Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:10, 2 September 2006

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Template:Lang-hi, pronunciation: / əʈəl bɪhaːriː vaːdʒpeiː /) (born December 25, 1924) was the Prime Minister of India in 1996 and again from October 13, 1998 until May 19, 2004.

He is the senior-most leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu Nationalism in Indian politics. He has served as a member of the Parliament of India for nearly 50 years. He is a native Hindi speaker.

Early Life and Family

Vajpayee is a native of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and has been active in Indian politics throughout his adult life (as a member of parliament, he has often resided in Delhi). He holds the distinction of being a well-educated politician, having earned a masters degree in political science from the Victoria College (now Laxmibai College) and DAV College. He is well-known for being a poet, and has published a book of poetry. He is a bachelor, and has adopted daughters of Mrs & Mr. B. N. Kaul: Nandita (Nanni) and Namita (Gunu). Nandita is a doctor in US and Namita lives in Delhi. Nandita is married to Ashok Nanda, a software engineer and Namita is married to Ranjan Bhattacharya and has a daughter.

Early Political Career

He began his involvements in politics as a freedom-fighter during the Quit India Movement of 1942-1945, initially adhering to Communism, but shedding that for membership in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the foundation of Hindutva, or Hindu Nationalism and the Right-Wing in Indian politics. He became a student, close follower and aide to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the leader of the right-wing, pro-Hindu Bharatiya Jana Sangh. When Mookherjee went on a fast-unto-death in Kashmir in 1953, protesting the id card requirement and what he claimed was the 'inferior' treatment of Indian citizens visiting Kashmir, and the special treatment of Kashmir just because it was Muslim-majority, Vajpayee was close his side. Mookherjee's fast and protest ended the id requirement, and hastened the integration of Kashmir into the Indian Union. But Mookherjee died after weeks of weakness, illness and being confined in jail. These events were a watershed for the young Vajpayee. Taking the baton from Mookherjee, Vajpayee won his first parliamentary seat in 1957. Leading the BJS, he expanded its political appeal, organization and agenda. He soon became a respected voice in the opposition, one of reason and intelligence despite his youth. His broad appeal brought respect, recognition and acceptance in the mainstream of a rising nationalist cultural movement.

Vajpayee has served in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and represented the constituencies of Lucknow and Gwalior.

He published a few volumes of poetry in Hindi. More recently his poems were set to music and released as an album.

• A few poems by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Devnagari Script

The Janata Phase

While the Bharatiya Jana Sangh had strong constituencies of support, it failed to dislodge the Indian National Congress. Indira Gandhi's winning vast majorities in 1969 and 1971 only diminished other political parties.

In 1974 when PM Gandhi imposed a state of Emergency, the RSS and BJS joined a wide-array of parties in opposing the suspension of elections and civil liberties. Vajpayee was briefly jailed during the Indian Emergency.

When Indira Gandhi called elections in 1977, the BJS joined the Janata coalition wholeheartedly, a vast collage of regional groups, socialist, communist and right-wing forces. Janata swept the polls and formed the next government. Under Prime Minister Morarji Desai, Vajpayee took office as the Minister for External Affairs.

In a tenure lasting just 2 years, Vajpayee achieved major milestones. He went on a historic visit to China in 1979, normalizing relations with that Asian giant for the first time since the 1962 war. He also visited Pakistan and initiated normal dialogue and trade relations that were frozen since the 1971 War and political instability in both countries. This was particularly surprising for a man perceived as a hard-right Hindu nationalist at the time. Minister Vajpayee represented the nation at the International Disarmament Conference, where he defended the national nuclear program (India had become the 6th nuclear power in the world with one underground nuclear test in Pokhran in 1974), the centerpiece of national security in the Cold War world, especially as China was a nuclear power. Although he resigned in 1979 when the Government politically attacked the RSS, he had established his credentials as an experienced statesman and respectable political leader.

