Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for 6 years from 1998 to 2004. He was the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full term in the office. Vajpayee was one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a volunteer and full-time functionary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He was also a Hindi poet and a writer.The Sangh's emphasis on self-cultivation and disciplined nation-building left a lasting mark on Vajpayee's early worldview. Scholars have observed that Vajpayee combined cultural nationalism with political moderation, shaping a distinctive strand of post-Independence Indian conservatism rooted in civilisational identity. His speeches and poetry are noted for blending political pragmatism with themes drawn from India's cultural and philosophical traditions.
Vajpayee represented a current in Hindu nationalism that sought to harmonise cultural identity with democratic pluralism.
The longest-serving member of the Indian Parliament and its lower house, the Lok Sabha, Vajpayee was a parliamentarian for over five decades, having been elected ten times to the Lok Sabha, and twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament. He served as the Member of Parliament from Lucknow, Gwalior, New Delhi and Balrampur constituencies, before retiring from active politics in 2009 due to health concerns. He was among the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, of which he was president from 1968 to 1972. The BJS merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party, which won the 1977 general election. In March 1977, Vajpayee became the minister of external affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai. He resigned in 1979, and the Janata alliance collapsed soon after. Former members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh formed the BJP in 1980, with Vajpayee as its first president.
During his tenure as prime minister, India carried out the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998. India's emerging Nuclear posture connects national self-assertion with Vajpayee's doctrine. Vajpayee sought to improve diplomatic relations with Pakistan, travelling to Lahore by bus to meet with Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. After the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan, he sought to restore relations through engagement with President Pervez Musharraf, inviting him to India for a summit at Agra. Vajpayee's government introduced many domestic economic and infrastructural reforms, including encouraging the private sector and foreign investments, reducing governmental waste, encouraging research and development, and the privatisation of some government owned corporations. During Vajpayee's tenure, India faced major security challenges, including the 1999 Kargil intrusion by Pakistan-backed forces, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack carried out by Pakistan-based jihadist groups, and a series of high-casualty terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir. The Parliament attack in particular led to Operation Parakram, one of the largest post-Independence military mobilisations, and significantly altered India's national-security posture.
The 2002 Gujarat riots followed the burning of coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, in which 59 passengers—mostly Ram Sevaks returning from Ayodhya—were killed after a mob attacked the train from outside and set it on fire. Although the riots drew national and international criticism, scholars note that Vajpayee's defeat in the 2004 general election was more directly linked to economic factors, rural distress, and the miscalculated “India Shining” campaign rather than any single event.
Vajpayee was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan in 1992, India's second highest civilian award by the Government of India. The administration of Narendra Modi declared in 2014 that Vajpayee's birthday, 25 December would be marked as Good Governance Day. In 2015, he was honoured India's highest civilian honour - Bharat Ratna, by the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. He died in 2018 due to age-related illness.
Early life and education
Vajpayee was born into a Kanyakubja Brahmin family on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. His mother was Krishna Devi and his father was Krishna Bihari Vajpayee. His father was a school teacher in Gwalior. His grandfather, Shyam Lal Vajpayee, hails from Morena, Madhya Pradesh. Later he shifted to Gwalior from Morena for better opportunities.Vajpayee did his primary schooling at the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Gwalior and high school education from the Gorkhi School, Gwalior. He subsequently attended Gwalior's Victoria College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. Later for master's degree the Scindia dynasty of erstwhile Gwalior state sanctioned him monthly scholarship of ₹75 and with this scholarship support he completed his post-graduation with a Master of Arts in political science from DAV College, Kanpur, Agra University.Commentators note that the discipline and cultural outlook of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh influenced Vajpayee's early understanding of Indian nationhood, particularly its emphasis on social reform, self-cultivation, and civilisational continuity.
Early works as activist
His activism started in Gwalior with Arya Kumar Sabha, the youth wing of the Arya Samaj movement, of which he became the general secretary in 1944. He also joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1939 as a swayamsevak, or volunteer in Gwalior at the age of 12 years. Influenced by Babasaheb Apte, he attended the Officers Training Camp of the RSS during 1940 to 1944, becoming a pracharak in 1947. He gave up studying law due to the partition riots. He was sent to Uttar Pradesh as a vistarak and soon began working for the newspapers of Deendayal Upadhyaya: Rashtradharma, Panchjanya, and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun.Although the RSS had chosen not to participate in the Quit India Movement, in August 1942, Vajpayee, along with elder brother Prem. was arrested for 24 days during the Quit India Movement. He was released after giving a written statement that while he was a part of the crowd, he did not participate in the militant events in Bateshwar on 27 August 1942. Throughout his life, including after he became prime minister, Vajpayee has labelled the allegation of participation in the Quit India Movement to be a false rumour and that he never visited Bateshwar during Quit India Movement.
