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The Rediff Special Archana Masih

The Man India Awaits

Atal Bihari Vajpayee completed his BA from the Victoria College, now the Laxmibai College, in Gwalior. He secured his Master's degree from the DAV College, Kanpur and left his LLB course midway before becoming a full time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He went on to edit Rashtra Dharm, the RSS newspaper and became the first editor of its weekly, Panchajanya. He started another newspaper Dainik Swadesh in Allahabad and when that was sealed, he started Chetna in Varanasi. He first came to Delhi in 1950 to edit Veer Arjun.

Vajpayee was attracted to the RSS at an early age and became an active member of the Arya Kumar Sabha. He joined the Indian National Congress in 1941 and was imprisoned during the Quit India Movement in 1942.

His foray in rightwing politics began as Shyama Prasad Mookherjee's secretary. Leader of the Jan Sangh Parliamentary Party from 1957 to 1977, he was appointed party president after Deen Dayal Upadhyay was murdered aboard a train in 1968. He was also the founder president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was born in 1980 after the break-up of the Janata Party.

Vajpayee has been a member of the Lok Sabha nine times and has served in the Rajya Sabha twice. He lost the by-election from Lucknow in 1955 after Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit vacated the seat. He, however, entered Parliament in 1957 as an MP from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh. He represented the constituency once again in 1962. He was elected from Gwalior in 1971, New Delhi in 1977 and 1980, and from Lucknow in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.

He was arrested during the Emergency, along with Jayaprakash Narayan and other Opposition leaders and spent two years in prison. He played a prominent role in the merger of the Jan Sangh with the Janata Party after Indira Gandhi announced a general election in January 1977.

Vajpayee held the external affairs portfolio in the Morarji Desai government, and took an active interest in improving relations with Pakistan.

He was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan in 1992 and received the Govind Ballabh Pant award for best Parliamentarian in 1994.

On his belief that Independent India had betrayed Gandhiji's ideals, in his poem Kshama Yachna (An Apology), Vajpayee said Indians were guilty of a breach of promise because they had forgotten their destination half way.

Vajpayee remained in the background during L K Advani's controversial Rath Yatra in 1990, and expressed displeasure over the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

The moderate face of the BJP, Vajpayee resigned as prime minister after he failed to muster a majority in Parliament in May 1996. He remained in office for a mere 13 days. However, in 1998 and in 1999, he struck a deal with numerous allies and expressed his willingness to sideline contentious issues like the construction of the Ram Temple, abolition of Article 370 and enactment of a Uniform Civil Code in the interest of a national consensus.

On March 20, 1998, he was sworn in as India's 14th prime minister. After his government was voted out in Parliament on April 17, 1999, he took over as caretaker prime minister. On Wednesday, he becomes the first prime minister to be returned to power after Indira Gandhi in 1971.

Photograph: Jewella C Miranda.

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