The Rise of the BJP

Template:Hindu politics Vajpayee resigned from government with Morarji Desai's resignation as Prime Minister, and the Janata dissolved soon after. The BJS was left exhausted by the internecine wars of Janata, having devoted its political organization to it almost entirely.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with many BJS and RSS colleagues, especially his long-time and close friend Lal Krishna Advani, formed the Bharatiya Janata Party, the new home of Hindutva, right-wing social and economic ideas and nationalism. Vajpayee became its founding President. The BJP initially attacked the Congress govt. from all sides, and while strongly opposing the Sikh militancy that was rising in the state of Punjab, it blamed Indira Gandhi for divisive and corrupt politics that fostered the militancy at national expense.

Although supporting Operation Bluestar, the BJP strongly protested the violence against Sikhs in Delhi that broke out in 1984 following the murder of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Although it won only 2 seats in the 1984 elections owing to a nationwide sympathy vote for Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress Party (a historic landslide for them) after his mother's murder, the BJP had established itself in the mainstream of politics, and soon began expanding its organization to young, second and third generation Indians in widespread parts of the country. And while Vajpayee remained center stage either as party President or Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, more and more young, hard line Hindu nationalists began to rise within the party and define its politics.

The BJP became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement, led by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS, seeking to build a temple dedicated to the Lord Rama, incarnation of the Supreme Lord Vishnu and of the Ramayana epic, at the site of a mosque in the city of Ayodhya. Hindu activists believed this site to be the birthplace of the Lord, one of the most sacred sites in Hinduism.

On December 6, 1992, hundreds of VHP and BJP activists broke down an organized protest into a frenzy of attacking the mosque structure. By the end of the day, the mosque had crumbled to pieces, and over the following weeks, waves of violence erupted between Hindus and Muslims in different parts of the country, killing over 10,000 people. The VHP was banned, and many BJP leaders including Lal Krishna Advani were arrested briefly for provoking the destruction. Although widely condemned by many across the country for playing politics with sensitive issues, the BJP won the loyalty and support of millions of conservative Hindus, as well as national prominence.

Prime Minister of India, Twice

Political energy and expansion for the BJP made it the single-largest political party in the Lok Sabha elected in 1996. Mired down by corruption scandals, the Congress was at a historic low, and a vast medley of regional parties and break-off factions dominated the hung Parliament. Asked to form the Government, A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister, but the BJP failed to gather enough support from other parties to make a majority. Vajpayee was forced to resign after just 13 days, when it was clear there could be no majority. After a third-party coalition ruled between 1996 and 1998, the terribly divided Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections again put the BJP on the front. This time, a cohesive bloc of political parties lined up with it to form the National Democratic Alliance, and A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister, and the NDA proved its 286 vote majority in a narrow vote of confidence.

His premiership began at a decisive phase of national life and history: the Congress Party, dominant over 40 years, appeared irrepairably damaged, and fractious regional parties seemed to threaten the very stability of the nation by continually fracturing government work.

A.B. Vajpayee faced several crises while heading a fractious coalition. Tamil Nadu's AIADMK party continually threatened, on one point or the other, to withdraw support from the coalition, exhausting the Government before it could take off. In a situation comic and tragic as well, national leaders had to fly down from Delhi to Chennai to pacify the AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha.

Pokhran, Lahore and Kargil

In May 1998, India conducted 5 surprise underground nuclear weapon tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan. The 5 tests shocked and surprised the world. Two weeks later, Pakistan responded with its own nuclear testing, making it the World's newest nuclear weapons power.

It is widely speculated that the tests were planned in 1995, but Vajpayee takes credit for decisively acting on such an important issue. The first and only nuclear test India undertook was in 1974, and its nuclear ability, potential and defensive systems were unproven and undeveloped since. But Pakistan's aggressively progressing nuclear program and China's atomic and ballistic missile dominance made it essential for India to rejuvenate, modernize, expand and prepare.

The five tests took the world completely by surprise showing the skill of counter-intelligence. Vajpayee decided to brave the worst criticism and sanctions. Although nations like Russia and France endorsed India's right to defensive nuclear power, the USA, Canada, Japan, the UK and the European Union imposed sanctions on the selling of military equipment and high-tech scientific information, resources and technology to both India and Pakistan.

