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was the 10th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from
1998 to 2004. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is the first
Prime Minister from outside the Indian National Congress party to serve a
full five-year term.
A parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok
Sabha (the lower house of India's Parliament) ten times, and twice to the
Rajya Sabha (upper house). He also served as the Member of Parliament
for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, until 2009, when he retired from active politics
due to health concerns. Vajpayee was one amongst the founder members
of erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which he had also headed. He was also
the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Morarji Desai. When Janata
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government collapsed, Vajpayee restarted the Jana Sangh as the
Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980.
His activism started with the Arya Kumar Sabha of Gwalior, the youth wing
of the Arya Samaj, of which he became the General Secretary in 1944. He
also joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a swayamsevak
in 1939. Influenced by Babasaheb Apte, he attended the Officers Training
Camp of the RSS during 1940-44 and became a "full-time worker" in 1947,
technically a pracharak. He gave up studying law due to the partition riots.
He was sent as a vistarak (probationary pracharak) to Uttar Pradesh and
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quickly began working for the newspapers of Deendayal Upadhyaya,
Rashtradharma (a Hindi monthly), Panchjanya (a Hindi weekly) and the
dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun. Vajpayee never married and has
remained a bachelor his entire life.
Vajpayee's first exposure to politics was in August 1942, when he and his
elder brother Prem were arrested for 23 days during the Quit India
movement, when he was released only after giving a written undertaking,
expressly declaring not to participate in any of the anti-British struggle.[9]
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He became the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968 and, along
with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and L. K. Advani, led the Jana
Sangh to national prominence.
From 1975 to 1977, Vajpayee was arrested along with several other
opposition leaders during the Internal Emergency imposed by Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress party. In 1977,
heeding the call of social reformer Jayaprakash Narayan for all the
opposition parties to unite against the Congress, Vajpayee merged the
Jana Sangh into the newly formed grand-alliance, the Janata Party.
The Janata Party was dissolved soon after Morarji Desai resigned as Prime
Minister in 1979. The Jana Sangh had devoted its political organisation to
sustain the coalition and was left exhausted by the internecine political
wars within the Janata Party.
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strong critic of the Congress (I) government that followed the Janata
government.
While the BJP opposed the Sikh militancy that was rising in the state of
Punjab, it also blamed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for her "divisive and
corrupt politics that fostered such militancy at the expense of national unity
and integrity."[14] The BJP was left with only two parliamentary seats in the
1984 elections. During this period, Vajpayee remained at the centre-stage
as party President and Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament.
The BJP became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir
Movement, which was led by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
and the RSS, and which sought to build a temple dedicated to Lord Rama
in Ayodhya.
Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of India between 1996 and 2004 in
three non-consecutive terms.
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The BJP grew in strength in the early 1995 riding on pro-nationalistic
sentiments. In the 1996 general elections, the BJP emerged as the single
largest party in the Lok Sabha. The then president Shankar Dayal Sharma
invited Vajpayee to form the government. Vajpayee was sworn in as the
10th Prime Minister of India, but the BJP failed to muster enough support
from other parties to obtain a majority. He resigned after 13 days, when it
became clear that he could not garner a majority.
After the fall of the two United Front governments between 1996 and 1998,
the Lok Sabha was dissolved and fresh elections were held. The 1998
general elections again put the BJP ahead of others. This time, a cohesive
bloc of political parties joined the BJP to form the National Democratic
Alliance (NDA), and Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister.
The NDA proved its majority in the parliament. The government lasted 13
months until mid-1999 when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (AIADMK) under J. Jayalalitha withdrew its support to the
government. The government lost the ensuing vote of confidence motion in
the Lok Sabha by a single vote on 17 April 1999. As the Opposition was
unable to come up with the numbers to form the new government, the Lok
Sabha was again dissolved and fresh elections were held. Vajpayee
remaining the Prime Minister until the elections were held.
Nuclear Tests:
While some nations, such as Russia and France, endorsed India's right to
defensive nuclear power, others including the United States, Canada,
Japan, Britain and the European Union imposed sanctions on information,
resources and technology to India. In spite of the intense international
criticism and the steady decline in foreign investment and trade, the nuclear
tests were popular domestically. Effectively the international sanctions
failed completely in swaying India's decision to weaponize their nuclear
capability, something that was planned for and anticipated by the Vajpayee
administration.
