Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee former Prime Minister of India, poet, author, and politician died on 16 August 2018 at AIIMS hospital due to age related illness

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Vajpayee was referred to as the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a speech in the Rajya Sabha, a reference to a mythological figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata who was held in respect by two warring sides.

Vajpayee was an Indian politician who become three times  as the Prime Minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, for a period of eleven months from 1998 to 1999, and then for a full term from 1999 to 2004. Vajpayee was among the founding members of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh which he also headed from 1968 to 1972. He was the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

When the Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee restructured the Jana Sangh into the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. He was the first Indian prime minister not belonging to the Idian National Congress to serve a full five-year term.

He was conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India in 2014. It was declared by the Modi government in 2014 that Vajpayee's birthday, 25 December, would be marked as Good Governance Day.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Awards

·         Padma Vibhushan   (1992)

·         D. Lit. from Kanpur University (1993)

·         Lokmanya Tilak Award (1994)

·         Outstanding Parliamentarian Award (1994)

·         Bharat Ratna Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant Award (1994)

·          Bharat Ratna (2015)

·          Bangladesh Liberation War honour (Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona) (2015)

A Very Rare Picture of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Early Life and Education

Vajpayee was born to Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior. 

He completed his post-graduation with an M.A. in Political Science from DAV College, Kanpur

He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a swayamsevak in 1939. Influenced by Babasaheb Apte, he attended the Officers Training Camp of the RSS during 1940–44 and became a "full-time worker" in 1947, technically a prachara

Early Political Career (1942--1975)

In 1948, the RSS was banned for its alleged role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1951, he was seconded by the RSS, along with Deendayal Upadhyaya, to work for the newly formed Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu right-wing political party associated with the RSS. He was appointed as a national secretary of the party in charge of the Northern region, based in Delhi. He soon became a follower and aide of party leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee. In 1954, Vajpayee was with Mukherjee when he went on a fast-unto-death in Kashmir to protest against perceived inferior treatment of non-Kashmiri Indian visitors to the state. Mookerjee died in prison during this strike. In 1957, Vajpayee lost to Raja Mahendra Pratap in Mathura for the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India, but was elected from Balrampur. There, his oratorial skills so impressed Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that he predicted that Vajpayee would someday become India's Prime Minister.

By virtue of his oratorical and organizational skills, he became the face of the Jana Sangh. After the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya, the mantle of the leadership of Jana Sangh fell on the shoulders of a young Vajpayee. He became the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968 and, along with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and L. K. Advani, led the Jana Sangh to national prominence.

Political Career (1975--1995)

Following Janata's victory in the 1977 general elections, he became the Minister of External Affairs in Prime Minister Morarji Desai's cabinet. As foreign minister, that year Vajpayee became the first person to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi. By the time the Janata government crumbled in 1979, Vajpayee had established himself as an experienced statesman and a respected political leader.

Vajpayee joined many of his Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh colleagues, particularly his long-time friends L. K. Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, to form the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. He became the BJP's first President. He emerged as a strong critic of the Congress (R) government that followed the Janata government.

The BJP became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement, which was led by activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the RSS, and which sought to build a temple dedicated to Lord Rama in Ayodhya.

Victory in the assembly elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra in March 1995, and a good performance in the elections to the Karnataka assembly in December 1994, propelled the BJP to greater political prominence. During a BJP conference in Mumbai in November 1995, BJP President L. K. Advani declared that Vajpayee would become the Prime Minister of India. The BJP won in the May 1996 parliamentary elections.

As Prime minister of India

Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of India between 1996 and 2004 in three non-consecutive terms.

First term: May 1996

In the 1996 general elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. The then president Shankar Dayal Sharma invited Vajpayee to form the government. Vajpayee was sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister of India, but the BJP failed to muster enough support from other parties to obtain a majority. He resigned after 13 days, when it became clear that he could not garner a majority.

Second term: 1998–1999

Nuclear tests

In May 1998, India conducted five underground nuclear tests in Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, 24 yrs after India conducted its first nuclear test (Smiling Buddha) in 1974. This test is called Pokhran-II. The tests were held just a month after the government had been in power. Two weeks later, Pakistan responded with its own nuclear tests making it the newest declared nation with nuclear weapons.

The Lahore summit

In 1999, Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. With the historic inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Vajpayee initiated a new peace process aimed towards permanently resolving the Kashmir dispute and other conflicts with Pakistan.

