Homage to Atal Bihari Vajpayee .... on his birthday :::: Celebrated for his pan-India acceptability .... former PM gave a 'moderate veneer' to BJP's hardline pro-Hindutva image !!

Celebrated for his pan-India acceptability and a leader with an unblemished image, Atal Behari Vajpayee would be always credited with giving a moderate veneer to BJP's hardline pro-Hindutva image.

His acceptability across the political spectrum and among the minorities always came in good stead for the BJP, he had co-founded with L K Advani, whom critics and opponents often call 'communal and reactionary'.

Isey mitane ki sazish karne walo se kahedo

Chingari ka khel khatarnak hota hae ……..

(Those who are trying to ruin India, must be told that 
to play with fire is a dangerous thing) 

(Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s illustrious verse addressed to Pakistan)

March 1999, Bharat Ratna Vajpayee and some of us

In another piece, he penned: 

Kab tak Jammu ko Yun-hi

Jalne denge

Kab tak julfo ki madira Dhalne denge

Maa beheno ka apman sahenge kab tak

Bhole pandav chup chaap rahenge kab tak …..

(Uptill when will u let Jammu Burn, 

Till when this addiction of lust
continue....

Uptill when will the sisters and mothers be raped...

Till when the stake holders (UN/International community) will remain silent)

-         (Bhole pandav (Innocent UN; world community)….

-         And see how things have turned out to be across the globe!!

Born on the Christmas Day, 1924, at Gwalior to a school teacher Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, his baptism into politics had come as a student when he came in contact with the RSS founder Keshavrao Hedgewar and later became a RSS 'swayemsevak'.

First sworn in as the Prime Minister on May 16, 1996, Vajpayee had to resign only after 13 days. But as promised by him in Lok Sabha on May 27, 1996 debate, Vajpayee returned to the coveted office on March 19, 1998 and continued there till May 2004 when incidentally, the country voted out his government in what was described by poll pundits as a most shocking election results. 

The BJP's hyped 'India Shining' campaign had failed. 

The founding president of BJP, when it was launched in 1980 after split from the united Janata Party of Seventies, Vajpayee was a perfect foil to his longtime compatriot L K Advani. 

While Advani has been a forceful speaker with cold logic and argument, Vajpayee, a genius orator was a poetic and persuasive with his characteristic humourous style.

"One big difference between Vajpayee and me was his sense of humour. It always gave me complex....Unke samne mein ek rukha-sukha admi raha (Contrast to his humour, I was always dry)," BJP patriarch L K Advani told me only on December 16. 

Vajpayee and his Core Team - L K Advani and Jaswant Singh 

But the soft style was never a weakness of Vajpayee  as more than once he spoke firmly and many a times also differed with Advani. His reported oneliner to Advani on 1992 Babri-Temple issue, 

"Advaniji yad rakhiye aap...Ayodhya ja rahen haen Lanka nahi (Advani please remember you are going to Ayodhya and not Lanka)" was as famous as his assertion in Lok Sabha in 1998 defending his government's decision to conduct nuclear tests. 

"Should we prepare our defence only when we are attacked....should we not become guarded and self-dependent on our defence capabilities," Vajpayee had said countering high-profile anti-nuke debates from master orators like Chandrashekhar, a former PM.

Jailed during 1942 Quit India Movement- though there have been charges that he had given witness against freedom fighters, Vajpayee, a post graduate in political science from Kanpur University, had started off as a journalist with RSS magazine, 'Rashtradharam'.

A headline hunter later, Vajpayee often used to say, "I cannot quit politics because nothing is more intoxicating in life than to see your name in morning newspapers".

A person with a graceful taste for things apolitical like poetry and cinema, Vajpayee would be also be remembered for his description of P V Narasimha Rao as a 'karma-yogi' in Parliament while taking a dig at Rao's now famous oneliner: "Not to take decision is also a decision".

Friends and Foes

One can say that he was a statesman and orator par excellence, who played a pivotal role in shaping India's political landscape through his blend of inclusive nationalism and Hindutva ideology. 

Vajpayee was instrumental in mainstreaming Hindutva, not merely as a religious or cultural identity but as a unifying force for India's diverse population. 

In 1998, when Vajpayee named Jaswant Singh as chief negotiator with the US interlocutor Strobe Talbott, Singh was only a deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. Talbott later said, “While Jaswant rightly harmonised Indo-US relations, as the leader of the country and the government, Vajpayee advanced India’s interests.” 

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