Remembering Vajpayee - the Ajat Shatru, on his 96th Birthday.

 Remembering Vajpayee - the Ajat Shatru, on his 96th Birthday. Merry Christmas 

Image Credits - Wiki Commons.

25th December - the birthday of Lord Jesus Christ,  the son of God - is an auspicious day, which is celebrated the world over - in more than 150 countries, as Christmas Day. It was on this pious day that Lord Jesus - God's redemption, mercy and Grace - was born in Bethlehem and his birth marks an important epoch in the measurement of history of humanity. The period after his birth is now measured by historians as the Christian Era (CE), and the period before his birth is measured as BCE ( Before Christian Era). it was on this auspicious Christmas day - 25th December, in 1924, that Atal Bihari Vajpayee - an outstanding parliamentarian, poet, orator, political stalwart, coalition builder and the recipient of Bharat Ratna and the man who has rightly been given an epithet ‘Ajat Shatru’ (enemy less), was born to a blessed parents in Gwalior. Although the Covid pandemic has disrupted the otherwise colourful and bright celebrations the world over, including the midnight Christmas mass that was so special in Mumbai, yet the spirit of the people to endeavour the long raging Pandemic has not dimmed, rather it has only further strengthened their resolve to endear it and hopefully everyone’s prayers on this holy occasion will be answered and the pandemic ends sooner than later. While wishing all my friends a merry Christmas and seasons greetings I also take this opportunity to remember Atal ji and wish him a very happy birthday and pray for his reverential  soul to continue to rest in eternal peace in the heavenly abode, which is now home to him. 

The memory of Atal ji as a great statesman and an exemplary parliamentarian and an extraordinary opposition leader is some thing, which the whole nation will truly look up to and remember. Stalwarts like Narasimha Rao and Atal ji are now most wanted in the utterly and viciously divided ruling and opposition parties. In the current era the political parties have translated their मतभेद ( difference/ division in opinions)  into मन भेद ( difference/ division of mind) and cannot come together on any issues, including on issues of national interest. I wish, our political leaders while paying respect and remembrance to Vajpayee ji on this day also take note and emulate what former Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, and the then opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, collectively could achieve that triumphant diplomatic victory against Pakistan at the UNHCR session in Geneva in 1994. Narasimha Rao had chosen a team to represent India at this important UN convention  and the team was headed by the opposition leader,  Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.. Other members of the team included External Affairs Minister Mr. Farooq  Abdullah, the state Minister, Mr. Salman Khurshid and the Indian Ambassador to the UN, former Vice President, Dr. Hamid Ansari. Atal ji led a combative defense against the vitriolic and diabolical attack by Pakistan, who had got the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to move a resolution at the Geneva session of the UNCHR to censure India for the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir. Atal ji and his team collectively came triumphant to heroes welcome back home in India. It was a historic occasion when India’s voice had to be heard as one voice and the ruling and opposition parties put their ideologies in the back burner to come together as one great nation to defeat the enemy. Will we ever be able to replicate this now or in near future? Time and and time alone will reveal and what you and I can do at present, is only to pray that such moment comes soon so that issues like the ongoing farmers agitation, which is threatening to further derail our economy that is already adversely affected by the Covid pandemic are resolved by the political parties together as one team India. in the interest of our nation and are not further instigated on political considerations. 

Bharat Ratna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee - former PM, Poet, politician, pragmatist orator and statesman- who passed away at an advance age of 93 on the 16th of August, 2018, after a prolonged illness, will truly be missed in current times. Although, after almost three decades of passing through an era of coalition politics, the ruling party - BJP -  has managed to get a back to back majority on its own, yet the need for coalition cannot be wished away, more so when the regional parties are getting stronger by the day across states. The BJP and the NDA leaders will know this better post the recent elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Atal ji was master of coalition politics and had the unique distinction of successfully running a coalition government with diverse political ideology for full term. It is firmly hoped that his political strategy and coalition धर्म can serve as a beacon in the current era of bitterly divided acrimonious ridden polity. Atal ji is the first and only person, since Jawaharlal Nehru, to occupy the office of the Prime Minister of India through three Lok Sabha (1996, 1998 -2004)

