There are very few leaders in the history of Indian Politics that we can say have made a tremendous difference in the psyche of Indian Society. Atal Ji is one of them. Born in a humble household in Gwalior, young Atal decided to pursue his career in journalism. But life had different plans for him. His entry into politics changed the paradigms of Indian politics forever.
He spent most of his life as a politician as leader of the opposition in parliament. With his wits, intelligence and exemplary oratory skills he became a household name when 'Jansangh' the former Avatar of Bhartiya Janata Party was in its growing stage. He became the worthy successor of stalwarts like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Deendayal Upadhyay. In days to come, he was appointed as president of Jan Sangh. In the 'Janata Party experiment', he was appointed as Minister of External affairs. He was the first leader from Bharat who gave a speech at UNGA in Hindi, thus marking the new beginning in the transformation of India to Bharat.
In 1980, when the Janata party experiment failed miserably and Jansangh was disintegrated, he along with LK Advani and a few others formed the BJP with 'nationalism and Ekatma Manavatavad' as its ideology. True to their ideology, the BJP never ever deterred from their goal of creating a Bharat of ancient times. Prosperous, scientific and true to its culture. In 1996, just after 16 years of BJP's formation, Atal Ji became the prime minister of Bharat. But, the petty politics did not let him govern the nation. The power-hungry Congress could not resist to stay from power. He served only for 13 days initially.
It was during this time he said, "parties and governments will come and go but the democratic setup must be strengthened". His strong belief in democracy and strengthened Bharat was reflected when he again became the prime minister in 1998. Bharat under the leadership of Atalji as PM and A.P.J kalam as the president made the world realize its nuclear power when they held the Pokhran tests.
Our nation faced a lot of criticism for this move, both from the inside and the outside. Congress as usual did not appreciate the move while the USA imposed sanctions on us. But, Atal Ji did not pay any heed to all these things, he asked the NRI's to invest in Bharat and to the world's surprise, millions of NRI's invested 10s of millions in the new Bharat. Thus, Atalji became the true architect of the 21st century. Atalji's decisiveness and belief in the Indian armed forces led us to a great victory in Kargil.
In 1999, he became the PM for the third time, but this time to complete his full term. The growth of Bharat accelerated at an unprecedented speed during his tenure. Vajpayee was a master player on the global turf. His global diplomacy is something that every Bhartiya must be proud of. The Indo-US relationship also improved tremendously under the leadership of Vajpayee, who struck a cordial note with the then US presidents—first George Bush and then Bill Clinton. The US ambassador Kenneth Juster confirmed this saying, ‘The Indo-US relationship used to be at an arm’s length before the times of Vajpayee and Bush, who took the relationship to a new level.’
While he was a master on international turf, he was a grandmaster of domestic governance. The Vajpayee government had laid huge emphasis on infrastructure development, education and privatization (liberalization). He is credited with ushering in the second phase of economic reforms in India after his predecessor P.V. Narasimha Rao liberalized the Indian economy. Some of his most remarkable initiatives include the telecom revolution, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Golden Quadrilateral, rural roads, the Delhi Metro, fiscal discipline and disinvestment from public enterprises.
The 'Sushasan' or 'the Good governance' is what he focused on primarily. He was the prime minister who will always be regarded as the architect of the 21st century. The present-day BJP government, paying a perfect tribute to the statesman, a poetic politician the most beloved Prime minister has declared 25th December, Atalji's Jayanti as 'Sushasan Divas.
My humbles to him as a karyakarta of the world's largest political party that was founded by him!
- Malhar Heramb Pandey