When he decided to retire from all forms of cricket, the great legend that he is, Sunil Gavaskar had quoted another legend of Indian cricket — Vijay Merchant: one must retire when people ask why and not wait for them to ask why not.
Gavaskar’s batting average in the year when he retired was better than most Indian batsmen of the time; he had just cracked his first and only One Day International century, and at such incredible pace that he ensured India did not face a tough cricket rival, Pakistan, in the semi-finals of 1987 Cricket World Cup. And yet, when he got out cheaply in the semi-final against England, the people who had come to watch India win the match did not think twice booing him.
This was in Mumbai, where Gavaskar started his life in cricket. No one booing him remembered he was the first Test cricketer to surpass none other than Sir Don Bradman in terms of centuries or was the first batsman to score 10000 runs or more in Test cricket.
All that mattered to those booing the great cricketer was that he did not post a good score in what turned out to be his last match. Our politicians, across parties and especially those in the Bharatiya Janata Party, who are now striking a dissent note after not getting a ticket to contest Lok Sabha polls need to take a note of this.
History is kind to them to see their time is up and bow out gracefully. If they don’t, humiliation, even if it is unintentional, is inevitable. It is hard to believe Sumitra Mahajan, Murli Manohar Joshi and above all, Lal Krishna Advani did not see what was coming for them.
None of them saw that their glory days are past them; especially Advani, who is in his nineties and who has been accorded the second highest executive post, that of the deputy Prime Minister, back in 2003-04. Once the sun set on him after consecutive defeats in 2004 and 2009, Advani should have made way for the next generation of leaders which would have elevated respect for him in the eyes of the BJP supporters.
That Advani could not become the Prime Minister is not the fault of the party. He chose his brand of politics that was not acceptable to the allies of his time and had to nominate his contemporary and a more acceptable Atal Bihari Vajpayee when the power was within grasp.
Advani knew back then that the government formation was not possible if Vajpayee was not pushed to the top. He lost the chance and with that, his name in the history. If only Advani and others like Mahajan and Joshi had declared they were not going to contest LS polls to make space for younger generation, they would not have faced the criticism from their own today.
If the younger lot sings apna time aayega, it is cool. It doesn’t suit the octogenarians and nonagenarians.