December 25. We have always held this day as pretty
important. Yes, Jesus Christ was born this day. But for us, there was a different reason. There was one person
who has been one of our role models. A great statesman who, as far as we are
concerned, was the greatest PM India has ever had. 1924 December 25. Atal
Bihari Vajpayee was born. We have been a huge fan ever since we started
following politics. Sure India had lot of leaders with big following. But no
one had that charisma, that charm or the oration skills like Atalji. He, for us,
was the ideal politician. He did not have any equals. The direction Indian
politics is taking, we are not sure if he ever will.
We were not there when he started his life as a politician.
We were yet to be born when he made that speech in UN. We hardly could
understand what is happening when Babri happened. But we were able to
understand things when he became PM and the opposition brought him down only
after 13 days. We, although were only 12 at that time, were very upset. Why
would opposition want to bring down such a good man we thought. (We were wrong.
He was not a good man. He was a great man. ) But they did succeed and behold, we had Mr. Devegowda as PM. Yes. The
same politicians who did not want someone like Atalji as PM, voted for HDD. That’s
politics for you. As expected, this did not last long.
Atalji did not get outright majority during next election.
But he did become PM. For 13 months. As usual, nobody wants a decent man to be
at the helm. Opposition brought him down again. This was the time when madam
was starting to come out as a ’politician’. An effort which is still ongoing. And
will go on till she retires. She is still pretty far away from the “good
politician” she thinks she is. Anyway, these were eventful 13 months. This was
the period of nuclear tests and Kargil. We were thrilled when we heard that we
were nuclear powered nation. We had read so much about only strongest nations
having this etc etc. Sure there were scientists who worked on it. But for us,
it was Atalji who made it possible.
There were economic sanctions and the country did not suffer
a bit. AN able leader was there to take care of the country. But there was one
glitch. Lahore bus service. We deem that as the one of the two black spots in
his tenure. Vying for peace is a great gesture. But somehow it did not work
out. The enemy soldiers were found to have come inside our country and occupied
some border posts. Operation Vijay started and ended with heavy losses to the infiltrates.
But the biggest threat to the Government was Amma. She did not get the
attention she was craving for and started throwing tantrums. She eventually
withdrew support and elections loomed again.
This time Indian people understood better. People voted for
Atalji rather than the local contestant. There was a clear majority for Atalji
led coalition and it lasted five full years. Only non-Congress Govt to do so. This
was the period when we had the Flight 814 hijack. The second black spot. The
External affairs minister went till the hijacked plane to escort the
terrorists. Even with RSS and VHP pressing him to follow a religion based
agenda, he did his best not to cave in. We did have lot of development programs
and economic reforms. When the term ended, we expected Atalji to be PM again.
But sadly, people wanted to talk about ideologies and
religion more than basic needs and reforms. Nobody saw the shining India. The
India shining advertisement bombed big time. Madam became the puppet-master (puppet-mistress?
Doesn’t sound right…) again. The party apparently blamed Atalji for the debacle
as he preferred bread and butter over religion. He resigned as the leader and
Mr. Advani took over. He declared in December 2005 that he will retire from
politics after the term. We will stop the history lesson here. Looks like the
Indian politics has never recovered from it and continues to reach new nadir
everytime we think “This is it. They cannot better it”.
Atalji led the country to best of his ability. And amidst the
busy life he still found time to right amazing poems. He never let the poet
inside him go away. That is something we respect a lot. Lot of people comment
about his drinking or his pro-Hindutva attitude. Such people never bother to
look at the reforms by him as a PM or poems by him as a poet or speeches by him
as an orator. Nobody is perfect. Atalji was/is not perfect. We agree. But when
someone says the country is in trouble or country is going to dogs, there is
only one person we would look up to. Given the scenario and politicians we
have, one person can guide us. That is him. Whatever issues you want to see in
him as a person, we do not care. The country misses him and needs him. It well and
truly does.
PS: We normally don’t plug videos and songs in our blogs. And
we are not a huge fan of channels like India TV/Aaj Tak etc. But we just could
not resist this. This is a 30 min show by Live India about Atalji.
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