Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (often wrongly spelt Behari; अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी in Devnagari) (born December 25, 1924) was the Prime Minister of India in 1996 and again from October 13, 1998 until May 19, 2004.

The Bridge to the 21st Century

On October 13, 1999, Gen. Pervez Musharaff, chief of Pakistan's army and the chief planner of the Kargil invasion, seized power from the civilian government. Arresting deposed PM Nawaz Sharif, he took power as the Chief Executive of Pakistan. This was the third military coup in the history of Pakistan.

Related Topics:
Pervez Musharaff - History of Pakistan

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On the same day, Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the third time took oath as Prime Minister of India. The BJP-led NDA had won as many as 303 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha, a comfortable, stable majority, without the AIADMK. This majority could arguably have been bigger had elections been held in July or August, owing to the patriotic fervor at the end of the war. When an Indian Airlines flight, IC 814 from Nepal was kidnapped by Pakistani militants and flown via Pakistan to Taliban ruled Afghanistan in December 1999, another major national crisis propped up. Skillfully negotiating the release of over 300 passengers in exchange for 3 militants, Vajpayee and his close aide, Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh earned the respect of many people, despite the humiliating and trying period. This crisis only worsened the relationship between India and Pakistan, as the hijacked plane was allowed to re-fuel in Lahore, and all the hijackers save one were Pakistanis.

Related Topics:
Indian Airlines - IC 814 - Nepal - Taliban - Afghanistan - Jaswant Singh

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In March 2000, however, the Vajpayee Government could boast a major political score when Bill Clinton, President of the United States made the only second-ever visit by an American President to India. Happening barely 2 years after the Pokhran tests, and 1 year after the Kargil invasion and the coup in Pakistan, this signaled a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, by warming relations for the 21st century and leaving old-time Cold War frictions and suspicions. Both the PM and the President talked strategic issues, but the chief achievement was a major expansion in trade and economic ties, as well as a major vision shift for the U.S., trading a military-controlled Pakistan for a new ally in the World's largest democracy. The first-ever BJP government was under constant pressure from its ideological mentor, the RSS, and the hardcore VHP to enact the Hindutva agenda. But owing to its dependence on coalition support, it was impossible for the BJP to push items like building the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir in Ayodhya, repealing Article 356 and a uniform civil code for all people irrespective of religion.

Related Topics:
Bill Clinton - President of the United States - U.S. foreign policy - Cold War - Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir - Ayodhya

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The BJP was accused of saffronizing (Saffron is the color of the flag of the RSS, symbol of the Hindu cultural movement) the official state education curriculum and apparatus. Several Christian missionaries were murdered by extreme Hindu activists in 1999 for forcing Hindus to convert and disparaging Hinduism. His number two Home Minister L.K. Advani and Education Minister Murli Manohar Joshi were chargesheeted in the 1992 Babri Mosque demolition case for inciting the destructive mob of activists, bringing controversy, discredit and confusion to government. The RSS also routinely criticized the government for free-market policies which introduced foreign goods and competition at the expense of home industries and products.

Related Topics:
Hinduism - L.K. Advani - Murli Manohar Joshi

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PM Vajpayee and his Government earned the ire of many unionized workers groups and government workers by their aggressive campaign to privatize government corporations and entities. Vajpayee strongly pushed pro-business, free market reforms to reinvigorate India's economic transformation and expansion, started by former PM Narasimha Rao and stalled after 1996 by weak governments and the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis. Increased competitiveness, extra funding and support for the information technology and high-tech industries, deregulation of trade, investments and corporate laws, all increased foreign capital investment and set in motion an economic expansion that took the country into the 21st century.

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However, these couple of years of important reform produced exhausting battles and confusion to the direction of government. Vajpayee's weakening health also remained a subject of discussion, and he underwent a major knee-replacement surgery at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai to relieve great pressure on his legs. Cabinet portfolios were created and shuffled every six months to pacify restless coalition partners.

