FROM THE FREE PRESS ARCHIVES

PASSING OF PANT

Nothing emphasises more poignantly the rapid disappearance of the “Old Guard” than the death of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. Pandit Pant was the unobtrusive type—a patriarchal figure who chose to remain in the wings, prompting and directing those on the stage. He was the unobtrusive type—a patriarchal figure who chose to remain in the wings, prompting and directing those on the stage. Pandit Pant never occupied the Presidential chair of the Congress, and it was only seven years ago that he reluctantly went to the Centre. Just the same, every notable event that shaped the destiny of India in the last half a century and more bears the indelible but subtle imprint of his powerful personality. It would be wrong, however, to compare him with Sardar Patel: Pant was a class by himself. His courage and strength were not of a Machiavellian nature as indeed were Sardar Patel’s. Rather, Pandit Pant was a pragmatist whose idealism was conditioned by the facts of life. He was about the only Congressman who was never known to have been at ideological variance with Shri Nehru. If he sounded notes of caution to Shri Nehru, the idealist, it was only because his advice was sought. And when he assumed the role allotted to him, Pandit Pant played it fully and conscientiously: for, he believed that he owed that debt to history. He wielded his power judiciously and sparingly and never with the slightest trace of personal vindictiveness. True, Pandit Pant liked to hold court after the fashion of a grand Moghul, but it was not an occasion when he distributed largesse. It was just his way of keeping in touch with the people. And if there was any grandeur in the manner he held court, it was solely due to the grandeur of his personality and not due to the pomp and circumstance that attended it. In fact he was too much of a Gandhian to have any use for pomp and circumstance. It would indeed be extremely presumptuous and even banal to assess Pandit Pant’s place in history in this hour of mourning. Suffice it to say that Pandit Pant earned his place in the sun without ever elbowing anybody out. He was a big man-big in every sense of the term.