In late 1998 and early 1999, Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale
diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. With the historic inauguration of
the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Vajpayee initiated a new
peace process aimed towards permanently resolving the Kashmir dispute
and other conflicts with Pakistan. The resultant Lahore Declaration
espoused a commitment to dialogue, expanded trade relations and mutual
friendship and envisaged a goal of denuclearised South Asia. This eased
the tension created by the 1998 nuclear tests, not only within the two
nations but also in South Asia and the rest of the world.
The Vajpayee-led government was faced with two crises in mid-1999. The
AIADMK had continually threatened to withdraw from the coalition and
national leaders repeatedly flew down from Delhi to Chennai to pacify the
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AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha. However, in May 1999, the AIADMK did pull
the plug on the NDA, and the Vajpayee administration was reduced to a
caretaker status pending fresh elections scheduled for October 1999.
Kargil War:
Indian army units were swiftly rushed into Kashmir in response. Operation
Vijay, launched in June 1999, saw the Indian military fighting thousands of
militants and soldiers in the midst of heavy artillery shelling and while facing
extremely cold weather, snow and treacherous terrain at the high altitude.
Over 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the three-month-long Kargil War,
and it is estimated around 600-4,000 Pakistani militants and soldiers died
as well. India pushed back the Pakistani militants and Northern Light
Infantry soldiers. Almost 70% of the territory was recaptured by India. With
news of Pakistan planning to launch a nuclear attack in the face of a loss in
the war with India, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was summoned
to the US by Bill Clinton and warned against any such action.
After Pakistan suffered heavy losses, and with both the United States and
China refusing to condone the incursion or threaten India to stop its military
operations, General Musharraf was recalcitrant and Nawaz Sharif asked
the remaining militants to stop and withdraw to positions along the L o C.
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The militants were not willing to accept orders from Sharif but the NLI
soldiers withdrew. The militants were killed by the army or forced to
withdraw in skirmishes which went beyond the announcement of
withdrawal by Pakistan. The victory in Kargil bolstered the image of
Vajpayee and he was hailed across the country for his bold and strong
leadership. On 26 July 2012, designated as 'Kargil Vijay Diwas', BJP
President Nitin Gadkari unveiled a wax statue of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in
Mumbai. The statue is to be put up at a wax museum in Lonavala.
In the 1999 general elections, the BJP-led NDA won 303 seats out of the
543 seats in the Lok Sabha, in the aftermath of the Kargil operations,
thereby securing a comfortable and stable majority. On 13 October 1999,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time.
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foreign investments, reducing governmental waste, encouraging research
and development and privatisation of some government owned
corporations. The UPA Government on 1 July 2013 accepted before
Supreme Court that National Democratic Alliance Government led by
Vajpayee has developed half the roads in last 32 years in their 5-year term.
In March 2000, Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, paid a state
visit to India. His was the first state visit to India by a US President in 22
years. President Clinton's visit to India was hailed as a significant milestone
in the relations between the two countries. Since the visit came barely two
years after the Pokhran tests, and one year after the Kargil invasion and
the subsequent coup in Pakistan, it was read to reflect a major shift in the
post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy. The Indian Prime Minister and the U.S.
President discussed strategic issues, but the major achievement was a
significant expansion in trade and economic ties. The Historic Vision
Document on the future course of relations between the two countries was
signed by Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Clinton during the visit.
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BJP hard-liners threatening to restart the Jan Sangh, the precursor to the
BJP, because of their discontent over Atal Bihari Vajpayee rule. Former
president of the Jan Sangh, Balraj Madhok, had written a letter to the then
RSS chief, Rajendra Singh for support. The BJP was, however, accused of
saffronising (saffron being the colour of the flag of the RSS, symbol of the
Hindu nationalism movement) the official state education curriculum and
apparatus. Also, Home Minister L.K. Advani and Human Resource
Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi were indicted in the 1992 Babri
Mosque demolition case for inciting a mob of activists. Vajpayee himself
came under public scrutiny owing to his controversial speech one day prior
to the mosque demolition. The RSS also routinely criticised the
government for free-market policies which introduced foreign goods and
competition at the expense of 'swadeshi' industries and products.
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underwent a major knee-replacement surgery at the Breach Candy
Hospital in Mumbai to relieve great pressure on his legs.