Related Topics:
Breach Candy Hospital - Mumbai

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In 2000, the Tehelka group released incriminating videos of the BJP President Bangaru Laxman and senior Army officers and NDA members accepting bribes from journalists posing as agents and businessmen. While no connection ever touched Vajpayee's image or credibility, the Defence Minister George Fernandes was forced to resign by intense criticism over this scandal, and another involving the botched supplies of coffins for the martyred soldiers in Kargil, and the fact that an inquiry commission saw that the Government could have prevented the invasion. Such flaring developments, and an economy giving mixed signals over controversial reforms reduced the Vajpayee administration's popularity and undermined its future.

Related Topics:
Tehelka - George Fernandes

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But the resilience of Vajpayee's vision crossed another milestone, as he again broke the ice in a grand fashion by inviting Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit and peace talks. His second-major attempt to move beyond the stalemate tensions involved inviting the very man who had planned the Kargil invasions, but accepting him as the inevitable President of Pakistan, Vajpayee chose to move forward. But after three days of much fanfare, which included Musharaff visiting his birthplace in Delhi, the summit failed to budge an inch. Musharaff used the summit to win acceptance and legitimacy from his European and American critics, change his image from a reactionary war-monger dictator to a legitimate chief of state with a vision for the future. But none of this idealism made way to the table, as Musharaff made unacceptable demands of his hosts over the Kashmir issue, terrorism and the nuclear standoff, demanding extraordinary concessions that even the most radical Pakistani would know were doomed to fail. Vajpayee held the line, and the breakthrough never materialized.

Related Topics:
Delhi - Agra - President of Pakistan

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On December 13, 2001, a group of masked, armed men with fake ids snuck into the Parliament premises and stormed the Parliament building in Delhi. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men, who were later proven to be Pakistanis. Coming just three months after the September 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States, this fresh escalation instantly enraged the nation. Although the Government of Pakistan officially condemned the attack, accumulating intelligence reports pointed the finger at a major conspiracy rooted in Pakistan. Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered a mobilization of India's military services, and as many as 500,000 servicemen amassed along the international boundary running through Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kashmir, and 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 2 years, both nations remained at a terrible vigil, often perilously close to a terrible war, and never ever safely away from the threat of one.

Related Topics:
December 13, 2001 - September 11 - United States - Government of Pakistan - Punjab - Rajasthan - Gujarat - Kashmir

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Vajpayee's administration introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance soon after the attacks, allowing police and security forces extraordinary powers to detain and question suspects for indefinite periods, and expanding government authority over the freedom of speech, assembly and other fundamental liberties in the interest of public safety and national security. Hotly opposed by the Congress Party and all non-NDA parties, Vajpayee nevertheless pressed on by invoking for the first time, a Joint Session of Parliament, so that the upper house, where non-NDA parties held a majority, would not stall the bill. A basic majority proclaimed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, or POTA. Human rights activists, minority rights groups, the Congress Party and the Left strongly attacked it as a rash, discriminatory, totalitarian law. The use of POTA by some state governments to jail political opponents was seen as the big failing of the law, and many Muslims saw the law give police permission to target and profile Muslims. Under the law, several radical Islamic organizations that preached the conversion of Hindus and an Islamic state in India were banned and its leaders and members arrested.

Related Topics:
Joint Session of Parliament - Prevention of Terrorism Act - POTA

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But the biggest political disaster hit 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 mosque, the VHP wanted to perform a sheela daan, or a ceremony laying the foundation stone of the cherised 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 organization hung over the nation. India's very secular foundations were shaken and the BJP fumbled to respond to and control its hardcore ally. Agreeing to a timely compromise, the ceremony was performed but off the controversial site, the offering accepted by a local government official. The standoff eased, and it is widely speculated that the Vajpayee administration threatened the VHP with grave consequences, including a permanent ban.

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The result was, that the VHP could not carry out its most fundamental promise before the very eyes of millions. Just a week following the standoff, a train carriage carrying hundreds of VHP activists returning from Ayodhya was attacked by a Muslim mob in Godhra, Gujarat. Fire was set off, killing 59 activists. To this day, it is unclear what caused the conflagration. The result was the first and most terrible episode of communal violence in the 21st century in India. See the 2002 Gujarat violence for more specific information.

