The passing away of veteran parliamentarian S Jaipal Reddy actuates a rare journalistic overlap of editorial comment and obituary reference ~ neither would, on their own, do justice to a unique personality.

Though years have elapsed since he last affixed “MP” to his name the aura of the man who graced five Lok Sabhas, served two terms in the Rajya Sabha (not to mention his four terms as an MLA) continues to linger in the memory of the apex legislature. For, perhaps, like Piloo Mody, he was known for his forceful presentations that drove his point home but without sparking off the personal offence that is now deemed integral to the vicious and confrontationist nature of the contemporary political discourse.

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It was not uncommon to see members from “across the aisle” commending him after one of his not-infrequent purple patches. Jaipal had such fluency with words that erstwhile party-colleague and bench-mate Yashwant Sinha once quipped that he spoke his own language ~ Jaipalese ~ that could be understood only after consulting a dictionary or thesaurus.

That they proceeded to part political ways never marred their personal friendship, a characteristic reflected in the multi-faceted tributes that flowed after reports of his death in Hyderabad on Sunday did the rounds: he was respected, if not always lauded, across the political spectrum. As a spokesman for the Janata Dal, United Front and latterly, the Congress party he was ever effective.

Jaipal also handled several ministries, was at his best in Information and Broadcasting, but refrained from reducing himself to the sycophancy in which so many contemporary ministers now specialise. Though he did “switch” parties, his commitment to Nehruvian Socialism was unwavering. No wonder that after being in the forefront of the Bofors assault he was welcomed by Sonia Gandhi when he was so irked by sectarian politics that he opted to serve as a Congress spokesman ~ something with which, he did confess, he was never really comfortable.

Yet, what made him so widely acceptable was that though he did speak of a “government of scamsters” he never lowered himself to slogans such as chowkidar chor hai. Since he was not a “sitting member” a very elaborate tribute in the House would not be in order, yet the presiding officers would do well to direct their secretariats to compile excerpts of his speeches and anecdotes to enlighten inexperienced members of his legacy ~ like the tumult that erupted in the Rajya Sabha when he first used the term “humungous”.

There is so much that the greenhorns could learn from his example. Jaipal could never restrain himself by “pulling punches”: when invited to the podium at a meeting in memory of the former Editor of The Statesman he had no hesitation in declaring C. R. Irani the perfect example of an “argumentative Indian”. In his book that was a term of endearment.