There was a playground in my home town which was named as
Atal Bihari apparently Vajpayee once came to Khandwa for a political rally and
stage was prepared for him on the playground, which was later used as stadium
by local cricket teams some journalist who came to Khandwa for covering his political
rally where friends with my dad they came to our home tea and snack , I never
liked political discussions I was the one who served all guests tea and coffee
, unwilling I was exposed to high intellectual discussions in my dad’s study sub
consciously I was absorbing , one journalist compliant was that it’s very
difficult to shoot his interviews because of the minutes long pauses he takes
in between , first introduction to atal bihari was that playground over a
medical college is been build up now and next one was the riot which happened
in kundleshwar ward Khandwa , we were living in joint family and had Badha
(Traditional maharastrian home) I was kid that time and witnessed some muslims
shops been attacked and been burned down in our locality , I was to young and
naïve to understand and as a kid without my fathers knowledge attended RSS
shakas for which later I was reprimanded by my father and stopped attending
them.
We moved to another place post that and then internet came
into my life, that’s was year 1995 I remember watching his infamous video where
he was indulged in demagoguery his infamous speech where from stage he said
“सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने हमें, अधिकार दिया है कि हम कार सेवा करेंगे. रोकने का तो सवाल ही नहीं. कार सेवा करके सुप्रीम कोर्ट के किसी आदेश की अवेहलना नहीं होगी. कार सेवा करके सुप्रीम कोर्ट का सम्मान किया जाएगा. खुदाई बाद वहां जो नुकीले पत्थर निकले, उनपर तो कोई नहीं बैठ सकता, तो जमीन को समतल करना पड़ेगा. बैठने लायक बनाना पड़ेगा. यज्ञ का आयोजन होगा. मैं नहीं कल वहां क्या होगा...'”
This speech was given hours before babri demolition, I could
connect the dots between his speech and riots happened in my area since then I
got apprehensive towards religious politics.
You tube and internet introduced his encounter with larger
than life Nehrus aura in parliament In 1957, he was elected as a member of the 2nd Lok Sabha from
Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh. It was here that he went toe-to-toe with veterans
of the Congress, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Vajpayee also
caught Nehru’s eye who saw great potential in the young Parliamentarian.
Once
Nehru is said to have introduced Vajpayee to the British Prime Minister and
said, “He (Atal) is a young leader of the opposition who is always criticising
me, but I see in him a great future.” To another foreign dignitary, Nehru
described Vajpayee as “India’s blooming young Parliamentarian”.
Nehru
is said to have taken a keen interest in Vajpayee, who was unsparing in his
criticism of the government and yet, respected the high office of the Prime
Minister which Nehru occupied. Once, while taking a dig at Nehru, Vajpayee
said, “I know that Pandit Ji practices shirshasana and is welcome to continue
doing so, but this does not mean that he should look at issues with an inverted
vision.”
In
1970, during a particularly heated debate, Indira Gandhi accused the Jana Sangh
of being anti-Muslim and claimed she could deal with an outfit like the Jana
Sangh in five minutes. In his reply, Vajpayee not only took a dig at the PM but
also reminded her of how her father dealt with disagreements. “The PM says she
can deal with the Jana Sangh in five minutes. Can any democratic PM speak like
this? I say in five minutes you cannot even deal with your own hair, how can
you deal with us? When Nehru Ji was angry, he would at least make a good
speech!”
In
1984, before sending the Army to flush out militants from the Golden Temple,
Indira Gandhi is said to have sought his advice. Vajpayee advised her not to
take that course and think of an alternative but she went ahead with Operation
Blue Star anyway. However, this demonstrates the faith the PM had in the
veteran Parliamentarian.
Vajpayee would not shy away from praising other Congress leaders either. One of
his friends across the aisle was Pranab Mukherjee. The two were often seen
taking long walks around Parliament, discussing the state of affairs in the
nation.
Once during the NDA’s time in power, Pranab Mukherjee and Murli Manohar Joshi
were locked in an intense debate on Hindu scriptures, during which Mukherjee
quoted Sanskrit shlokas in Parliament. According to Kingshuk Nag’s book ‘Atal
Bihari Vajpayee: A man for all seasons’, Vajpayee, now the Prime Minister,
stood up and said to Mukherjee, “I warned Joshi not to take pangas with you on
religious matters. He does not know you have deep knowledge of the scriptures.”