Kargil Victory

 The victory in Kargil bolstered the image of Vajpayee and he was hailed across the country for his bold and strong leadership. On 26 July 2012, designated as 'Kargil Vijay Diwas', BJP President Nitin Gadkari unveiled a wax statue of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Mumbai. The statue is to be put up at a wax museum in Lonavala.

Third term: 1999–2004

Indian Airlines hijack

A national crisis emerged in December 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five terrorists and flown to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.^] The hijackers made several demands including the release of certain terrorists like Masood Azhar from prison. Under extreme pressure, the government ultimately caved in. Jaswant Singh, the Minister for External Affairs at the time, flew with the terrorists to Afghanistan and exchanged them for the passengers.

National highway project, foreign policy and economic reforms

Vajpayee's pet projects were the National Highways Development Project and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

Vajpayee again initiated Indo-Pak relations by inviting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit and peace talks. His second major attempt to move beyond the stalemate involved inviting the man who had planned the Kargil invasions. But accepting him as the President of Pakistan, Vajpayee chose to move forward. But after three days of much fanfare, which included Musharraf visiting his birthplace in Delhi, the summit failed to achieve a breakthrough as President Musharraf declined to leave aside the issue of Kashmir.

In 2001, the Vajpayee government launched the famous Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which aimed at improving the quality of education in primary and secondary schools.

Vajpayee’s Personal Life

Vajpayee remained unmarried. He adopted Namita Bhattacharya, the daughter of BN Kaul and Rajkumari Kaul

He was fond of Indian music and dance. He loved nature and one of his favourite retreats was Manali in Himachal Pradesh.

He was a published poet, and with regard to his poetry he wrote, "My poetry is a declaration of war, not an exordium to defeat. It is not the defeated soldier's drumbeat of despair, but the fighting warrior's will to win. It is not the despirited voice of dejection but the stirring shout of victory

Notable work of Vajpayee

Social and political

·         National Integration (1961)

·         Dynamics of an Open Society (1977)

·         New Dimensions of India's Foreign Policy (1979)

·         Heal the Wounds: Vajpayee's appeal on Assam tragedy to the Parliament (1983)

·         Kucha Lekha, Kucha Bhashana (1996)

·         Sekyularavada: Bharatiya Parikalpana (Da. Rajendra Prasada Smaraka Vyakhyanamala) (1996)

·         Bindu-Bindu Vicara (1997)

·         Rajaniti ki Rapatili Rahem (1997)

·         Back to Square One (1998)

·         Decisive Days (1999)

·         Sakti Se Santi (1999)

·         Vicara-Bindu (Hindi Edition, 2000)

·         Nayi Chunauti, Naya Avasara (Hindi Edition, 2002)

·         India's Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region (2003)

Books written by Vajpayee

·         India's Foreign Policy: New Dimensions (1977)

·         Assam Problem: Repression no Solution (1981)

·         Atal Bihari Vaj Mem Tina Dasaka (1992)

·         Pradhan Mantri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ke Chune Hue Bhashana (2000)

·         Values, Vision & Verses of Vajpayee: India's Man of Destiny (2001)

·         National Integration (1961)

·         Dynamics of an Open Society (1977)

·         Kucha Lekha, Kucha Bhashana (1996)

·         Sekyularavada: Bharatiya Parikalpana (Da. Rajendra Prasada Smaraka Vyakhyanamala) (1996)

·         Rajaniti ki Rapatili Rahem (1997)

·         Back to Square One (1998)

·         Decisive Days (1999)

·         Sakti Se Santi (1999)

·         India's Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region (2003)

Poetry composed by Vajpayee

·         Meri Ikyavana Kavitaem (1995)

·         Meri Ikyavana Kavitaem (Hindi Edition, 1995)

·         Sreshtha Kabita (1997)

·         Nayi Disha – An Album with Jagjit Singh (1995)

·         Kya Khoya Kya Paya: Atal Bihari Vajapeyi, Vyaktitva Aur Kavitaem (Hindi Edition, 1999)

·         Samvedna – An Album with Jagjit Singh (1995)

·         Twenty-One Poems (2003)

Speeches delivered by Vajpayee

·         Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, selected speeches. (2000)

·         President's addresses, 1980–1986. (2000).

·         Presidential address. (1986).

·         Presidential address: Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha session, Bhagalpur (Bihar), 5 6 & 7 May 1972. (1972).

·         Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pokhran