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Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Turns 92

As India greets its blemishless leader  on his 92nd brithday on Friday, it's time for recounting his life's achievements.

Vajpayee is one of the giants that the country is proud of.  It may be difficult for another leader to reach the heights he had risen to.

Born to a Brahmin middle class parents, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and Krishnadevi, in Gwalior on December 25, 1924,  Vajpayee had his education in Laxmibai College in Gwalior and did his MA in political science in Kanpur. As student he ws interested in literature and science. He also studied law.

Starting his career as journalist, Vajpayee was soon drawn to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which he joined in 1939. He went on to become a full pracharak of the RSS in 1947.

A freedom fighter, he was jailed for 23 days during the Quit India Movement of 1942. That was his first brush with politics. He joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh Party in 1951. Vajpayee was responsible for the party affairs in the North based in Delhi.

In 1957, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Balrampur constituency. In the Lok Sabha debates, Vajpayee had so much impressed the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that the latter had the vision of the young leader one day becoming the Premier. In all, Vajpayee was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha and twice to the Rajya Sabha. He became Jana Sangh President in 1968.

Post-emergency, the Jana Sangh was merged into the Janata Party in 1977. The Janata Party won the general elections and Vajpayee was made the External Affairs Minister in the Morarji Desai government. In 1979, the Janata experiment failed. Then Vajpayee along with L.K. Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekawat formed the Bharatiya Janata Party with the Jana Sangh and RSS
leaders in 1980.

Between 1996 and 2004, Vajpyee became the Prime Minister thrice, the first time in 1996 for only 13 days. The fall was because of the parties professing support to him withdrawing. The second time he was Prime Minister for 13 months during 1998-99. His second government too collapsed with the AIADMK withdrawing support. With no party able to cobble up a government, the Lok Sabha was dissolved.  But it was during his second Prime Ministership that India carried out the Pokhran nuclear test.

In the 1999 general elections, the BJP-led NDA achieved a clear majority, and Vajpayee became the Prime Minister for the third time.

In 2005, Vajpyee withdrew from active politics, and announced he would not take part in elections.  At that time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaking in the Rajya Sabha described him as `Political Bhishma'.

In 2009, Vajpayee was hospitalized on account of an infection in the chest. He was put on a ventilator for some time. He recovered later. The same year he became unwell again. He had a paralytic stroke, and developed speech difficulty. Today he is not in a position to recognise people. Along with diabetes, he is stated to be suffering from dementia condition.

Vajpayee is the recipient of several national awards. These include Lokmanya Tilak Award, Govind Ballab Pant Award, Oustanding Parliamentarian Award, Padmabhushan, and in 2014 Bharat Ratna.