Then came the year 1999 color tvs and cable channels took
over our drawing rooms , and kandhar hijack happened and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted
to begin the new millennium on a clean slate india succumbed to the demands of
Islamic terrorists latter it was identified that india lost golden opportunity
of making that aircraft land in amritsar but we let that opportunity let
slipped away with India significantly increased its diplomatic costs and
political risks. The hostage crisis brought out Indian diplomacy in poor light,
with Jaswant Singh focusing more on media spin rather than on longer-term
ramifications. Before he left for Kandahar, he publicly declared that the
government strategy was both to protect the passengers and crew on board the
hijacked jetliner and protect national interests. After he delivered the
terrorists, his public comments emphasised only the first goal and were
tellingly silent on the second.
That was failure and then 1999 kargil happened,
I was watching barkha dutt covering on TV india was sleeping when terrosist
backed by Pakistani army made permanent settlement on hills under India’s
boundary Atal bihari was a very well intentioned man he remember him holding
hands of navab sharif in Lahore after historic bus service between Amritsar and
Lahore was inaugurated , kargil happened just after that (Details are there in
Mushraffs biography “Line of Fire”) , india suffered because of its negligence
we let intruders build permanent settlement , because of sluggishness and
delayed response to understand what actually happened india let Pakistan successfully captured 140 position of utmost strategies
importance without a bullet fired and literally half of the Kashmir was at
their mercy(yeah the positions were so important)
India never knew about it
until a Shepherd(from the caste to which rubia who was rapped belonged to )
told them that some foreigners are killing them with artilleries and as we all
know who can be the foreigners and when a search team was sent to know whether
he was saying right or not they killed all other than one and captured and
brutally tortured him and as they were not Pakistanis so no GENEVA CONSTITUTION
yeah it was beyond believable horrendous torcher and they even mutilated the
dead bodies of soldiers n sent them back(this is d reson which created
anti-pakistan sentiment in Indians n led BJP won first time ever as Pakistanis
didn't fight like a man n back stabbed and did horrendous torture to our
people).But this also become a blessing for us as our whole military got
enraged and we won a nearly impossible battle(yep all western forces considered
it nearly impossible as at that time we had nothing to fly above 5000 ft n it
was 7000+ N it was impossible without air force).
I loved atal bihari for
his love of literature and cultural understanding he even called up dilip kumar
who has worked for indo pak peace extensively and is respected and loved in both india and Pakistan to act
as a meditator between india and Pakistan . India lost her children’s in the
battle likes of vikram batra , pandey and nair to name a few , I happened to be
in war memorial at Drass last year , we cant even imagine what these chaps go
through and soldier is ready to fight just on order of higher authority I am
anti war and sluggishness of government should be blamed for precious deaths of
soldiers . Atal biharis government though well intentioned didn’t do justice to
the life’s of our soldiers , and then in
2001 parliament attacked happened perpetrated by same terrorist masod azhar ‘s
organization jaish-e-mohammad he was exchanged for passenger’s of kandhar
flight . india paid heavily
Constable Kamlesh Kumari of
the Central Reserve Police Force was the
first to spot the terrorists and was shot by them as she raised the alarm. She
died on the spot. One gunman's suicide vest exploded when he was shot dead; the other four gunmen were
also killed. Five policemen, a Parliament security guard, and a gardener were
killed and 18 others were injured.The ministers and MPs escaped unhurt. The
total number of deaths was 14 and at least 22 people were injured in the
attack. Meanwhile atal biharis
government carried out Pokhran nuclear test where A.P.J abdul kalam made
significant contribution , atal bihari efficiently handled pressure to sign India
becoming party of
the CTBT and NPT and even
invited Bill Clinton then president to indian parliament it was act ego
massaging Americas ego.
No doubt Vajpayee had tough condition to handle and he sometimes
won and sometimes lost but he was always graceful, then a incident for which I
respect atal bihari the most riots broke in Gujrat and hundreds of Muslims were
butchered on the street of Gujrat.
It was On 27 February 2002, a
group of people from a Muslim populated area of Godhra had set fire to a few
bogies of a train — the Sabarmati Express — which carried pilgrims from
Ayodhya, a town considered holy by the Hindus. Massive riots broke out, mostly
targeting Muslims, for nearly a week.