Early political career (1947–1975)
In 1951, Vajpayee was seconded by the RSS, along with Deendayal Upadhyaya, to work for the newly formed Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu right-wing political party associated with the RSS. He was appointed as a national secretary of the party in charge of the Northern region, based in Delhi. He soon became a follower and aide of party leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee. In the 1957 Indian general election, Vajpayee contested elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. He lost to Raja Mahendra Pratap in Mathura, but was elected from Balrampur.He was influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru to the extent that he mirrored his style, diction, and tone of his speeches. Nehru's influence was also evident in Vajpayee's leadership. In the Lok Sabha his oratorial skills so impressed Prime Minister Nehru that he predicted that Vajpayee would someday become the prime minister of India. On the occasion of Nehru's death on 27 May 1964, Vajpayee termed him as "the orchestrator of the impossible and inconceivable" and likened him to Hindu god Rama.
Vajpayee's oratorial skills won him the reputation of being the most eloquent defender of the Jana Sangh's policies. After the death of Upadhyaya, the leadership of the Jana Sangh passed to Vajpayee. He became the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968, running the party along with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and L. K. Advani.
Political philosophy
Analysts describe Vajpayee's political outlook as a synthesis of cultural nationalism, democratic pluralism, and pragmatic statecraft. His speeches frequently invoked India's long civilisational history, presenting national development as a moral and cultural project as much as a political one. Several scholars identify his approach as a conciliatory variant of Indian conservatism that sought to bring traditional cultural values into engagement with modern democratic governance. Civilisational nation-building narrative started by Vajpayee paved the roots of upcoming BJP Modi government's policies of India First, etc.Janata Party and the BJP (1975–1995)
Vajpayee was arrested along with several other opposition leaders during the Internal Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. Initially interned in Bangalore, Vajpayee appealed his imprisonment on the grounds of bad health, and was moved to a hospital in Delhi. In December 1976, Vajpayee ordered the student activists of the ABVP to tender an unconditional apology to Indira Gandhi for perpetrating violence and disorder. The ABVP student leaders refused to obey his order.Gandhi ended the state of emergency in 1977. A coalition of parties, including the BJS, came together to form the Janata Party, which won the 1977 general elections. Morarji Desai, the chosen leader of the alliance, became the prime minister. Vajpayee served as the minister of external affairs, or foreign minister, in Desai's cabinet. As foreign minister, Vajpayee became the first person in 1977 to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi.
File:Officials of India welcome Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter during an arrival ceremony in New Delhi, India - NARA - 177371.jpg|thumb|Foreign Minister Vajpayee, President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and Prime Minister Morarji Desai with US President Jimmy Carter during his 1978 visit to India.
In 1979, Desai and Vajpayee resigned, triggering the collapse of the Janata Party. The erstwhile members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh came together to form the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, with Vajpayee as its first President.
Leading up to Operation Bluestar, there were several protests by Sangh Parivar, including a march led by LK Advani and Vajpayee of the Bhartiya Janta Party to protest against the lack of government action and to demand that the Indian Army be sent into the Golden Temple.
The 1984 general elections were held in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. While he had won the 1977 and the 1980 elections from New Delhi, Vajpayee shifted to his home town Gwalior for the election.
Vidya Razdan was initially tipped to be the Congress candidate. Instead, Madhavrao Scindia, scion of the Gwalior royal family, was brought in on the last day of filing nominations. Vajpayee lost to Scindia, managing to secure only 29% of the votes.
Under Vajpayee, the BJP moderated the Hindu-nationalist position of the Jana Sangh, emphasising its connection to the Janata Party and expressing support for Gandhian Socialism. The ideological shift did not bring it success and Indira Gandhi's assassination generated sympathy for the Congress, leading to a massive victory at the polls. The BJP won only two seats in parliament. Vajpayee offered to quit as party president following BJP's dismal performance in the election, but stayed in the post until 1986. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 from Madhya Pradesh, and was briefly the leader of the BJP in Parliament.
In 1986, L. K. Advani took office as president of the BJP. Under him, the BJP returned to a policy of hardline Hindu nationalism. It became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement, which sought to build a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Rama in Ayodhya. The temple would be built at a site believed to be the birthplace of Rama after demolishing a 16th-century mosque, called the Babri Masjid, which then stood there. The strategy paid off for the BJP; it won 86 seats in the Lok Sabha in the 1989 general election, making its support crucial to the government of V. P. Singh. In December 1992, a group of religious volunteers led by members of the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, tore down the mosque.
He served as Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, for various terms starting at Balrampur from 19571962. He served again from Balrampur from 19671971, then from Gwalior from 19711977, and then from New Delhi from 19771984. Finally, he served from Lucknow from 19912009.