Although introducing the nuclear element in South Asia, Vajpayee's move solidified national defenses, denying Pakistan and China a major advantage. His popularity and the BJP's prestige rose in response, even though the nation suffered immense criticism and a steady decline in foreign investment and trade. Vajpayee also advanced the ballistic missiles programme and bolstered defence modernization and spending.

Vajpayee also introduced many important economic and infrastructural reforms, encouraging the private sector, eradicating waste and restrictions and encouraging foreign investment, research and development and privatization of incompetent government entities. Soon in late 1998 and early 1999, Vajpayee began pushing for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. By visiting Lahore in with the historic inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Vajpayee initiated a historic new peace process that he hoped would permanently resolve the Kashmir dispute and other territorial/nuclear/strategic conflicts with Pakistan. The Lahore Declaration espoused a commitment to dialogue, expanded trade relations and a goal of denuclearized South Asia, and mutual friendship. This eased much of the pressure created by the 1998 N-tests, not only between the two heavily militarized nations, but in South Asia and the world, and gave hope to hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis that peace could still defeat the odds.

In May 1999 (before the Kargil War), the AIADMK finally pulled the plug on the NDA, and the Vajpayee administration was reduced to a caretaker status pending fresh elections in October. Not this, however, but another cataclysmic event, arguably the biggest challenge of Vajpayee's administration shattered this hope of a new era, when just three months later, it was revealed that thousands of terrorists and Pakistani soldiers, (albeit un-uniformed, many carried official ids and Pakistan Army custom weaponry) had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley, capturing control of border hilltops, unmanned border posts and spreading out fast. The action was centric to the town of Kargil, but also around the Batalik and Akhnoor sectors, including firing exchanges at the Siachen Glacier.

Immediately major Army units were rushed into Kashmir. Operation Vijay, launched and fought throughout June, saw the Indian military fighting not only thousands of terorrists and soldiers amidst heavy artillery shelling, but extremely cold weather, snow and treacherous terrain at the highest altitude in the world. Over 500 soldiers died, and it is estimated around 600 Pakistani militants and soldiers died as well, but the hills and border posts were systematically liberated. Pakistan's army shot down two Air Force jets. The mutilation of the body of pilot Ajay Ahuja inflamed public opinion.

After both the United States and China refused to condone the incursion or threaten India to stop its military operations, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked the militants to stop and withdraw to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan was internationally exposed for this misadventure.

Third term: into the 21st century

On October 13, 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharaff, chief of Pakistan's army and the chief planner of the Kargil invasion, seized power from the civilian government. Arresting deposed PM Nawaz Sharif, he took power as the Chief Executive of Pakistan. This was the third military coup in the history of Pakistan.

On the same day, Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the third time took oath as Prime Minister of India. The BJP-led NDA had won as many as 303 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha, a comfortable, stable majority, without the AIADMK. When an Indian Airlines flight, IC 814 from Nepal was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists and flown via Pakistan to Taliban ruled Afghanistan in December 1999, another major national crisis propped up. The media and the relatives of the hijacked passengers built up tremendous pressure on the government to give in to the hijackers' demand to release certain Kashmiri terrorists, including Maulana Masood Azhar, a particularly important Kashmiri terrorist, from prison. The government ultimately caved in and Jaswant Singh, the Indian External Affairs minister, flew with the terrorists to Afghanistan where the hijacked airliner had sought refuge and exchanged them for the passengers. No satisfactory explanation was ever given by the Indian government for the need of the External Affairs minister to personally escort the terrorists, which act, in the eyes of the Indian common man, only added to the ignominy of India's situation. This crisis also worsened the relationship between India and Pakistan, as the hijacked plane was allowed to re-fuel in Lahore, and all the hijackers save one were Pakistanis.