All the killing and pillaging in
Gujarat had given Vajpayee a bad name, the more so because Gujarat had a BJP
government in place, with a chief minister who had reportedly not risen enough
to the occasion to rein in the violence. Vajpayee was blamed for his failure as
PM to get rid of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who reportedly shouted back at a
Muslim leader on the phone for seeking help after a mob had gathered outside
his house. Some hours later, the Muslim leader was lynched, and Modi is alleged
to have asked the police forces to let the violence continue. At that moment,
Modi seemed to be the villain who brought a lot of shame to the central
government.
Modi had also
dared to publicly snub Vajpayee at a press conference where he was seated
alongside the prime minister. The reporter wanted to know Vajpayee’s message
for the chief minister in the wake of the riots. In controlled displeasure,
Vajpayee stated that Modi should ‘follow his Rajdharma’. He explained that
Rajdharma was a meaningful term, and for somebody in a position of power, it
meant not discriminating among the higher and lower classes of society or
people of any religion. In a bid to stop Vajpayee from saying something
scathing about him, Modi turned towards Vajpayee, tried to catch his eye and
said with a strong note of threatening defiance, ‘Hum
bhi wahi kar rahe hain, sahib (That is what we are also doing,
sir).’ Vajpayee immediately changed tack and said, ‘I am sure Narendrabhai is
also doing the same.’
Three days before his foreign
tour in April, when Vajpayee visited the Shah Alam camp in Ahmedabad, which
housed 9,000 Muslims displaced by the riots, he was deeply touched when a woman
told him that he alone could save them from the hell that their lives had
become. Now, on the flight to Singapore, Vajpayee was worried he would expose
himself to more humiliation while outside the country. His grouse was: why am I
being paraded abroad at such a time?
Shourie suggested that the PM
speak to Advani, who had by now become the deputy prime minister, about the
possibilities of salvaging the situation — it could even mean replacing Modi.
But even after the ‘pep talk’ with Shourie, Vajpayee appeared cheerless. He
told Shourie that he would speak to Advani about it.
They reached Singapore; there
were no meetings scheduled for the first day. The next day there were several
engagements, including ceremonial visits to dignitaries, which included the
former ruler Lee Kuan Yew. The Gujarat issue came up in an interview on the
third and final day of their stay in Singapore. The journalist who interviewed
Vajpayee first stated that Singaporeans were wary of communal disturbances,
clearly indicating that he was referring to the recent riots in Gujarat, under
the BJP rule.
Then he shot off his question:
‘And in India such disturbances have happened not once, but several times. In
this regard what can Singapore learn from India’s experience and what can you
share?’
Vajpayee paused and rubbed his
forehead... before answering, betraying a level of discomfiture in answering
questions related to the Gujarat riots. Then, weighing his words, he said,
‘Whatever happened in India was very unfortunate. The riots have been brought
under control. If at the Godhra station, the passengers of the Sabarmati
Express had not been burnt alive, then perhaps the Gujarat tragedy could have
been averted. It is clear there was some conspiracy behind this incident. It is
also a matter of concern that there was no prior intelligence available on this
conspiracy. Alertness is essential in a democracy. We have been cautious. And
if one does not ignore even small incidents like one used to in the past, then
one will certainly be successful in fighting terrorism.’ Clearly, he was on the
defensive, and the issue worried him no end.
Eight months earlier, in late
September 2001, amid massive political infighting, it was decided that Modi
would replace Keshubhai Patel as chief minister of Gujarat.
On 1 October, Vajpayee asked
Modi to meet him in Delhi, where Modi had lived for the previous three years.
Modi had put on weight from the last time they had met. Vajpayee joked about
too much ‘Punjabi food’ and then got to business. Modi had to go to Gujarat as
CM to prepare the state for the next elections due in 2002, Vajpayee said.
Modi’s immediate answer was a ‘no’.
Vajpayee insisted, because the
Keshubhai Patel administration had incurred public wrath over not doing enough
for the people of the state after the 2001 earthquake. Some members of the
government were in cahoots with unscrupulous builders indulging in shoddy
construction. Some of them enjoyed Patel’s patronage.
Modi told Vajpayee that since he
had been away in Delhi as the general secretary in charge of several states, he
had been out of touch with local politics. Even so, he agreed to spend ten days
a month in the state. However, a short while later, Modi agreed to accept the
CM’s position after being convinced by his mentor Advani to do so. Advani knew
about Modi’s lack of administrative experience, but was very fond of him.
