New Delhi: Journalist and political commentator Neerja Chowdhury never forgot her meeting with a Muslim taxi driver during the 1996 elections in Mumbai.
“Is baar to Atal Bihari hi aayenge (Atal Bihari will surely win this time),” the driver said. She found it fascinating that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had managed to capture public imagination.
“Vajpayee’s popularity is what made him prime minister in 1996, 1998, and 1999. And that popularity was a value addition to the support that he had,” said Chowdhury during her lecture, titled ‘The Life and Contributions of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’.
The talk was organised by the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library (PMML), New Delhi on the eve of Vajpayee’s 101st birth anniversary.
Chowdhury was joined on 24 December by PMML director Ashwani Lohani and joint director Ravi Mishra. She traced how his personal popularity, poetic sensibility, and ability to carry diverse constituencies propelled him to power despite political isolation after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. The lecture also unpacked Vajpayee’s long wait to become prime minister, his ideological flip-flops on issues from Ayodhya to nuclear weapons, and his enduring yet tension-filled partnership with LK Advani that shaped the BJP’s rise.
“Atalji was one of those persons who symbolised an old India. He was deeply rooted in the nationalist ideology, but at the same time, he was able to take everybody along with him,” said Mishra.
PM-in-waiting
Vajpayee used to say that he was the longest PM-in-waiting. He was first noticed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1960s. “In 1996, he became PM, so long 36 years it took him to get to the pinnacle of power,” Chowdhury said.
She recalled the 1996 incident when then President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited Vajpayee to form the government. For some hours, he did not know what to do.
“Should he accept it, something he had dreamt about all his life, or should he not? He accepted it,” she said, adding that he could not prove majority as his party had only three allies.
The reason behind this was that after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the BJP was being treated by many regional parties as untouchable.
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Flip-flops
For Chowdhury, Vajpayee was the most enigmatic prime minister.
Her first encounter with Vajpayee was when she was in her 20s and studying architecture. “I was a student and went to Chandni Chowk for the sheer pleasure of hearing his poetry,” she said.
She said that not just his recitation skills, his pauses were incredible too. The former prime minister’s poetic heart gave him the ability to communicate at the popular level.
It reflected in Vajpayee’s Kashmir doctrine, where he mentioned three poetic words for the solution: Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat and Jamurhiyat. Kashmiriness, humanity, and democracy.
Chowdhury also mentioned Vajpayee’s flip-flops over his long political journey. On the nuclear question, he was a peacenik in the 1950s. But after the 1962 war, he said the only answer to an atom bomb is an atom bomb. He became a peacenik again in the 1980s, and then under him, nuclear tests were done in 1998.
“I have also noted examples of flip-flops on the whole question of Ayodhya. He said this and then said that to placate the party,” she said, adding that people never punished him for these flip-flops.
Atal-Advani jodi
Chowdhury called the “Atal-Advani jodi” a fascinating political partnership. It started when Deendayal Upadhyay asked Advani in the 1950s to help Vajpayee with his parliamentary work, as Advani was proficient in English.
She recalled the incident of 1995 when, in Mumbai, Advani declared Vajpayee as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP in the 1996 elections. Vajpayee was shocked. He got up and said, “Aap kya keh rahe hain? (what are you saying?)“
“Ghoshna ho chuki hai (the announcement is done now),” replied Advani.
Adavni didn’t even consult his party or the RSS when making this decision. Chawdhury added that the pair had many differences, but they never allowed it to come to a breaking point.
Chowdhury recalled 11 May, the day India tested for nuclear weapons. Only a few people knew about it in the government.
That day, she rushed to the North Block for Advani’s reaction.
“Advani was sitting all alone in a big room with a Sardar Patel portrait at the back. As I talked to him, tears came into his eyes many times,” she said. He had been deeply hurt because he was out of the loop.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)