In March 2000, however, the Vajpayee Government could boast a major political score when Bill Clinton, President of the United States made the only second-ever visit by an American President to India. Happening barely 2 years after the Pokhran tests, and 1 year after the Kargil invasion and the coup in Pakistan, this signaled a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, by warming relations for the 21st century and leaving old-time Cold War frictions and suspicions. Both the PM and the President talked strategic issues, but the chief achievement was a major expansion in trade and economic ties, as well as a major vision shift for the U.S., trading a military-controlled Pakistan for a new ally in the World's largest democracy. The first-ever BJP government was under constant pressure from its ideological mentor, the RSS, and the hardcore VHP to enact the Hindutva agenda. But owing to its dependence on coalition support, it was impossible for the BJP to push items like building the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya, repealing Article 356 and a uniform civil code for all people irrespective of religion.

The BJP was accused of saffronising (Saffron is the color of the flag of the RSS, symbol of the Hindu cultural movement) the official state education curriculum and apparatus. Several Christian missionaries were murdered by extreme Hindu activists in 1999 for bringing Hindus to convert. His number two Home Minister L.K. Advani and Education Minister Murli Manohar Joshi were charge sheeted in the 1992 Babri Mosque demolition case for inciting the destructive mob of activists, bringing controversy, discredit and confusion to government. The RSS also routinely criticized the government for free-market policies which introduced foreign goods and competition at the expense of home industries and products.

Vajpayee and his Government earned the ire of many unionized workers groups and government workers by their aggressive campaign to privatize government corporations and entities. Vajpayee strongly pushed pro-business, free market reforms to reinvigorate India's economic transformation and expansion, started by former PM Narasimha Rao and stalled after 1996 by weak governments and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Increased competitiveness, extra funding and support for the information technology and high-tech industries, improvements in infastructure, deregulation of trade, investments and corporate laws, all increased foreign capital investment and set in motion an economic expansion that took the country into the 21st century.

However, these couple of years of important reform produced exhausting battles and confusion to the direction of government. Vajpayee's weakening health also remained a subject of discussion, and he underwent a major knee-replacement surgery at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai to relieve great pressure on his legs. Cabinet portfolios were created and shuffled every six months to pacify restless coalition partners.

In 2000, the Tehelka group released incriminating videos of the BJP President Bangaru Laxman and senior Army officers and NDA members accepting bribes from journalists posing as agents and businessmen. While no connection ever touched Vajpayee's image or credibility, the Defence Minister George Fernandes was forced to resign by intense criticism over this scandal, and another involving the botched supplies of coffins for the soldiers killed in Kargil, and the fact that an inquiry commission saw that the Government could have prevented the invasion. Such flaring developments, and an economy giving mixed signals over controversial reforms reduced the Vajpayee administration's popularity and undermined its future.

Vajpayee again broke the ice in a grand fashion by inviting Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit and peace talks. His second-major attempt to move beyond the stalemate tensions involved inviting the very man who had planned the Kargil invasions, but accepting him as the inevitable President of Pakistan, Vajpayee chose to move forward. But after three days of much fanfare, which included Musharaff visiting his birthplace in Delhi, the summit failed to budge an inch. Musharaff used the summit to win acceptance and legitimacy from his European and American critics, change his image from a reactionary war-monger dictator to a legitimate chief of state with a vision for the future. But none of this idealism made way to the table, as during the closed door discussions President Musharaff declined to leave the core issue of Kashmir. Vajpayee held the line, and the breakthrough never materialized.

On December 13, 2001, a group of masked, armed men with fake IDs stormed the Parliament building in Delhi. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men, who were later proven to be Pakistanis. Coming just three months after the September 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States, this fresh escalation instantly enraged the nation. Although the Government of Pakistan officially condemned the attack, accumulating intelligence reports pointed the finger at a major conspiracy rooted in Pakistan. Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered a mobilization of India's military services, and as many as 500,000 servicemen amassed along the international boundary running through Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kashmir, and Pakistan responded with the same. Vicious terrorist attacks and an aggressive anti-terrorist campaign froze day-to-day life in Kashmir, and foreigners flocked out of both India and Pakistan, fearing a possible war and nuclear exchange. For as long as 2 years, both nations remained perilously close to a terrible war.

