Atal Bihari Vajpayee: 5 years too many for a Great Governance

This blog is dedicated to Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji who I think is the best politician I have seen in whatever limited time I have watched the political scenario till the present date.

I wouldnt go into the biography of Atalji but what reminds me is the one full time term of 5 years he served as the Prime minister of India from 1998 and 2004. And in those 5 years we could see lots of things happenig. We could literally see the development which was not happening earlier and which didnt happen later as well.

Firstly when BJP came into power lots of people thought it would even lead to a Civil war and unrest 'coz of the hardline agenda of the BJP. But it was the persona for Atal which absorbed all this. With Pressure from Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal, it was Atal who maintained a clear distinction among hardline agenda and a more moderate ones. It was Atalji who made the balance perfect so that all the apprehensions of the minorities and muslims get resolved.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was among the best statesman that India had. Even during Indira Gandhi's (Congress)  time they didnt have anyone as strong as Atalji and he was sent to represent and lead India in the UN during those days in spite of being in the Opposition.

But what stands out is the governance which we had the privilege to witness, though it was a short tenure but in my opinion it was the best so far.

Lets see in perspective what makes this tenure so special:

After a long time since 1974, under Atalji's leadership India tested 5 nuclear tests in Pokharan in 1998. This was a big milestone and espcially when the tests were conducted right under the nose of so many spy satellite cameras and no one even got a hint. What an achievement. It was a shocker to most countries as they couldnt even sense this.

In 1999 Atalji had multiple talks on making peace with pakistan (under musharaf) but also he was stern on the key issues. He started the Peace Train to pakistan but pakistan decieved again and started the Kargil War. It was good Diplomacy by Atalji that we did not go to nuclear missiles (this was closely watched by the CIA). Pakistan was prepared but India was stern and we drove them off and won the war.

Atalji was also involved in facelifting the infrastructure of india. It was during his tenure that the National Highways project started and you could see the development happening rapidly with the Golden Quadrilateral scheme.

Atalji's government also got the encourragement from the markets, it was a very business friendly tenure, the stock markets were high.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was instrumental in taking the science and technology development a step fruther.  The pokharan nuclear tests were a proof of that. It was during Ataljis' tenure that the very Successful Project Chandryaan was started and today we see it was Chandrayaan which found traces of water on the moon. Another feather in the cap of Indias space projects.

Following the inspiration of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Atalji also took the slogan "Jai Jawaan, Jai Kissan" to a step further, he said - "Jai Jawaan, Jai Kissan, Jai Vigyan", very aptly.

During this tenure, the Telecom segment of India picked up and a lot of development happened in the mobile phones segment.

But all this also happened with lots of compromises, with AIADMK etc. Atal had to go in for 3 terms (2 prior), 'coz of dirty politics in India and coalitions threatning to come down.
Also there were a few issues that the congress led opposition raised: the indian Airlines plane hijack issue, the non removal of Narendra Modi from BJP following the Gujarat Riots that happened during congress tenure.

There was also the Terrorist Attack on the Indian Parliament and Atalji took a strong action by passing the "Prevention of Terrorist Act" under strong opposition as it was a very stern move.  I think post 26/11 something of this sort should have been done by the present Govt but thats not the case.

It was Atalji's Govt which brought in APJ Abdul Kalam as the President. After Atalji's tenure what happened; BJP proposed a second tenure for Kalam but Congress played dirty and brought in Pratibha Patil whose husband was already tainted in a scam.

Atalji also became famous for his poetry and literary work . His style was even imitated by a few media people on talk shows etc.

Sadly after 5 full years, this tenure came to an end after Atalji started having health problems and there was no good face from thje BJPs side for the elections and also 'coz of the overconfidence of BJP on the India Shining drive.
But all said and done today during the second tenure of the UPA with so many failures and so many Scams, increased inflation, we can look back at this governance and can take a leaf out of it.

There are a few Politicians today who follow the same style of politics of the development like Nitish Kumar of Bihar - (named the CNN IBN man of the Year 2010).

 I would say for the sake of development a 5 year tenure was too much for Atalji as a lot was achieved whereas its too less for other govts who are around for almost 60 years now and have hardly done anything substantial.
Though this was a short tenure in the Govt but so many events happened and so much was done solely by the vision and great statesmanship of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

---- A Salute----------------