BJP stalwart and three-time former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on Thursday. He was 93.
Vajpayee had been undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was admitted on June 11 with kidney tract infection, chest congestion, urinary tract infection and low urine output. He had suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities and, subsequently, he developed dementia.
Vajpayee was born into a middle-class Brahmin family as the youngest child of a primary school teacher, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, and his wife, Krishna Devi, in Gwalior on December 25, 1924. Vajpayee got associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at an early age. However, at the height of the First World War, a wave of leftist philosophy had swept across the country and Vajpayee was impressed and influenced by the leftist movement. He became a member of the All India Students Federation (AISF) for a brief period.
But Vajpayee entered mainstream politics while he was doing his MA at the DAV College, Kanpur. He became the general secretary of the Arya Kumar Sabha, the youth wing of the Arya Samaj, and became a frequent attendee of the RSS shakhas. Vajpayee got interested in the work of Babasaheb Apte, who was one among the 'founder pracharaks' of the RSS. Vajpayee’s camaraderie with Apte necessarily heralded his eventual rise within the Sangh Parivar to become an office-bearer.
By the late 1940s, Vajpayee became a full-time RSS pracharak and he often travelled across north India. His writing skills and command over the Hindi language saw him take up the responsibility of editing several RSS-affiliated publications. But it was Vajpayee’s oratorical skills that brought him to public attention.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the predecessor to the BJP, was impressed by Vajpayee’s public-speaking abilities and made him his stenographer, secretary and translator. The close association with Mookerjee eventually paved the way for Vajpayee’s entry into a moderate political platform as a leader of the BJS.
A 10-time Member of Parliament, Vajpayee was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, in 1957. Vajpayee’s speeches in Parliament as a young parliamentarian were impeccable and nothing short of monumental. At times, his enthralling Hindi speeches in the Parliament prompted even Jawaharlal Nehru to switch to Hindi from his usual English.
Vajpayee took the world by storm in 1977 when he, as India's foreign minister in the Janata Party government, gave a rapturous speech at the UN General Assembly in Hindi. It was the first time anyone had given a speech in Hindi at the UN.
Vajpayee became the 10th prime minister of India in 1996. His first term in office lasted for 13 days. Later in 1998, a BJP-led coalition government came back to power as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Vajpayee’s second term as PM is known for the nuclear tests conducted at the Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, in May 1998. He also pushed for a peace process with Pakistan. Vajpayee inaugurated the historic Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999. He also pitched for resolving the Kashmir dispute and other conflicts with Pakistan.
However, Vajpayee’s government lasted only 13 months as the AIADMK withdrew its support to the government in mid-1999.
In the following election, the NDA came back with a full majority and Vajpayee was able to complete five years (1999-2004) as the prime minister. He is the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full five-year term.
Vajpayee's third term in office witnessed two major terrorist attacks. First, in December 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked and taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Vajpayee government had to release dreaded terrorists, including Maulana Masood Azhar, from prison to secure the freedom of passengers. The second incident was in December 2001, when Pakistan-supported terrorists attacked the Parliament.
On the brighter side, the Vajpayee government introduced many economic and infrastructural reforms, including encouraging the private sector and foreign investments. It also undertook ambitious development projects like National Highway Development Projects under which the Golden Quadrilateral was implemented. Vajpayee adopted a pro-business, free-market reforms approach to boost India’s economic development. The Vajpayee government introduced the concept of one tax system in 2000, which 17 years later become a reality as the Goods and Services Tax.
After the downfall of the NDA in the 2004 general elections, Vajpayee refused to take up the position of the leader of the opposition in Parliament. In December 2005, Vajpayee announced his retirement from active politics, declaring that he would not contest the next general election. In a famous statement at the BJP’s silver jubilee rally at Mumbai’s historic Shivaji Park, Vajpayee announced that, “Henceforth, Lal Krishna Advani and Pramod Mahajan will be the Ram-Laxman of the BJP.”
Vajpayee's legacy of nearly 50 years in Parliament and being the first non-Congress member to be prime minister thrice is unlikely to be matched for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, his approach to policy making by stressing on consensus and decency earned him respect across the political spectrum, bestowing him the title of “right man in the wrong party”.