Vajpayee's administration introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance soon after the attacks, allowing police and security forces extraordinary powers to detain and question suspects for indefinite periods, and expanding government authority over the freedom of speech, assembly and other fundamental liberties in the interest of public safety and national security. Hotly opposed by the Congress Party and all non-NDA parties, Vajpayee nevertheless pressed on by invoking for the first time, a Joint Session of Parliament, so that the upper house, where non-NDA parties held a majority, would not stall the bill. A basic majority proclaimed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, or POTA. Human rights activists, minority rights groups, the Congress Party and the Left strongly attacked it as a rash, discriminatory, totalitarian law. The use of POTA by some state governments to jail political opponents was seen as the big failing of the law, and many Muslims saw the law give police permission to target and profile Muslims. Under the law, several radical Islamic organizations that preached the conversion of Hindus and an Islamic state in India were banned and its leaders and members arrested.

But the biggest political disaster hit between December 2001 and March 2002: the VHP held the Government hostage in a major standoff in Ayodhya over the Ram temple. At the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the mosque, the VHP wanted to perform a sheela daan, or a ceremony laying the foundation stone of the cherished temple at the disputed site. Tens of thousands of VHP activists amassed and threatened to overrun the site and forcibly build the temple. A grave threat of not only communal violence, but an outright breakdown of law and order owing to the defiance of the Government by a religious organization hung over the nation. India's very secular foundations were shaken and the BJP fumbled to respond to and control its hardcore ally. Agreeing to a timely compromise, the ceremony was performed but off the controversial site, the offering accepted by a local government official. The standoff eased, and it is widely speculated that the Vajpayee administration threatened the VHP with grave consequences, including a permanent ban.

The result was, that the VHP could not carry out its most fundamental promise before the very eyes of millions. Just a week following the standoff, a train carriage carrying hundreds of VHP activists returning from Ayodhya was attacked by a Muslim mob in Godhra, Gujaratwho set fire to the bogey, killing 59 activists. The result was the first and most terrible episode of communal violence in the 21st century in India. See the 2002 Gujarat violence for more specific information.

The visuals of charred remains set off frenzied Hindu mobs in the state of Gujarat, who attacked and killed over 1,000 Muslims. In all, over 2,000 people were killed and displaced; roughly one-third of the people killed were Hindus. The state was shut down for over two months and refugee camps arose outside cities. The state government was led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a BJP leader. He was widely accused for the unwillingness of police to stop the mobs. The police was absent from streets, in the wrong places at the wrong times, not responding to help calls and official complaints, and accused of on occasion aiding the mobs in their attacks and lootings. The chaotic situation peaked when a marauding mob paraded right outside the Gujarat police chief's offices. Modi and senior VHP leaders simply defended the Hindu mobs as the "natural response" to the Godhra attacks. Many BJP lawmakers, ministers and VHP activists were accused of organizing mobs themselves.

The Union Government appointed K.P.S. Gill, an ex-Punjab police chief to take over the reins of law enforcement, and sent in the Army to restore order. As Gujarat limped back to peace, the BJP government faced a major crisis. Vociferous assaults began, calling for Modi's resignation and even arrest, but the RSS and VHP stood strongly behind him, calling him a hero. In this confusion came Vajpayee's weakest moment: while he personally visited the state and publicly criticized the Chief Minister for not doing his moral duty to protect the people, he made a controversial speech at a national party convention in Goa in June, allegedly attacking Muslims for having tolerated the Godhra attackers, and not doing enough to counter Islamic terrorism entering the country. Several statements questioning the patriotism of Muslims were said to have been made by him, although Vajpayee strongly denies any such utterance. The result was his being attacked now by his political opposition, as well as raising suspicion from Hindu nationalists and the Muslim communities of the nation. In a Cabinet reshuffle, his more hardline associate Lal Krishna Advani was designated Deputy Prime Minister of India, and increased power in the party and the Cabinet, and more credibility with the RSS and the conservative Hindu base. In September 2002, Narendra Modi led the BJP to a major victory, and thus vindication through the state assembly elections. Having conducted a hard-right, hard-nosed campaign, Modi gave fresh energy, force and voice to hardline Hindus in the BJP's organization and political destiny. His defiant victory was seen standing right against the moral criticism handed down by the Prime Minister.

