A Great Loss for India: The death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Right after its 72nd Independence Day, the country is saddened. Yesterday itself, the country rejoiced and cherished its Independence but today’s it is mourning the loss of one of the greatest leaders it has ever witnessed and it is none other than former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Yesterday, the people who had been sharing quotes related to patriotism are today sharing their grief upon the death. From the innocent ones to the experienced, everyone is mourning a loss which can never be compensated. Some are posting Rest in Peace messages while some, the Return if possible messages. This only shows the immense respected the leader had garnered for himself. Similar was the condition few years back when APJ Abdul Kalam died.
Life of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a poet, a politician and a person everyone has admired. It can truly be said that “Indian Politics lost its story”. Also, it will not be wrong to say that he was one of the best Prime Ministers in the history of India. Lt. Vajpayee was elected as the Prime Minister of India and his legacy was supreme. For all the years he ruled, the BJP leader had an unbeatable attitude and proved to be the most well-spoken PM. He created history for being the one PM who did not belong to the Congress but ruled for one full term. Under his rule, the Pokhran nuclear test was carried. He had received a number of honorary awards during his lifetime, some of the most prominent ones being Bharat Ratna, Lokmanya Tilak Award, Padma Vibhushan and so many more.
Mr Vajpayee served as a PM for 15 days in 1996. This was his first tenure. Then, again he served as the PM for 13 months from 1998 March to 1999 April. However, his full time Prime Minister job was that from 1999-2004 under the Congress government.
Education
Born on 25th December, 1942, he was sent to Saraswati Shishu Mandir as a child for education. His father, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee was a poet and school teacher. Atal Bihari Vajpayee studied Sanskrit, English and Hindi from the Gwalior Lakshmi Bai College and further went to Victoria College. He gathered his Masters degree in Political Science from the DAV College, Kanpur.
Political Career
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s encounter was with Indian politics when he joined the Quit India Movement in 1942. He became a journalist and was the editor of prominent Hindi publications such as Swadesh, Veer Arjun, Rashtradharma and Panchjanya. He became a member of Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 21 October 1951. He strongly supported the unity of people and to make minorities a part of the community.
In 1977, he became the founding member for the Janata Party and acted as the External Affairs Minister under the government of Morarji Desai.
Last years of life
The former PM eventually withdrew himself from the limelight in the last years of his life since he said he was suffering from dementia and diabetes. Due to these, he even took a retirement from the government. His close ones said, he spent most of his days at home and was eventually failing to recognize the people.
He was admitted to the hospital on 11th of June because of urinary tract infection and pain in the chest. The team of doctors at All India Medical Institute had been seeing the former Prime Minister since the past nine weeks owing to his illness. The Prime Minister’s health had taken a bad turn on 15th August and several political leaders had visited the hospitals. Nonetheless, the former Prime Minister lost his battle and died on 16th August, 2018.
The country mourns such a great loss. He was a great poet who published several books such as Ikyavana Kavitaem, Sreshtha Kabita, Nayi Disha and so many more. Prime Minister Modi tweeted, “He lived for the nation and served it assiduously for decades.”
But in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s words,
“Maut ki umar kya hai?
Do pal bhi nahi
Zindagi silsila
Aaj hai kal nahi.”
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