Shri Y. B. Chavan as Teacher of Democracy
ONE WHO KNOWS HIM
COUNTLESS millions of words must have been spoken and written on democracy ever since the concept came into being. It is the favourite talking point of the politician, the student, the common man and—nowadays-even the scientist, the philosopher, the sportsman, and the movie star. Ironically, the majority of these words extolling the virtues of the democratic way of life issued, more probably than not, from the mouths (and pens) of those who not only had not the slightest regard for the democratic way but despised it to their heart’s content, using it merely as a cloak and a cover for their arbitrary and dictatorial acts.
From all of which it follows that, in the case of democracy at least, it is seeing (and not speaking or hearing) that is believing. In other words, he is a democrat who not merely preaches democracy but practises it.
If this is the test—as it should be—to which a politician or statesman is to be subjected in assessing his calibre and worth, then it may truly be said that Shri Yeshwantrao Chavan has been a democrat to the manner born. By birth, upbringing, experience, and his own inherent constitution he expresses himself and functions as a democrat in a way that all can see and feel. His is not an affected democracy, much less a feigned one; it comes to him naturally and effortlessly, and he has taken to it as a duck takes to water, because he was born in it and to it; and grew in it and believes in it and lives for it. Briefly, he walks with kings—and queens—and yet keeps the common touch.
The fountain spring of Yeshwantrao Chavan's belief in democracy is his faith in love for the people. To him the vast masses are not mere guinea pigs fashioned by God for the politician's exploitation, but living, breathing, important, noble souls—the noblest of God's creatures—for whom the earth revolves and the sun and the stars and the entire solar system functions in a ceaseless round of hectic activity. In one sentence, the people, to him, are very important persons who give an opportunity to the leaders to serve and to justify their existence before God.