But late 2002 and 2003 were good years for Vajpayee and the nation. Quietly side-stepping Modi and the Gujarat issues, the Government pushed economic reforms, and the country's GDP growth accelerated at record levels, exceeding 6-7%. Increasing foreign investment, modernization of public and industrial infrastructure, the creation of jobs, a rising high-tech and IT industry and urban modernization and expansion gave the country much needed and well-earned positive publicity in the world. Good crop harvests and strong industrial expansion increased the confidence of the Indian people. The Government reformed the tax system, increased the pace of reforms and pro-business initiatives, major irrigation and housing schemes and so on. The political energies of the BJP shifted to the rising urban middle-class and young people, who were positive and enthusiastic about the major economic expansion and future of the country.

In August 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stunned the nation by announcing before Parliament his "absolute last" effort to achieve peace with Pakistan. Although the diplomatic process never truly set-off immediately, visits were exchanged by high-level officials and the military stand-off ended. The Pakistani President and Pakistani politicians, civil and religious leaders hailed this initiative as did the leaders of America, Europe and much of the world.

In November-December 2003, the BJP won three major state elections, fought mainly on development issues, without ideological campaigns. A major public relations campaign was launched to reach out to Muslims and stop the 2002 controversies from haunting the party's future. But the attention of the media and of millions now moved from Vajpayee to his more possible successor, L.K. Advani, although the question was never directly raised or contested in any way. Vajpayee's age, failing health and diminished physical and mental vigor were obvious factors in such speculations. Advani assumed greater responsibilities in the party, and although no perceivable conflict has been known to arise between the longtime friends and political colleagues, several embarrassing statements were made. Once Vajpayee said "Advani would lead the BJP in the elections," prompting Advani to clarify that he would merely lead the election campaign, not the party. And then the BJP President Venkiah Naidu used mythological references to depict Vajpayee as a Vikas Purush, (Man of Progress), comparing him toBhishma Pitamah of the Mahabharata epic, a man respected by all political outfits and hundreds of millions of people. Advani was called the "Loh Purush" (Iron Man), a more potent reference suggestive of future developments.

As the BJP prepared for General Elections in 2004, either early or late, Vajpayee was still the choice of the BJP, and crucially of the wider NDA for the Prime Minister's job.

Life and Legacy, Praise and Criticism, after Elections 2004

A.B. Vajpayee's BJP and the National Democratic Alliance were expected to pick up more seats and score a major victory in the 2004 elections. The Parliament was dissolved earlier than necessary in order to capitalize on the national economic boom and improved security and cultural atmosphere.

A vigorous BJP campaign did its best to highlight the major progress achieved, and win the votes of the traditionally averse Muslims for the BJP candidates. Controversial and ideological issues were side-stepped in favor of bread-butter economic issues. But by the time the first three phases of voting were over, it was clear that the BJP was losing too many important seats to retain a formidable position in Parliament. The BJP and its flagship coalition, the NDA, lost almost half their seats in parliamentane several prominent cabinet ministers were defeated, and regional, socialist and Communist parties quickly grouped round the resurgent Indian National Congress to form a left-of-center United Progressive Alliance, which formed the government under Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The fact that Vajpayee attended the swearing-in of the new government despite his party's decision to boycott them symbolized the growing acrimony to come. Many criticized Vajpayee for sacrificing core issues like Hindutva and the Ram Temple, and going overboard to woo Muslims (the BJP lost the Muslim vote by a heavy margin), and even moving too early to elections. The pro-Vajpayee activists accused Narendra Modi's controversial regime in Gujarat and the obstructiveness of the Hindu hard-right VHP and RSS for the defeat. A possible factor behind the defeat was the widespread disenchantment amongst hundreds of millions of farmers, labourers and workers who were on the bottom-rung of society, mired in poverty, illiteracy and debt, and yet to cash in any benefit from the boom. While the BJP pandered to the rising middle-class of the cities, India's villages and small towns rallied behind pro-poor, socialistic political forces like the Congress.

