Editor's Pick of the day – Looking back at the life of Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on Thursday at the age of 93 after battling a prolonged illness. He was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and considered by some as the moderate face of the party. Vajpayee breathed his last at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, former deputy prime minister and close friend of the former PM LK Advani were among those who paid their respects to Vajpayee.

Vajpayee will be remembered for three things primarily - a string of economic reforms during the NDA’s term between 1999 and 2004; the nuclear programme that culminated in the test at Pokhran in 1998, and his role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Some also credit him for his deft handling of the troubled relationship with Pakistan and managing very demanding allies in a complex ruling coalition. Not to forget his excellent oratory and his penchant for poetry.

Vajpayee first became India’s Prime Minister in 1996, serving in office from May 16, 1996 to June 1, 1996, then again between 1998 and 1999. His government was famously brought down after a no-confidence vote. He then won the elections was back in power as PM and served a full term from 1999 to 2004. As of 2018, he is the only non-Congress Prime Minister to successfully complete a full term in office.
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Let’s talk about what will be his enduring legacy - the economic decisions that led to a decade of growth. Vajpayee took five very significant steps that changed the way India functioned. Firstly, telecom reforms. Today, India has ~980 million active wireless phone users. The credit for this goes to Vajpayee’s leadership. In 1999, his government decided it was time to end state monopoly by entities like BSNL and introduced a new telecom policy where a revenue-sharing regime was started. This paved the way for lower call rates as well as affordable mobile phones, and an overall revolution in communication in India.

The second is disinvestment. Vajpayee had set up a separate department for disinvestment as early as 1999. During his term, large disinvestment initiatives including that of Bharat Aluminium Company, or BALCO, Hindustan Zinc as well as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited were initiated.

The insurance sector, which was dominated by state-owned entities in both life and general insurance segments, was privatised to allow private players to set up insurance companies. Foreign direct investment of up to 26 percent was permitted which led to several global insurance companies starting businesses in India. Insurance Laws have now been amended under Narendra Modi, which allow foreign shareholders to hold up to a 49 percent stake in Indian insurance companies.

Number three was the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, a mission to provide free and compulsory education to all children between ages 6 and 14. The objective of the scheme was to reduce dropouts and increase net enrolment ratio at the primary school level. A song, School Chale Hum, penned by Vajpayee himself, was used to promote his scheme. Once it was implemented, the rate of dropouts reportedly reduced from almost 40 percent in 2000 to under 10 percent in 2005.

The fourth significant economic policy that the Vajpayee era brought was the Fiscal Responsibility Act. His government passed the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in 2003. It set targets to reduce fiscal deficits and boost savings in the public sector. While there were several amendments made to the Act, it was Vajpayee who brought forth the idea of keeping fiscal deficit under check at 3 percent of GDP.

And five, the GST. Well, not GST as we have it today, but a precursor. Vajpayee was the first to talk about a common tax structure for goods and services across the country. In 2000, his government set up a committee to design the backbone of the GST model and ensure that the technology back-end was put into place. However, predictably, due to lack of consensus among the coalition partners, as well as various state governments, the reform was delayed.

Vajpayee also had an eventful political life before becoming prime minister at age 75. He was born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior to a schoolteacher and poet, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, and his wife Krishna Devi. Atal Bihari graduated from Victoria College with distinction in Hindi, English, and Sanskrit and earned his M.A. in Political science from DAV College, Kanpur.

Vajpayee’s involvement in politics began early - as a freedom fighter during the Quit India Movement. He and his older brother Prem were jailed for 23 days during the movement and released after submitting a written undertaking that they would not participate in the anti-British struggle, a promise that the brothers kept. Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and became a full-time worker for the organisation after quitting law studies. He later joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Balrampur in UP in 1957.

Vajpayee was an excellent orator and his stature grew in politics. He was jailed along with longtime friend and ally LK Advani during the 1975 emergency by Indira Gandhi. His only served to increase his stature. After the emergency, the Janata party formed the government with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister. Vajpayee was made Minister of External Affairs in that government. He also played a crucial role in the formation of the BJP and became its first president in 1980. This was the start of a seminal chapter in Vajpayee’s life – one that would culminate in him becoming prime minister 16 years later. Initially though, Vajpayee led the BJP through a string of defeats for more than a decade.

In 1992, as the Ram Janmabhoomi crisis reached a crescendo, Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed a gathering of RSS workers at in Lucknow on December 5, 1992 – a day before the Babri Masjid was demolished. Vajpayee has stated that he neither was involved in the demolition nor had prior knowledge of it. However, according to Scroll.in, when a video of his speech, allegedly recorded by intelligence agencies, surfaced in 2004, fresh suspicions arose that he knew what would transpire the next day. Scroll notes that “one particular line in which he talked about “sharp-edged boulders” and the need to “level the ground” stood out and was greeted with cheers from the crowd.” At the time, Vajpayee was not present at the gathering near Babri Masjid the next day and allegedly told Outlook magazine later that he had made a speech in a lighter vein and had not intended for it to be provocative. However, this accusation would remain through the rest of his political career. Indeed, in 2009, the Liberhan Commission, which investigated the demolition of Babri Masjid, strongly indicted Vajpayee, LK Advani and others, calling them the “pseudo-moderate” leadership of the BJP, who were party to the decisions of the Sangh Parivaar in the event.

In 1996, Vajpayee became Prime Minister but was unable to secure a coalition majority and resigned in 13 days. He was back in power in 1999, this time as the leader of the NDA. He helmed a stable government and became the first and, currently, the only non-Congress prime minister to have successfully completed a full five-year term in office.

The first major challenge his government faced was in December 1999 - the hijack of an Indian Airlines flight, IC 814, with nearly 190 people on board. The flight was coming from Kathmandu to New Delhi but was hijacked by five terrorists and rerouted to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The Vajpayee government submitted to the hijackers' demands, and foreign minister Jaswant Singh escorted terrorists Masood Azhar, Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar to Kandahar in exchange for the passengers.

Vajpayee faced a stiff military test in 1999 with the Kargil conflict. The Vajpayee government oversaw the successful recapturing of Kargil from militants and non-uniformed Pakistani soldiers in harsh weather conditions and heavy artillery firing. Operation Vijay was successful in fending off invasions from thousands of enemy soldiers. This victory was celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas in 2012. Conversely, Vajpayee was also known for his magnanimous peaceful overtures to Pakistan. His government pursued a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan through late 1998 and early 1999, which was initiated with the inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999.

Vajpayee retreated from public life after the NDA lost the 2004 Lok Sabha election. He suffered a stroke in 2009 that left him speech impaired. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour, in 2015 by the Modi government. His birthday, December 25, is celebrated as ‘Good Governance Day’ by the central government.

Vajpayee never married. He is survived by an adopted daughter, Namita Bhattacharya.
Vajpayee once said: “My poetry is a declaration of war, not an exordium to defeat. It is not the defeated soldier's drumbeat of despair, but the fighting warrior's will to win. It is not the dispirited voice of dejection but the stirring shout of victory.”