It was admittedly a casual comment but it stayed with me all week and made me think deeply. Last Saturday, Sanjaya Baru said there is one man who, more than any other, deserves the Bharat Ratna but, he fears, might never get it: Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In fact, Sanjaya went further. When he was the PM’s media advisor he suggested both Vajpayee and Jyoti Basu should be conferred the Bharat Ratna together. As India’s longest serving chief minister and the man who democratised communism, Basu richly deserved it.