Atal Bihari Vajpayee: The PM who respected his allies, rivals

He became the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full term in office

vajpayee-jayalalithaa-pti (File) Former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee with the former Tamil Nadu chief minister, the late Jayalalithaa | PTI

Tridecaphobia—the fear of number 13—is one of the many things Atal Bihari Vajpayee braved. The first time he was elected prime minister, he held the office for 13 days. The second time, it was for 13 months. But by the time he took over as prime minister for the third time, he had attracted a following of non-Congress parties that were part of the National Democratic Alliance, and there was no stopping him from completing the full tenure of the Lok Sabha. He became the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a full term in office—from 1999 to 2004.

That itself was an accomplishment, given the instability that had marked the previous few years. The BJP had, in fact, campaigned around Vajpayee, with one slogan being, “Vote a stable government”, and another, “Vote an Able Prime Minister”.

The BJP manifesto said, “In Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the people see a leader who combines ability with integrity, charisma with character and experience with universal acceptability. He is not a person who claims leadership by birth in, or relationship with, any dynasty. He is a leader by virtue of his long and dedicated service to the nation and its people in and out of Parliament.” His right-hand man, the BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani, writes in his autobiography, My Country, My Life that “Atalji's charisma was palpable among all the sections of society”. The party upped its Lok Sabha tally from 161 in the 1996 elections, to 182 of the 384 they contested. And the mandate to the Vajpayee government was the Common Minimum Programme of the NDA.

His term marked extraordinary activity in the area of infrastructure. The Golden Quadrilateral highways project is Vajpayee's own brainchild—in government files, it is the National Highways Development Project. For the countryside, he had the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. The two programmes were such a hit that the present NDA government, which is continuing them, can list them in their achievements.

Prime Minister Vajpayee had a way of dealing with the allies—cheerfully, pleasantly, and lightly. “This is not khichdi government, this is kheer government,” he told some journalists. “He accorded everyone the dignity they deserved, so there was no question of any ally getting angry with him or wanting to leave the NDA or, for that matter, not going with consensus in case of Cabinet decisions,”said Ashok Tandon, his media adviser. Vajpayee had no qualms in continuing with the economic reforms of former prime minister Narasimha Rao. The private sector got a huge boost, as did the opening of doors to foreign investments.

The reforms with regard to the de-licensing of the sugar industry, says the then MP, Sompal Shastri, was one of the toughest economic decisions that Vajpayee-led Cabinet took. “There was tremendous pressure from all around. There were lobbies that represented the interest of the sugar mill owners. But Vajpayee stood his ground, and a colonial-era sugar control Act was abolished. Jobs were created, and the industry did produce. There was nothing visibly wrong on the economic front. But the scar of the Gujarat violence of 2002, possibly, did not convince people that India was shining—the slogan on which the BJP based its call for yet another term for Vajpayee.