NEW DELHI, May 2: Imagine President Gen Pervez Musharraf's plight if Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee simply forgets all about the commitments he might have made to him?
This and other worries were haunting Mr Vajpayee's election campaign on Sunday, as the opposition heaped criticism on his growing memory lapses.
"What would become of any pact with Gen Musharraf if the prime minister forgets what they had discussed," Congress spokesman Kabil Sibal told reporters, listing a string of similar other mishaps that could be triggered by Mr Vajpayee's forgetfulness.
Mr Vajpayee, in his late 70's, has embarrassed party colleagues and campaign managers with a growing evidence of memory lapses during crucial public meetings. The more sympathetic view expressed on this issue is that Mr Vajpayee is the main campaigner and the mascot of the four-stage gruelling election, which gets him sapped.
But this has not fended off criticism over forgetfulness. "We have a prime minister who is forgetting dates of polls in his own constituency (Lucknow) and asking the people to cast their votes on Sept 5," Mr Sibal said.
Recently, the prime minister even forgot whether it was Lok Sabha polls or Rajya Sabha polls and names of his party's candidates while campaigning in Chhattisgarh, Mr Sibal said.
Mr Vajpayee is in the fray on Wednesday, the third leg of the polls when he meets his chief challenger, lawyer and former cabinet colleague, Ram Jethmalani in Lucknow. Mr Jethmalani, who initially withdrew from the contest after Mr Vajpayee appealed to him to pull out, was vocal in Lucknow about Mr Vajpayee's fabled ability to commit faux pas.
"Atalji ka maatha theek kaam nahi kar raha hai (Atalji's mind is not functioning properly)," therefore "he is not fit to be the prime minister," Mr Jethmalani said. He further alleged that Atalji had "not paid a single penny as income tax" to the nation till now.