Atal Ji, fondly remembered as the Poet Prime Minister of India, was blessed with brilliant oratory skills. A liberal at heart and secular in practice, Atal ji was often described by opposition parties and the critics of BJP as “the right man in the wrong party”.  His words could easily sway hearts and minds of people. It was this oratory skill that attracted innumerable people to his election rally heralding a new era for his party. BJP is now reaping the benefits of  stalwarts like Atal ji who laid the foundation for his party, which has now managed to have a back to back majority on its own strength in the Lok Sabha. I was one of those millions of Indians who were swayed by the oratory skills of Atal ji, as an young adult. I vividly remember the very first time we heard Atal ji speak during an election rally in Gulbarga (Kalburgi now). We had endured an inordinately long delay of more than 4 hours along with tens of thousand others to listen to him. That was the year 1977, a watershed year for the Indian democracy, which was grievously wounded during the Emergency. Our impatient wait turned out to be one of the most rewarding one when Atal ji took to stage. His poetic articulation of thoughts to critic his primary opponent - the indomitable Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then PM of India - was tempered by the good will of geniality contrary to what we now see, not just in the electioneering but also in the parliamentary debates. Atal ji speech was as mellifluous as his inimitable oratory skills.

The oratory skills of Atal ji was first noticed by the then prime minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru way back in 1952. After his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha as a first time Member of Parliament in 1957, in front of Pandit Nehru, the whole of India and the world took notice of Atal ji’s oratory skills and greatly admired him as a witty and humorous orator with spark. There is also an anecdote that Nehru ji had once introduced Atal ji  to a foreign dignitary as the ‘future prime minister of the country’. It took time (4 decades) for Nehru’s prophecy to come true and Vajpayee became the head of the state on three different occasions – the first time  for just  13 days, the second for 13 months and his third and last stint, which he interestingly commenced on the 13th May, 1999, lasted the full term of five years, thus becoming the first non-Congress leader to complete a full term in office of the Prime Minister in 2004.

Atal ji, notwithstanding his political wit, humour and niceties, was a seasoned politician and an outstanding parliamentarian. Contrary to what some may feel, Atal Ji was known for his cultural moderation, liberal views and political equanimity. Vajpayee ji will ever be remembered for his contribution in ushering in the coalition era and stitching disparate alliances to form a government. The coalition era and the alliances - be it NDA or the UPA - that we are witnessing today, largely vow their genesis to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was the master of coalition politics who steered his party to garner regional political party’s support that ultimately became the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Atal Ji deservingly became the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full five year term in office, a historic accomplishment considering the failed earlier attempts of the non congress governments. Atal ji’s never say quits attitude (फिरसुबह होंगी the film that he and Advani ji saw together post Atal Ji's defeat in the by-election), complemented with the efforts of his 65 years friend and fellow compatriot Advani ji, and hundreds of thousands of his party workers has perhaps paved the way for BJP and his protégé, Shri Narendra Modi ji, to form the BJP led Government with a majority of its own, just over a decade later. Vajpayee’s legacy and his contribution in ushering in the coalition era and proving that even disparate alliances could serve and survive the entire tenure of a government will continue to be celebrated.

Born into a middle class family in Gwalior on the 25th December 1924, Vajpayee’s first brush with politics came at an young age in 1942 when he joined the Quit India Movement against the British. After completing his education, he became a journalist and then joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a fore runner of the BJP, formed by its founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. From being political secretary to Mookerjee, to raising to the pinnacle of Indian democracy of becoming the PM of the largest democracy of the world, Atal Ji has endeared all of it in his long political career, during which he was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha and also served two terms in the Rajya Sabha. He led his party (BJP) to its first national electoral victory in 1996, but his government lasted just 13 days before he resigned as the PM of India in the face of a no-confidence motion. In his famous speech in the Lok Sabha, while facing this no confidence motion against his government, Atal ji made an extraordinary speech before announcing his decision to submit his resignation to the Honourable President. I distinctly remember those words which have been etched in my memory. I am loosely translating the gist of his concluding remarks “Governments will come and go, parties will come and go parties will be elected to power or made to sit in the opposition but then he said "Desh Rahna Chaiye, Is Desh ki Loktantra rahna chahiye”. What a profound statement which must reverberate and touch the hearts and minds of the political parties so that the disruption which we see in parliament and outside comes down. 

