Past rancour is forgotten, BJP happy for Lyngdoh

Its running verbal duel with J.M. Lyngdoh over the Gujarat poll postponement notwithstanding, the BJP, at least for public consumption, today expressed its pleasure over the Chief Election Commissioner bagging the Magsaysay award. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar, when reached for his comments over the honour conferred on Lyngdoh, said: ‘‘It is a good thing. We are happy about it.’’

This said, Javadekar went on to observe: ‘‘It is our culture that if somebody is appreciated by the world, you join it in appreciation. This does not mean that you endorse everything that goes with this appreciation. In fact, like our participants in beauty contests, our chief election commissioners are dominating the scene. The world marvels at our successful conduct of elections. T.N. Seshan was our first CEC to win the award, followed by Lyngdoh now. The present CEC has inherited a very successful, tried and tested poll mechanism and he has built upon it. The award is a complement to our democratic system. It has proved that our elections are neat and clean.’’

When asked about Lyngdoh’s response to the announcement of the award that it was apparently a recognition of his conduct of Gujarat and J-K polls, he said: ‘‘It is his job to hold elections. Where was the challenge in Gujarat? There was no tension. It was all a media-hype, which was proved by the polls. Not a single unpleasant incident took place. There was no complaint even by Muslims. J-K was altogether different. The challenge was manifold — militant threats, boycott calls and global attention. We came out successful.’’