Today is December 25, 2023, this is the 99th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. December 25, 2024, will be the centenary of his birth anniversary. We are confident that, following the ideals of Atal, the promises written in the manifestos of Jan Sangh and BJP over the years will come true. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must have planned or is planning wonderful preparations for his birth centenary. It is Atal’s good fortune that today, the ideology started by him, be it in the form of cultural nationalism, integral humanism, or Antyodaya, is being implemented wholeheartedly and passionately on the soil of India under the leadership of Narendra Modi is doing the work of bringing down.
Atal was the first Indian Foreign Minister in the United Nations during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government. He shocked the whole world by giving a speech in Hindi and also giving respect to his national language. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far visited 66 countries, revived India’s culture and nationalism, and enhanced the pride of India and Indians living in the world. It would not be an exaggeration to call it an authentic tribute to Atal.
Atal’s first government at the Union was for 13 days; the second time was for 13 months. When the 13-month government fell, people sitting in the opposition taunted that Atal came to power by forgetting the subject of their ideology, like Article 370, construction of the Ram Mandir, triple talaq, and Uniform Civil Code, and compromised with NDA. As the Prime Minister, Atal, replied in the House that being the largest party, when the President called us to form the Government, we had made a common minimum program so that the country does not have to bear the burden of re-election and could give a good Government. On the opposition side, Atal said that we understand one thing: the day we become the majority, we will leave neither Article 370, Ram Mandir, Triple Talaq, nor the Uniform Civil Code.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi single-handedly formed the majority government at the Centre in 2014. In 2019, history was created, and the Government was formed again. Atal’s words, which he spoke in the House, were heard by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and from Jan Sangh to BJP. When the opportunity came to fulfil what was written continuously in the manifesto, he did not delay even a bit. He dedicated the ideological things written and said by his political ancestors at the feet of 140 crore people.
Atal had said in the first BJP convention held in Mumbai, Andhera Chatega, Suraj Niklega, Kamal Khilega’. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Pradhansevak of the country, has implemented this sentence literally and efficiently. Atal was known throughout India for his tireless efforts in the journey of his political career, his generosity, his intimacy, and his many visits to India, not just once, but through his words, in the light of the lamp of the Jana Sangh and with the fragrance of the lotus flower. A wonderful effort was made to attract people from the West, North, and South to the BJP.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born in a small courtyard of his ancestral home in Kamal Singh Bagh of Shinde’s Cantonment in Gwalior. His father, Pandit Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, came to Gwalior from Bateshwar in Uttar Pradesh before independence, worked as a teacher in a school during the Scindia State, and used to support the family. Atal had four brothers. The name of the first brother was Awadh Bihari Vajpayee, the name of the second was Prem Bihari Vajpayee, the third brother was Sada Bihari Vajpayee, and the youngest was Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Atal came in contact with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Pracharak Tijare in childhood. From there, he became a Swayamsevak of the RSS.
During the British era, Atal used to study at Victoria College in Gwalior, which is today named Maharani Lakshmibai Arts and Commerce College. One of the teachers who taught Atal was a great litterateur, Dr. Shivmangal Singh Suman. After studying there, Atal reached Kanpur. There, he was admitted to law. It can be called a coincidence that his father did law with his son. At the same time, the late Bhaurao Deoras, who was a huge official of the Sangh in Uttar Pradesh, was sent after his studies as a Vistarak-Pracharak of the Sangh to the Shandila area of Uttar Pradesh. I am giving so much information here because the country’s people are associated with the BJP. The first Prime Minister, Atal, was also a Vistarak-Pracharak in his life, and even today’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, came in contact with the Sangh during his student life and remained a Pracharak for years. While being a Pracharak, he first became the organisational secretary of Gujarat BJP and later became the All India organisational secretary of BJP. It would be a coincidence that till now, both the Prime Ministers who have become Prime Ministers of national ideology with the values of Sangh were Swayamsevak of the Sangh from the very beginning.
Atal transformed the statement made by Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee about Kashmir that “Kashmir is an inseparable part of India” true on the day when it was passed unanimously in the Parliament on the 50th anniversary of independence in the presence of the then Lok Sabha Speaker PS Sangma. It was said that “Kashmir is an inseparable part of India”. His poem clarifies how much clarity was in Atal’s mind regarding Kashmir. The day is not far when, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the dream of hoisting the tricolour in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in the minds of 140 crore people will be fulfilled.
I am not at all comparing Atal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But coincidentally, on the birth anniversary of Atal, the commitment of unity, unity of vision, and ideology that was visible in both the leaders, it is my commitment as a writer to put it before society. Even though Atal is not with us physically today, he will always be among us through his shadow. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured his service as a politician and Prime Minister of an ideal lifestyle by awarding him Bharat Ratna and declaring his birthday on December 25 as Good Governance Day, he honoured every Indian by making his Samadhi ‘Sadaiv Atal’ at Rajghat. The tribute paid by him has become immortal in history. Today, every citizen and Karyakarta who comes to Delhi pays tribute to ‘Sadaiva Atal’ and gets overwhelmed by saluting the pioneer of his/her ideology.
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