Atal ji was returned to power in 1998 to once again form the Government and ruled for another brief tenure of 13 months forging an alliance with 22 parties, mostly regional parties, with disparate local appeal. It was during this period that India successfully conducted the nuclear tests at Pokhran and he famously rephrased Lal Bahadur Shastri’s quote जय जवान जयकिसान with जय जवान जय किसान जय विज्ञान। Conducting the Nuclear test was one of the historic moment which needed an extraordinary courage and conviction for the political leadership. Narasimha Rao Government had considered this option but before it could succeed the news had leaked out to the US and Narasimha Rao came under pressure from US President and other international leaders and the plan had to be abruptly halted. Although Atal ji succeeded Narasimha Rao as PM in 1996, his government could last just for 13 days and between 1996 and 1998, two successive prime ministers, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral could not muster the courage to even think of any nuclear tests. After the 1998 mid-term elections, Vajpayee once again got an opportunity to form his government heading a coalition NDA government. The first thing he did was to order nuclear tests at Pokhran, which were conducted on May 11 and 13, 1998, a delicate task which the Indian scientists accomplished with great precision putting India in the elite global nuclear club. Dr Anil  Kakodkar, who was then the Director of BARC and part of the Pokhran 2 team, has written about this exercise and also the Indo - US nuclear deal that followed, in his recently released book. India’s successful conduct of the nuclear test was something which the Americans could never take it lying down. It was therefore no wonder that Atal ji’s government collapsed within a year of the Pokhran tests during India had to face severe economic sanctions by most western powers. But then riding on this success Atal ji was once again elected to form the Government in the 1999 elections and this time his government lasted for its full term (1999-2004) and Atal ji became the first non congress PM to serve a full term in independent India. Most unfortunately although the BJP fought the 2004 elections under Atal ji’s leadership, the shining India campaign could do no help and UPA came back to power and stitched an alliance to form the government under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh. 

There are many anecdotal reference to the wit and poetic skills of his articulations when it comes to facing tough questions particularly on his political ideologies of which he was very proud of. However, many veterans have said even during his times that Atal ji is a good man in a bad party. The genesis for this goes back to the writing of Sardar Kushwant Singh who in one of his books had made this statement. In one of his interview with Rajat Sharma in his Ap Ki Adalat  programme when confronted by Rajat Sharma with this question, Atal ji in his inimitable style says " I love Kushwant Singhs writings, but I do not agree with his opinion. He further gives the reason for his disagreement by stating " I am good I cant be in the wrong party. If I am in wrong party, I cant be good person."  Interestingly this very case came up once in the parliament. Atal ji in one of his speech in Parliament had said that he has heard voices in the house saying Vajpayee is good but not in the right party (BJP). Vajpayee responded, ‘SO, what is it that you intend to do with this good Vajpayee’ (“To is achhe Vajpayee se aapka kya karne ka irada hai). The whole house left the whole House reeling in laughter.

There is another interesting anecdotal incident of his wit. During his bus diplomacy visit to Lahore, before the Kargil conflict, in one of his interaction with the Pakistani journalists he was confronted with a Pakistani female journalist, who told him that you are still a Batchelor, so I am ready to marry you, but with one condition that you have to give Kashmir in the customary traditions of giving gifts to the newly wed bride for showing her face. Atal Ji, in his poetic style, replied in such a way that the journalist's was silenced. He said that I am ready to marry you and also agree to your demand but you have to give the whole of Pakistan to me in dowry. 

Atal ji went into oblivion suffering from medical ailments. He finally gave up his battle for life and breathed his last on Thursday 16th August 2018. It was a truly solemn and emotional moment througout the country, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former prime minister of India and BJP icon, finally passed away at 5.05 pm at AIIMS Delhi, surrounded by top national leaders from all parties across the country amid tight security. The funeral procession of Atal ji witnessed some of the most moving moments with waves of humanity joining the nation to mourn his death. 

लौट के आऊँगा, कूँच से क्यू डरूँ - Laut ke aaunga, kooch se kyun daroon - (I will come back, why should I fear leaving), one of Vajpayee’s  poem was selected by the party top brass to be put up on two large flex canvasses along with a smiling portrait of Atal ji on the gun carriage, which was carrying his body. The lines sum up the emotions that many who turned up from across the country felt for their leader. Every Christmas day, when the world celebrates the birthday of the merciful Jesus, in India, Atal ji will be remembered on this auspicious day with immense love, affection, respect and gratitude. 

I am tempted to quote a statement of Atal ji, which he made while addressing one of the Indian Science Congress, where he cryptically alluded to the circuitous and procedure intensive methods, which the scientists working in Government funded scientific institutions are expected to follow. He said ‘ Our scientists are becoming prisoners of procedures rather than achieves of excellence’. Can this issue be one aspect of Good Governance, which the Honourable Prime Minister, Modi ji, has announced to be commemorated on the birthday of Atal ji? Let us wait and see.

Once again wishing you all Merry Christmas. Long  live Atal ji, you will continue to live in the hearts and minds of people of India and I earnestly hope that our political class will emulate your ideals in the larger interest of India.