was the same room, with M F Husain's painting beaming from one the walls, where I met him last in the midst of Pakistan's intrusion in Kargil. It was as if I was picking up from where I had left off. Then he had a harried look on his face.

''Will the government last five years?'' I asked. He had little doubt about it. The National Democratic Alliance had a comfortable majority and he did not think that even if one or two parties left, it would make much difference. The parties which really mattered were part and parcel of the NDA, he said. He was too modest to admit that people had voted for him, not the Bharatiya Janata Party. But he did concede that when it came to a contest between him and Sonia Gandhi, he found the balance amply tilting in his favour. He could fathom the diffidence of voters because of her foreign birth. Asked if Sonia Gandhi had congratulated him after the NDA victory, he said, ''No.''

On the cabinet formation, he admitted he was under pressure. He had to accommodate several parties. That was the reason, he explained, why the council of ministers had become large. He, however, added, ''I have still to find a Muslim and a Sikh for the cabinet.'' He was disappointed over the Ramakrishna Hegde episode. He sounded as if he could not help it. The parties had to nominate their representative. ''You could have retained me even though my party had not included me in the list it submitted,'' Vajpayee recalled Hegde's complaint.

The prime minister tended to agree with the thesis that the debacle of the Janata Dal-United in Karnataka was the reason for Hegde's undoing. Vajpayee thought that the BJP would have done better if it had gone it alone. The record of the J H Patel government was ''not good.'' It affected the BJP as well, he said. Vajpayee was equally disturbed over the results in Uttar Pradesh. No one in the BJP anticipated such a disaster. In fact, when the party did well in other parts of the country, ''we thought we would cross the figure of 200,'' he said. ''Something will be done in UP,'' he remarked. But he did not say what. He believed the BJP vote went to the Congress. He did not rule out sabotage from within.

Vajpayee said twice that he faced no pressure from his own party. Once it was in reply to the query whether the BJP members wanted more representation in the government. The second was when I asked him if the extremists were breathing down his neck. He, however, mentioned ''some people'' were trying to hold demonstrations against the Pope's visit. They should be spoken to, I suggested. The way in which he reacted to my remark indicated that the organisers were going ahead despite the attempts made to dissuade them.

''Why don't you drop the three contentious issues once and for all?'' He said he would prefer to sort them out. It was possible to do so. ''I have a solution to the mandir issue,'' he said. But he did not spell it out. The application of a common civil code, he said, could be on a voluntary basis. Those who did not want it, they could stay out and follow their own personal laws.

As for Article 370 on the special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he felt it had come to be more or less accepted. Kashmir would itself want the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, etc. to be extended to the state. The problem with the state, he said, was the administration. The better it was, the greater would be the people's support. The prime minister had received complaints of rigging in the election in Kashmir.

''The states are wanting more and more autonomy,'' Vajpayee said. ''We are determined to implement the Sarkaria Commission report on Centre-state relations.'' The prime minister said that the main problem with the states were their finances. ''By adopting populistic measures,'' most of them had frittered away their resources. They had no money. Every state was coming to the Centre for assistance because it could not pay even the salary to the staff. ''A state like Maharashtra is also facing trouble,'' said Vajpayee. He was worried about the fiscal situation in Punjab.

The prime minister was not happy over the developments in Pakistan. He seemed to have sympathy for the ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief who, he felt, might have paid the price for the withdrawal from Kargil. Asked if Sharief knew beforehand about the intrusion in Kargil, Vajpayee said he did not think so. Sharief might have been told about a limited action in a general way. Sharief himself admitted it in the context of a speech on the situation in Kashmir. Sharief was never fully informed about the details or their implications.

The prime minister confirmed that the trips of former foreign secretary Niaz Naik and editor R K Mishra between India and Pakistan had ''the official blessing.'' There were some concrete proposals and ''we were proceeding towards a solution.'' He did not indicate what the proposals were but he had no hesitation in saying that they were ''positive'' and might have led to rapprochement between the two countries. He said Sharief was keen on settling matters with India. The Lahore process, Vajpayee said, had finished the anti-Pakistan lobby in India. But the Kargil intrusion had revived the same old attitude. And the attitude had hardened because of the sense of betrayal among the people.

Referring to the telephone call he got from President Clinton, Vajpayee said that America was insisting on starting negotiations with Pakistan immediately. He said he told Clinton that a ''proper atmosphere'' had to be created so that there was confidence built in the country. Vajpayee had the impression that Clinton had not appreciated India's stand. But he should realise, Vajpayee said, that he had to take Indian opinion into consideration. Asked about India's relations with China, the prime minister said there were no problems. He had noted that Beijing too had expressed concern over the developments in Pakistan.

Vajpayee was conscious that his first 100 days were important. He had in mind several steps to improve the economy. ''We want to catch up with the developed countries,'' he said. The two specific measures he would take up straightway were electoral reforms and the Lokpal Bill to fight corruption at the top. He would like the disposal of cases by the government to be quicker and transparent but he blamed the bureaucracy for not changing its attitude. It was still lost in red tape and outdated rules and regulations.

Vajpayee was conscious of the enormous responsibility put on his shoulders. He wanted all political parties to sink their differences and work unitedly on this one point programme: how to give a better deal to the people. ''As for me, I want to assure all that I would seek the cooperation of every political party and work for a consensus. There is no question of class, caste or creed differences coming in the way. We are all Indians and we have only our country to serve,'' Vajpayee said.

As I retraced my steps I saw many visitors waiting for their turn. Even Sunday was a long day for him.

Kuldip Nayar