Atal Bihari Vajapyee was one of the rare leaders who earned tremendous goodwill of the masses as well as respect from his political opponents. He served as the prime minister of India for three terms and during that time, India started ushering in reforms which boosted growth like never before.
His government's most visible action was the ordering of the daring nuclear tests at Pokhran which challenged the discriminatory nuclear order and tackled the resulting geopolitical consequences skilfully.
The Vajpayee-led NDA's tenure was the only time the country had a government ideologically committed to right-wing economics.
The economic policies ushered in by his government are credited by leading economists to be behind India's GDP growth rate of 8 percent from 2003-2007.
Vajpayee's government ordered privatisation of government companies via strategic sales, foreign exchange rules were made more friendly, there was rationalisation of taxes, reforms were initiated in capital markets and insurance. The government even went to the extent of proposing privatising public sector banks and liberalising labour laws.
If the plans to privatise Air India and oil marketing companies had succeeded, trillions of rupees would have been saved and invested where they were needed the most.
The Golden Quadrilateral highway project was his government's brainchild and it contributed immensely to strengthen his positive legacy. Implementation of innovative policies during his term helped usher in the telecom revolution.
And for the first time in India's history, a coalition government completed its full term, the credit for which goes to Vajpayee given that NDA was made up of unruly partners, each with different agendas.
However, Vajpayee or his government was not entirely blemish-free. He had this unique ability to take the whole credit for important achievements of his government while his advisers made scapegoats of others for unsavoury happenings.
For example, the abject surrender at Kandahar airport when terrorists were released in return for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight was blamed on Lal Krishna Advani though it was common knowledge that he was very vocal in his opposition to the deal of exchanging terrorists for passengers.
Vajpayee enjoyed a great relationship with the media thanks to the PMO's self-serving outreach to the media powerhouses and he did nothing to debunk the charade of good Vajpayee versus bad BJP enacted by his friends in the media.
However, Vajpayee's greatest failing was his inability to shake off the old establishment − he was called a closet Nehruvian by many in BJP − and create a new one to accommodate the ideology which brought him to power. Despite secularists fear mongering that the right wing would take over with Vajpayee coming to power, nothing of that sort happened. His government lacked imagination or it was too besotted by the Nehruvian legacy to nurture alternative worldviews.
The PMO during Vajpayee's tenure was the focal point of intrigue and deal making with his foster son-in-law caught in several controversies. His Principal Secretary and National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra turned out to be a huge embarrassment for BJP by playing into the hands of media, which wanted ammunition to tarnish BJP, with his irresponsible sound-bytes.
By the time Vajpayee assumed office, he, along with other heavy weights in the party, had toiled hard to build the party from scratch by travelling the length and breadth of the country motivating the workers on the ground and giving them hope, when there was none, of coming to power.
Credit for making the BJP a political force that it is today, which not only survived and flourishd but also challenged and beat the Congress Party when many had failed, is testimony to the leadership of Vajpayee among others and also to the millions of party cadres. For this reason alone of providing a stable political alternative, Vajpayee deserves a standing ovation.
Significant milestones in Vajpayee's tenure as prime minister
First term: May 1996
In the 1996 general elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha and Vajpayee was sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister of India, but the BJP failed to get enough support to obtain a majority. Vajpayee resigned after 13 days.
Second term: 1998–1999
BJP with the help of various parties formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister. The government lasted 13 months until mid-1999 when the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa withdrew its support.
Nuclear tests
In May 1998, India conducted five underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, 24 years after it conducted its first nuclear test. The tests were held just a month after the government came to power.
The Lahore summit
In late 1998 and early 1999, Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan. With the historic inauguration of the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Vajpayee initiated a new peace process aimed towards permanently resolving the Kashmir dispute and other conflicts with Pakistan.
Kargil War
Militants and Pakistani soldiers infiltrated across the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K and captured hill tops, unmanned border posts. After a protracted conflict to weed them out, Vajpayee sent a letter to then US President Bill Clinton that if the infiltrators did not withdraw from the Indian territory, "we will get them out, one way or the other" - meaning he did not rule out crossing the LoC, or initiate a full-scale war.
Third term: 1999–2004
In the 1999 general elections, the BJP-led NDA won 303 seats out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, securing a comfortable and stable majority. On 13 October 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time.
Hijack of an Indian Airlines plane
In late December 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five terrorists and flown to Afghanistan. The hijackers demanded the release of terrorists, including Masood Azhar from prison. The government caved in and Jaswant Singh, the then Minister for External Affairs flew with the terrorists to Afghanistan and exchanged them for the passengers.
Agra Summit
Vajpayee invited Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Delhi and Agra for a joint summit from July 14-16, 2001. But after three days of much fanfare, which included Musharraf visiting his birthplace in Delhi, the summit failed to achieve a breakthrough as President Musharraf declined to leave out the issue of Kashmir from the talks.
Attack on Parliament
On 13 December 2001, a group of armed men from Pakistan with fake IDs stormed the Parliament. The terrorists killed several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed them. Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered mobilisation of India's armed forces and move to the border with Pakistan. For two years, both nations stood eyeball to eyeball coming very close to a war.
Gujarat riots
In 2002, communal violence in the state Gujarat killed more than 1,000 people. Vajpayee officially condemned the violence though he was accused of doing nothing to stop the violence, and later admitted that mistakes were made in not tackling the violence properly.
