The demise of Atal Bihari Vajpayee has not shocked only the people but the people in neighbouring countries like Pakistan he is being remembered for his famous remarks “ You can change friends, but can’t change neighbours”. At home Vajpayee was the architect of coalition politics which ultimately brought him to power in Delhi and abroad he was a consensus builder. The biggest quality for which Vajpayee is being tribute today was his intent for reach out to people who even did not like his association with RSS and BJP. Though he had by conviction ideological association with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the organization known for sowing the seeds of hindutva politics in India but Vajpayee never showed intents of imposing hindutva politics over the people in any state and even as the Prime Minister of the country. Doubtlessly Vajpayee worked overnight for more than four decades to oust Congress from power but he was never swayed away by the divisive politics of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and hawks within the BJP. Becoming an acceptable public face of a party propelled by divisive forces and that too for the position of Prime Minister was a huge challenge for Attal Bihari Vajpayee who was known for his liberal views on almost all the national issues . Vajpayee had to face testing times as Foreign Minister in the Janta Party government from 1977-79 when took some bold initiatives to build new bonds of friendship with Pakistan . He demonstrated his ability to lead a multi-party alliance of divergent political ideologies for a full term of five years in the year 1998. Trinamool Congress led by Mamta Benerjee the iron lady of West Bengal who is fast emerging as a huge challenge to Modi led BJP was part of the muilti-party BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which survived for a full term of five years and this was the first non Congress government to survive a full five year time in the post 1947 political history of India. Had Vajpayee not become the acceptable face of the BJP for the position of Prime Minister the saffron party won’t have come to a close distance of power without him.
Had Modi government shown its commitment to work on the Vajpayee’s political doctrine the saffron party won’t have broken every promise it made to PDP in the “ agenda of alliance” and had Vajpayee been the Prime Minister in place of Modi the talks with the separatists in Jammu and Pakistan government won’t have taken a big hit. Prime Minister promised heavens in ‘the agenda of alliance’ to PDP leadership but did not bother to offer even the peanuts. So for Narendra Modi has demolished coalitions in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir and the role of Modi government in forging new alliances in north eastern states shows its total deviation from Vajpayee’s political doctrine.
Unfortunately the present Modi led BJP government did not learn any lessons from the top iconic leader of their own party. Vajpayee’ success in keeping the flock of about 18 political parties of divergent political ideas is still credited to his policy of putting almost all the contentious issues including Ayodhya, Article 370 and uniform civil code into oblivion. Had Modi government shown its commitment to work on the Vajpayee’s political doctrine the saffron party won’t have broken every promise it made to PDP in the “ agenda of alliance” and had Vajpayee been the Prime Minister in place of Modi the talks with the separatists in Jammu and Pakistan government won’t have taken a big hit. Prime Minister promised heavens in ‘the agenda of alliance’ to PDP leadership but did not bother to offer even the peanuts. So for Narendra Modi has demolished coalitions in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir and the role Modi government in forging in new alliances in north eastern states shows its total deviation from Vajpayee’s political doctrine.
