Political Leaders & Revolutionaries Codexery

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The poet-politician who shaped modern Indian conservatism.

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Atal Bihari Vajpayee's birth occurred on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and his death on 16 August 2018.[1][2] From 1998 until 2004, and also for a period of two weeks in 1996, Vajpayee held the office of prime minister of India.[1] Among prime ministers not from the Congress party, Vajpayee was the first to complete a full term in office.[1]

Key facts and history

He completed a Master of Arts in political science from DAV College, Kanpur, Agra University, with a monthly scholarship of ₹75 from the Scindia dynasty.[3] He became a full-time RSS worker (pracharak) in 1947.[4][5] He became the first person to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in Hindi in 1977.[6] The schools Vajpayee attended in Gwalior were Saraswati Shishu Mandir for primary education and Gorkhi School for high school.[7]

In 1939, at 12 years old, Vajpayee became a volunteer (swayamsevak) for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).[4][5] The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had Vajpayee as one of its co-founders and a senior leader.[8] The national presidency of the Jana Sangh was attained by Vajpayee in 1968.[9] While Vajpayee was prime minister, the Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted by India in 1998.[10][11]

Domestic economic and infrastructural reforms, such as promoting the private sector and foreign investments, were introduced by Vajpayee's government.[12]

What the research sources say

The BBC account notes that Vajpayee's political roots lay with the right-wing RSS, and that the RSS sent him to parliament to take on Jawaharlal Nehru's ruling Congress government.[13] The same source states that Vajpayee formed the BJP in 1980 after the Janata Party collapsed.[13] The CNN report on the Lahore summit states that Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to work to reduce the risk of nuclear conflict.[14] The same CNN report notes that Vajpayee's Pakistan visit was the first by an Indian premier since the nuclear tests were conducted.[14]

The Mint article reports that Vajpayee first fought a national election on a Bharatiya Jana Sangh ticket in India's second Parliamentary election of 1957.[15] According to the BBC, Vajpayee's declaration that the nuclear tests had occurred was met with widespread public approval in India and significantly enhanced the BJP's reputation.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee"; Sumantra Bose 2013, p. 79 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "AB Vajpayee: The PM who consolidated India as a nuclear power", BBC, 18 August 2018. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Atal Bihari Vajpayee Biography – About family, political life, awards won, history", elections.in; "The Sangh (RSS) is my Soul; writes Atal Bihari Vajpayee", Vishwa Samvada Kendra, 19 January 2012; Tiwari, "Why Atal Bihari Vajpayee never spoke against Scindias of Gwalior", 17 August 2018; Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). _The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India_. Columbia University Press. (See chapters on ideological genealogy.) (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Sangh (RSS) is my Soul; writes Atal Bihari Vajpayee", Vishwa Samvada Kendra, 19 January 2012; "The outliers who won the PMs post"; Jaffrelot 1996, p. 131–132 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "The Sangh (RSS) is my Soul; writes Atal Bihari Vajpayee", Vishwa Samvada Kendra, 19 January 2012. facts only, no text reused. web.archive.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: De, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee passes away: 10 defining moments of his political career", The Indian Express, 16 August 2018; De, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee passes away: 10 defining moments of his political career", The Indian Express, 16 August 2018; Perkovich, George (2001). _India's Nuclear Bomb_. University of California Press. pp. 374-389. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gwalior : इस स्कूल में छात्र अटल बिहारी का हाजिरी नंबर था 101, यानि सौ फीसदी से भी एक ज़्यादा!", News18 हिंदी, 25 December 2020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gandhi, Rajmohan (2015). _Modern India: A Brief History_. Aleph. pp. 331-332. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Guha, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018): A poet among bigots", Scroll.in, 16 August 2018; Nag, "How the leadership of the Jana Sangh passed to Vajpayee", Scroll.in, 29 June 2014; "Key milestones in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's political journey", The Times of India, 16 August 2018; Nag, "How the leadership of the Jana Sangh passed to Vajpayee", Scroll.in, 29 June 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tellis, Ashley J. (2001). "India's Emerging Nuclear Posture," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Guha 2007, p. 633; Ajai K. Rai 2009, p. 162 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Atal Bihari Vajpayee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Vajpayee, the right man in the wrong party – 4  – New...", archive.is, 4 January 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Nag, "Atal Behari Vajpayee: A mercurial moderate", BBC, 16 August 2018. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
  14. "CNN – Leaders of Pakistan, India pledge to work toward peace – February 21, 1999", CNN. facts only, no text reused. web.archive.org
  15. "How Vajpayee fared in the 14 Lok Sabha elections he contested between 1957 and 2004", Mint, 17 August 2018. facts only, no text reused. livemint.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Atal Bihari Vajpayee (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Named in this entry

Parliament of IndiaKargil WarSanskritGwalior StatePartition of IndiaIndira GandhiRajasthanSikkim

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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