Related Topics:
Godhra - Gujarat - 2002 Gujarat violence

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The visuals of charred remains set off frenzied Hindu mobs in the state of Gujarat, who attacked and killed over 1,000 Muslims. In all, over 2,000 people were killed and displaced. The state was shut down for over two months and refugee camps arose outside cities. The state government was led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a BJP leader. He was widely accused for the unwillingness of police to stop the mobs. The police was absent from streets, in the wrong places at the wrong times, not responding to help calls and official complaints, and often aiding the mobs in their attacks and lootings. The chaotic situation peaked when a marauding mob paraded right outside the Gujarat police chief's offices. Modi and senior VHP leaders simply defended the Hindu mobs as the "natural response" to the Godhra attacks. Many BJP lawmakers, ministers and VHP activists were accused of organizing mobs themselves.

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The Union Government appointed K.P.S. Gill, an ex-Punjab police chief to take over the reins of law enforcement, and sent in the Army to restore order. As Gujarat limped back to peace, the BJP government faced a major crisis. Vociferous assaults began, calling for Modi's resignation and even arrest, but the RSS and VHP stood strongly behind him, calling him a hero. In this confusion came Vajpayee's weakest moment: while he personally visited the state and publicly criticized the Chief Minister for not doing his moral duty to protect the people, he made a controversial speech at a national party convention in Goa in June, allegedly attacking Muslims for having tolerated the Godhra attackers, and not doing enough to counter Islamic terrorism entering the country. Several statements questioning the patriotism of Muslims were said to have been made by him, although Vajpayee strongly denies any such utterance. The result was his being attacked now by his political opposition, as well as raising suspicion from Hindu nationalists and the Muslim communities of the nation. In a Cabinet reshuffle, his more hardline associate Lal Krishna Advani was designated Deputy Prime Minister of India, and increased power in the party and the Cabinet, and more credibility with the RSS and the conservative Hindu base. In September 2002, Narendra Modi led the BJP to a major victory, and thus vindication through the state assembly elections. Having conducted a hard-right, hard-nosed campaign, Modi gave fresh energy, force and voice to hardline Hindus in the BJP's organization and political destiny. His defiant victory was seen standing right against the moral criticism handed down by the Prime Minister.

Related Topics:
Goa - Deputy Prime Minister of India

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But late 2002 and 2003 were good years for Vajpayee and the nation. Quietly side-stepping Modi and the Gujarat issues, the Government pushed economic reforms, and the country's GDP growth accelerated at record levels, exceeding 6-7%. Increasing foreign investment, modernization of public and industrial infrastructure, the creation of jobs, a rising high-tech and IT industry and urban modernization and expansion gave the country much needed and well-earned positive publicity in the world. Good crop harvests and strong industrial expansion increased the confidence of the Indian people. 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. In August 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee stunned the nation by announcing before Parliament his "absolute last" effort to achieve peace with Pakistan. This stunning reversal, after some tragic humiliations and terrible developments over the past 5 years caused both friends and foes alike, including the Indian people and many in Pakistan, to look at Vajpayee in awe of his statesmanship and determination. He had risen from the ashes of the 2002 crises. 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.

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In November-December 2003, the BJP won three major state elections, fought mainly on development issues, without ideological campaigns. A major public relations campaign was launched to reach out to Muslims and stop the 2002 controversies from haunting the party's future. But the attention of the media and of millions now moved from Vajpayee to his more possible successor, L.K. Advani, although the question was never directly raised or contested in any way. Vajpayee's age, failing health and diminished physical and mental vigor were obvious factors in such speculations. Advani assumed greater responsibilities in the party, and although no perceivable conflict has been known to arise between the longtime friends and political colleagues, several embarrasing statements were made. Once Vajpayee said "Advani would lead the BJP in the elections," prompting Advani to clarify that he would merely lead the election campaign, not the party. And then the BJP President Venkiah Naidu used mythological references to depict Vajpayee as a Vikas Purush, (Man of Progress), comparing him toBhishma Pitamah of the Mahabharata epic, a man respected by all political outfits and hundreds of millions of people. Advani was called the "Loh Purush" (Iron Man), a more potent reference suggestive of future developments.

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As the BJP prepared for General Elections in 2004, either early or late, Vajpayee was still the choice of the BJP, and crucially of the wider NDA for the Prime Minister's job.

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