Tribute To A Legend : Vajpayee

On 16 Aug 2018 afternoon came a heartbreaking news. Sad demise of former Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. Born to Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee on 25 Dec 1924 in erstwhile British state of Gwalior. He did his initial schooling from Gwalior and graduated from Victoria College with distinction in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. Afterwhich he completed his post graduation in political science from DAV College Kanpur with first class degree. He was better known for his writing and poems. 

He came to mainstream politics with formation of Bhartiya Jana Sangh. In 1957 he lost Lok Sabha Election to Raja Mahendra Pratap in Mathura. However he was selected for Balrampur seat. His excellent statesmanship and oratory skills are worth mentioning here. After release of emergency in 1977 he became Foreign Minister in Morarji Desai Government. It was during this tenure his famous speech in Hindi in UN General Assembly came to light. Infact he was the first to address UN General Assembly in Hindi. However Janata Government did not last long. His statesmanship came to light once again when then Prime Minister Mr P V Narashimha Rao requested Vajpayee, then opposition leader, to represent India in UN on Kashmir matter. This decision even surprised Pakistan as a nation. 

By 1995 Vajpayee became a tall leader and in 1996 his party, BJP, became single largest party in Lok Sabha. Then President Of India, Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma, invited him to form Government. He took oath as 10th Prime Minister of India but resigned after 13 days as he failed to prove majority in Lok Sabha, making him Prime Minister with shortest tenure. In 1999 he got his tenture as Prime Minister till elections were held. In 1999 Vajpayee took oath as as Prime Minister for the third time and proved his majority in lower house of Parliament. This time his Government went on till general election in 2004. India saw his real leadership and administrative skill during this period. 

One of his biggest achievement was Pokhran II in May 1998 where in India conducted 5 nuclear tests without being noticed by western powers. It was him, who declared that nuclear weaponry will be only for self- defense and India will not be the first user of nuclear weapon on any country. This was followed by tons of international sanctions by western nations. This led to steady decline of trade and investment in country. However with passage of time western nations failed to keep the imposed  sanctions and were lifted shortly leading to a diplomatic win for India. 

Vajpayee has an opinion that progress and peace can suppress feuds. Following this principle he extended his hand of friendship to Pakistan with Famous Lahore Summit where in he made a massive diplomatic push to solve Indo - Pak issues and promote peace and harmony. Delhi - Lahore bus service was a tool of this process. His famous quote "we can change friends but not neighbours. We can change history but geography cannot be changed" is worth mentioning here. 

However efforts of Lahore Summit fell flat with infiltration attempt in Kargil. Indian Military launched Operation Vijay for pushing back infiltrators and getting back the hold of peaks of Indian territory. Here once again diplomatic efforts of Indian Government were worth mentioning. Sharif, then PM of Pakistan, tried his best to get assistance from almost all world powers. To utter surprise allies like US and China also refused to intervene. Here Vajpayee strictly issued order to throwback in the infiltrators from Indian territory and not to cross LOC in anyway. This order led India to avoid all sorts of criticism and which indeed helped to corner Pakistan on world stage leading to rapid success of the  operation. 

Toughest challenge came in front of Vajpayee in form of Hijack if Indian Airlines flight no IC 814 from Tribhuvan Airport Kathmandu. Hijackers took the plane to Kandahar after rotating the planes to various locations. This made the situation worse. Vajpayee's priority here was to get the hijacked passengers back. He described the act as "barbarous". Keeping focus of priority, His Government agreed to release terrorists in exchange of passengers. This action faced criticism at many places.

Vajpayee faced one of major challenge in form of Parliament attack on 13th Dec 2001, just three months after infamous 9/11 in US. It was the time when 500,000 soldiers were mobilized to western borders. However war between two newly emerged nuclear powers was put to a halt. While explaining this to Pandit Jasraj he said that if there was a war then upcoming generations would go 30 years behind.

During his tenure he stressed for major socio - economic push like Golden Quadrilateral project, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan etc. Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was passed by his Government to counter terrorism related cases. 

Another major achievement was making China accept Sikkim as part of India in 2003 which was preceded by India accepting Tibet as part of China.

However there were certain controversies which stuck him time to time as well. Some of them were Gujarat Riots in 2002, frequent terror attacks, his speech a day before Babri Masjid demolition, Tehelka Sting, Barak Missile matter etc. 

Vajpayee was a part of Parliamentary Goodwill Mission to East Africa in 1965. in 1993 he led the Indian Delegation to the Human Rights Commission Meeting at Geneva. 

In 2005 he retired from active politics. He was unmarried and dedicated his life to nation. However he adopted Namita Bhattacharya as his daughter. He was awarded Padma Bhusan in year 1992, Bharat Ratna in 2015. Same year he was also awarded Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona. He got his D. Lit. from Kanpur University in year 1993. 

His writings like India's Foreign Policy: New Dimensions, India's Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region and Back to Square One are truely remarkable. He was more famous as a poet. Some of his remarkable poetry works, Meri Ikyavana Kavitaem, Nayi Disha, Samvedna  are real masterpieces.

He suffered Stroke in 2009, making him impaired of speech. During all these years his health was a major concern and he was confined to wheelchair. His breathed his last on 16 Aug 2018 at AIIMS Delhi owing to age related ailments. 

Void created by his demise will remain forever. !