Vajpayee again broke the ice in the Indo-Pak relations by inviting Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit and peace
talks. His second major attempt to move beyond the stalemate involved
inviting the man who had planned the Kargil invasions. But accepting him
as the President of Pakistan, Vajpayee chose to move forward. But after
three days of much fanfare, which included Musharraf visiting his birthplace
in Delhi, the summit failed to achieve a breakthrough as President
Musharraf declined to leave aside the issue of Kashmir.
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Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered a mobilisation of India's military forces,
and as many as 500,000 servicemen amassed along the international
boundary bordering Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kashmir. Pakistan
responded with the same. Vicious terrorist attacks and an aggressive anti-
terrorist campaign froze day-to-day life in Kashmir, and foreigners flocked
out of both India and Pakistan, fearing a possible war and nuclear
exchange. For as long as two years, both nations remained perilously close
to a terrible war.
But the biggest political disaster hit his government between December
2001 and March 2002: the VHP held the Government hostage in a major
standoff in Ayodhya over the Ram temple. At the 10th anniversary of the
destruction of the Babri mosque, the VHP wanted to perform a shila daan,
or a ceremony laying the foundation stone of the cherished temple at the
disputed site. Tens of thousands of VHP activists amassed and threatened
to overrun the site and forcibly build the temple. A grave threat of not only
communal violence, but an outright breakdown of law and order owing to
the defiance of the government by a religious organisation hung over the
nation. But to the relief of Vajpayee, his government was able to tide over
this crisis rather smoothly.
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In 2002, Hindu-Muslim violence in the state Gujarat killed more than 1,000
people. Vajpayee officially condemned the violence.
Vajpayee was accused of doing nothing to stop the violence, and later
admitted mistakes in the handling the events. K.R. Narayanan, then
president of India, also blamed Vajpayee's government for failing to quell
the violence.
Remainder of term
In late 2002 and 2003 the government pushed economic reforms, and the
country's GDP growth accelerated at record levels, exceeding 6–7%.
Increasing foreign investment, modernisation of public and industrial
infrastructure, the creation of jobs, a rising high-tech and IT industry and
urban modernisation and expansion improved the nation's international
image. Good crop harvests and strong industrial expansion also helped the
economy.
The government reformed the tax system, increased the pace of reforms
and pro-business initiatives, major irrigation and housing schemes and so
on. The political energies of the BJP shifted to the rising urban middle-class
and young people, who were positive and enthusiastic about the major
economic expansion and future of the country. He faced stiff opposition
from other equally strong organizations in the RSS family such as the
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. However, he
continued with his aggressive economic reform policy.
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In August 2003, he announced before the parliament his "absolute last"
effort to achieve peace with Pakistan. Although the diplomatic process
never truly set-off immediately, visits were exchanged by high-level officials
and the military stand-off ended. The Pakistani President and Pakistani
politicians, civil and religious leaders hailed this initiative as did the leaders
of America, Europe and much of the world. In July 2003, Prime Minister
Vajpayee, visited China, and met with various Chinese leaders. He
recognised Tibet as a part of China, which was welcomed by the Chinese
leadership, who in the following year, recognised Sikkim, as a part of India.
Sino-Indian Relations, improved greatly, in the following years.
The NDA was widely expected to retain power after the 2004 general
election. The 13th Lok Sabha had been dissolved before the completion of
its term to capitalise on the perceived 'feel-good factor' and BJP's recent
successes in the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
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Chhattisgarh. The BJP hoped to capitalise on the slogan "India Shining"
and released many ads touting the economic growth of the nation.
However, the coalition lost almost half of its seats, with several prominent
cabinet ministers being defeated. The Indian National Congress, led by
Sonia Gandhi, became the single largest party and, along with many minor
parties, formed the United Progressive Alliance. With the conditional
support of the leftist parties from the outside, the UPA formed a
government under Dr Manmohan Singh. Vajpayee resigned as Prime
Minister and promised co-operation to the new government. Accepting
moral responsibility for the defeat, he decided not to take up the position of
the Leader of the Opposition and passed on the leadership mantle to Lal
Krishna Advani. However, he retained his post as Chairman of the NDA.
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Delegation of Standing Committees of External Affairs to Gulf countries i.e.
Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.
Post-premiership
Vajpayee has said about his poetry, "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 despirited voice of dejection
but the stirring shout of victory."
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Health issues
16-8-2018
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