A.B. Vajpayee expressed his anger and frustration with repeated signals of resignation and retirement. But at a high-level party meeting, he decided to give up the position of the Leader of the Opposition to his long-time friend, second-in-command and successor, Lal Krishna Advani, who also became BJP President. Always a figure of consensus, Vajpayee became Chairman of the National Democratic Alliance. It is a widespread feeling with critics, journalists and many people that Vajpayee's time at the pinnacle of national politics and the BJP, and his position as the obvious BJP choice for Prime Minister is steadily fading. Vajpayee himself is taking more backseat roles and responsibilities, and his health ailments limit his ability to deal with the premier position in national life.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 6 years at the Prime Minister's Office led to a major transformation and expansion of the national economy. In the 1999 Kargil War, his leadership defended the country's integrity and security, while his broad-minded statesmanship in 1999, 2001 and 2004 kept the country's safety, peace and future on the high-course despite many discouraging events, failures and threats. During his 50 years as Member of Parliament, Vajpayee has established impeccable and virtually infallible credentials as a man of principle, integrity and commitment in the world of Indian politics, and as a leading visionary and statesman of the world.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee sowed the seeds and rose with the growing nationalist movement in Indian politics. For four decades he was the flag-bearer, icon and undisputed leader of the Hindu nationalist political movement, working steadily through years of defeat and desolation to foster a major national movement, broad support amongst hundreds of millions and the leadership of the World's largest democracy and most diverse nation.

Vajpayee's government is criticized over its ignorance of the issues and concerns of India's poor millions, over the famous corruption scandals, and the episodes of communal violence and rise of both Hindu and Muslim radicalism in politics. While praised for his leadership during the Kargil War and for his peace efforts with Pakistan, the Vajpayee administration is blamed for not being able to detect and prevent two serious terrorist attacks on the country, and an incursion into Indian sovereign territory.

Vajpayee led a diverse, fractious coalition to complete a full five-year term in office, be the guiding light over a collage of political chaos. He gave stability and unity when the country was the least united, and security when the country was most susceptible. This included not only the security of the borders from invasion, but of the security of 100 million families with the provision of jobs and education in a solid, hopeful economic future, and the strategic national future security.

Despite the rejection of his party in 2004, Vajpayee has retained a position of esteem and respect amongst common people seldom offered to politicians in India.

In December of 2005, Vajpayee announced his retirement, declaring that he would not participate in the next general election. At a rally in the western city of Mumbai, Vajpayee said "I will not participate in any electoral politics. There are many other leaders to take forward the work which I and other senior leaders have been doing. In a now famous statement at the BJP's silver Jubilee rally at Mumbai's historic Shivaji Park, Vajpayee announced that "from now onwards, Lal Krishna Advani and Pramod Mahajan (a BJP leader from Maharashtra, shot fatally by his own brother.) would be the Ram-Laxman (the two godly brothers much revered and worshipped by Hindus) of the BJP."

References

• J.N. Dixit India and Pakistan in War and Peace (2002-03)
• Jonah Blank Arrow of the Blue Skinned God

External links

• BJP website
• Govt. of India Website
• Read few poems of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Hindi Script

v t e Prime Minister of India
List By previous experience
Prime ministers	Jawaharlal Nehru Lal Bahadur Shastri Premiership Indira Gandhi Morarji Desai Premiership Charan Singh Rajiv Gandhi V. P. Singh Premiership Chandra Shekhar P. V. Narasimha Rao Atal Bihari Vajpayee Premiership H. D. Deve Gowda Inder Kumar Gujral Manmohan Singh Narendra Modi (Incumbent) Premiership
Acting	Gulzarilal Nanda
Things named after prime ministers Nehru Indira Rajiv Office Residence International trips Nehru Indira Vajpayee Modi Spouses Children Nicknames Category

See also

Template:Sangh

• 1924 births
• Bharatiya Janata Party leaders
• Indian politicians
• Living people
• Prime Ministers of India
• People from Madhya Pradesh
• People from Uttar Pradesh
• Hindu politicians