Finally, Modi was sworn in as chief minister of Gujarati on 7
October 2001.
At Panjim in April 2002, the
national executive meet began, and a short while later, Modi took to the dais
and said he would like to step down as chief minister over the riots.
Immediately, people from several sides got up and said there was no need to do
so. Whether it was orchestrated or not, Shourie wasn’t sure. But, according to
him, Vajpayee felt that it was a coup.
Sensing that things were not
going as planned, Shourie got up and described what had gone on between Advani
and Vajpayee on the plane and the agreement they had reached thereafter. But
shouts kept emerging from the delegates: ‘It cannot be done! Modi cannot be
allowed to go!’ Vajpayee immediately understood the situation, and said, ‘Let’s
decide on it later.’ ‘It can’t be decided later, it has to be decided now,’
somebody shouted. And as if on cue, it became a slogan.
Shourie observed that Advani
hadn’t said anything though he knew very well that Vajpayee wanted Modi out.
Seeing things take a different turn, Vajpayee kept mum, opting against a
confrontational stance. Perhaps, for all his bravery, he was worried about
younger leaders publicly questioning his authority.
He would never forget that humiliation.
Atal bihari Vajpayee was a
man of many colors and my favorite man in BJP as vinod Mehta in luckhnow boy
memoir describes him as man of “Man of Words ,Women and Whishky” his alleged
love affair Rajkumari
Kaul, Kaul had been
Vajpayee’s constant companion of many years and the mother of his adopted
daughter Namita Bhattacharya, when atal bihari was asked why he is bachelor ?
he replies I am unmarried but not a
bachelor this shows much about his humor apparently
rajkumari kaul was atal
biharis friend since his collage days they were both classmates in Victoria
collage in Gwalior , vinod Mehta says its was apparent Vajpayee was in love
rajkumari he wrote a love letter to rajkumari which he kept in a book in the
library to which rajkumari also replied but that never reached Vajpayee later
Vajpayee shifted to delhi and rajkumari got married to a prof Narayan kaul
,post her marriage she also shifted to delhi in ramjas collage hostel at that
point of time both started spending time together again she passed away aged
84 , vajpayee even adopted her family
and before vadra ranjan bhattacharya husband of her daughter was the
influential son-in-law at PMO.
Senior journalist girish nikam who was a
facebook friend mentions who whenever he called atal bihari ar his home Mrs
kaul use to pick up the call. Rajkuamris father didn’t wanted atal to marry her
daughter , Vajpayee being a Brahmin was already a upper caste hindu but mrs
kaul father thought his caste is much superior to brahmins , by the time mrs
kaul passed away atal jis was detected with alzhimer her funeral was also attended
by Jyotiraditya scindia only congress leader to do so. Time magazine wrote an
article on vajpayess health which was severely criticized by journalist society
of india
.
'India's leader
(Vajpayee) takes painkillers for his knees (which were replaced due to
arthritis), has trouble with his bladder, liver and his one remaining kidney,
takes a three-hour snooze every afternoon on doctor's orders and is given to
interminable silences, indecipherable ramblings and, not infrequently, falling
asleep in meetings', the article by Time's India correspondent,
Alex Perry, says.
Bottom
of Formhe
further added
He drank heavily in his prime and still enjoys
a nightly whiskey or two at 74. A taste for fried food and fatty sweets plays
havoc with his cholesterol..
Atal Behari Vajpayee,
then, would be an unusual candidate to control a nuclear arsenal. Alex Perry, being an American working for an
American magazine was concerned about vajpayees trembling finger on the nuclear
button but pressing a button is an act of will , and atal bihari Vajpayee has
long ago lost the will to act ,we should be worried about the prime ministers
complete passivity ,his habit of letting things drift , can nation afford a
leader who asleep at the wheel ?
This article faced
much backlash from bjp , they burned his effigies and even government threaten
to sent perry back he was the second jpjournalist after mark tully (deported by
Indra Gandhi for coverage of Emergency )to face such situation
Never the less
Vajpayee had it all what a mass leader should posses debonair , charm , wit and
intellect I remember him for his speech in parliament in 1999 loksabha where he
said
“Political
games will continue. Governments will form and fall, parties will be made and destroyed.
But this country must remain and its democracy must remain.”
RIP
Atal
Ji
