Shekhawat, Advani confess their ''inferiority complex''

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Leader of Opposition L K Advani may have been contemporaries of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in politics right from the Jan Sangh days but that did not hold them back from admitting to their ''inferiority complex'' when it came to addressing huge public meetings right from their initial days.

First to air his apprehension about his ability to emerge as a natural orator like Mr Vajpayee was Mr Advani who used to tell himself to have no illusions about mesmerising the masses with wit and humour. ''I kept telling myself that at best you may impress a select gathering but you can never keep a gathering of 50,000 spell bound like Mr Vajpayee,'' Mr Advani remarked after the release of the book of select speeches of Mr Vajpayee titled 'Rajneeti Ke Us Paar'.

''Now after 50 years of close association, I realise that quality he had attained was not due to his style but his deep commitment to whatever he said,'' he added.

Mr Shekhawat, on his part, recalled how people dreaded to speak ahead of Mr Vajpayee or after his address. ''People came in huge numbers to hear him speak and nobody dared to speak before or after him because once Atalji spoke people even forgot the names of those who addressed the rallies,'' he said.

He said he had found it difficult even to imagine Mr Vajpayee's speeches sans his body language and his famous one-liners used to create enormous confidence in the workers. ''He never stuck to his notes but always made his own assessment of people's aspirations and his speeches would be always be a roaring success,'' the Vice-President said.

Mr Vajpayee, on his part, said one has to be very careful about attending book releases because people tend to pick up different meanings. While politics encompassed all, a good political worker should balance his activism with social commitment and should never be narrow-minded, he asserted.

''Politics encompasses all in society but when it wants to control everything it would lead to dictatorship and totalitarianism as we have seen in many societies,'' he said.

All the three leaders remembered the absence of the late BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan, who was instrumental in bringing out the compilation of Mr Vajpayee's speeches by Rambhau Malgi Prabhodhini publications in the form of a book.

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