Atal Bihari Vajpayee Quotes

“journalist Vinod Mehta wrote, ‘I am convinced if Vajpayee had not been the PM, India would have been sent to fight in George Bush’s Iraq invasion. He dreaded phone calls from George imploring him to send even a token force. “His soldiers are dying and now he wants my soldiers to die. I will never let that happen,”’ Mehta remembered Atal having told him.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Speaking in the Lok Sabha on 8 May 1959, Atal said: ‘When we accepted the sovereignty of China on Tibet we made a mistake. That day was an unfortunate day. Where has the Panchsheel agreement gone? Those who proclaim Panchsheel say that according to Panchsheel democracy and dictatorship can live together. If for the communist imperialism the peace and religion loving people of Tibet can’t keep their way of life, then it is meaningless to say that in such a big world communism and democracy can co-exist. We don’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of Tibet. But Tibet is not an internal affair of China. I represent a small party but our party defends the independence of Tibet. We want friendship with China but we should not build the palace of this friendship on the dead body of Tibet’s independence.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Incidentally, at a reception at Governor House, Atal recited his poem ‘Ab jung naa hone denge hum’. Atal was felicitated at Lahore Fort where, hinting at the common heritage of the two nations, he pointed out how Shah Jahan was born in the fort and Akbar had spent close to a decade there. The audience was so impressed by Atal’s speech that Nawaz Sharif quipped, ‘Vajpayee sahab ab toh Pakistan mein bhi election jeet sakte hain. [Mr Vajpayee can now win elections even in Pakistan.]”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Delhi was the political capital and the Parliament where Atal went, allowed a vantage point that gave him a bird’s eye view of what was happening across the country. This gave him a sort of detached view and enabled him to rise above the party line. It also made him realize what makes India tick and appreciate the unity in the diversity of the country.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“He can be called eclectic akin to ancient philosophers who selected doctrines from various schools of thought. Thus he had imbibed and projected a catholicity of views,’ says Supriyo Banerjee, an academic from Kolkata.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“ACCORDING TO NEWTON’S THIRD law of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This holds true for the physical sciences, but in the field of policy reforms and political moves, while every action leads to a reaction, the reaction is not equal to the action.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“A remorseful Atal, after losing the Lok Sabha elections held after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, said in Gwalior (from where he had contested) that he wanted to clear any misgivings: ‘As a student of class X, I had written “Hindu Tan Man, Hindu Jeevan, Rag Rag Hindu Mera Parichay.” People say that Atal, who had written the poem, is not the same who does politics. There is no truth in it. I am Hindu. How can I forget that? However, my Hindutva is not constricted, it is not narrow.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“The composite dialogue could, however, not get going in Atal’s tenure because elections were called early and the results pushed his government out of power. Although Atal could not achieve lasting peace with Pakistan, his intentions can never be doubted. In fact, Alex Perry wrote in TIME magazine, on 26 April 2004, that Atal’s plan to ‘visit Pakistan to talk with Musharraf in Islamabad and the agreement to end half a century of war and hostility’ had only one parallel in modern history and that was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s 1977 mission to Jerusalem.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Immediately after crossing the border, where he was received by Nawaz Sharif, Atal said, ‘This is a defining moment in South Asian history and we will have to rise to the challenge.’ Atal’s aide Sudheendra Kulkarni later recalled how Pakistani information minister Mushahid Hussain had said to him on the sidelines, ‘Vajpayeeji has real guts to come to Pakistan like this and at this time.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Once India achieved its nuclear power status as did Pakistan, Atal felt that it was time that the two countries started working towards good relations. Atal’s counterpart in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, also believed that the two countries should foster good relations. Sharif sent an invitation to Atal to visit Pakistan. Pakistan wanted to test the commitment of the new BJP government. Atal responded wholeheartedly and crossed the Attari–Wagah border in Punjab by bus on the afternoon of 19 February 1999. He was accompanied by twenty-two distinguished Indians who included journalists like Kuldeep Nayar, cultural personalities like Mallika Sarabhai and film personalities like Dev Anand and Javed Akhtar. The bus that Atal went by was to become a daily feature from Delhi to Lahore and back. The bus service was to foster better people-to-people contacts, including allowing families that lived on either side of the border to meet each other.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“The assassination of Indira Gandhi, on the last day of October 1984, just ahead of the general elections, had a cataclysmic effect. It is common wisdom that the RSS worked for the Congress party in the December 1984 elections. Whatever be the case, the Congress won 414 of 545 seats in the Lok Sabha, its biggest ever win that has never been bettered. The BJP was routed as it could merely win two seats. Atal Bihari Vajpayee also lost. The BJP merely got around 7 per cent of the votes against the Congress’s 49 per cent. Reading the writing on the wall, Atal had decided to abandon New Delhi, the seat that he got elected from in 1977 and 1980.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“A piece by Vinod Mehta sums up Atal’s pleasant style. He wrote: ‘It was impossible not to like him. Periodically I would go to 7 Race Course Road to have tea in his genial company. We would gup-shup. I told him the latest joke doing the rounds and he would pass on whatever came his way. He is the only PM I have known who has a sense of humour and enjoyed the exchange of witticisms. Once when I went to see him, he did not seem his usual jovial self. I asked him why he was so glum. He said, “Apke baad Jayalalithaa aayengi.” Then he laughed uproariously.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“In Parliament, Atal impressed many with his oratory, which combined both thoughtful content and style of delivery. It is not that he was inhibited in his earlier years and gained confidence with time. Quite early on in his career, he had occasion to disagree with Pandit Nehru. He said on the floor of the Lok Sabha, ‘I know that Panditji practices shirshasana and is welcome to continue doing so, but this does not mean that he should look at issues with an inverted vision.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“At the same time, when, on one of his visits, Padmanabhaiah recommended a Bharat Ratna for Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Atal said, ‘For Bharat Ratna no recommendations are accepted.’ Padmanabhaiah persisted and said, ‘He is getting old and may not live much longer.’ Atal shot back, ‘About twenty days back I attended his concert in Pune. He is fine.’ There ended the conversation.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Padmanabhaiah says that one year he was surprised and elated when he went to meet Atal to wish him on his birthday. The civil servant was accompanied by the director of the IB. The prime minister after accepting their birthday wishes, said, ‘You two are able to save three hundred to four hundred lives in Nagaland every year due to your interventions. Thanks are due to you.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“eminent journalist Vinod Mehta wrote, ‘I am convinced if Vajpayee had not been the PM, India would have been sent to fight in George Bush’s Iraq invasion. He dreaded phone calls from George imploring him to send even a token force. “His soldiers are dying and now he wants my soldiers to die. I will never let that happen,”’ Mehta remembered Atal having told him.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Mere Prabhu, Mujhe itni unchai kabhi mat dena, Gairon ko gale na laga sakoo, Itni rukhai mat dena. [My Lord, Never let me climb so high that I can’t bend down to embrace another human, Deliver me from such arrogance.]”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“One of Atal’s best-known poems is ‘Geet Naya Gaata Hoon’ (I Sing a New Song). The poem begins with the protagonist in a crestfallen mood saying, ‘Geet nahin gaata hoon [I do not sing]’, and further, ‘Benakaab chehre hain, daag bade gehre hain; toota tilism, aaj, sach se bhaya khata hoon, geet nahin gata hoon.’ In the second stanza, the protagonist has regained his confidence and says, ‘Geet naya gata hoon; toote hue taaron se, phoote vasanti swar; paththar ki chaati mein ug aaya nav ankur.’ It ends, ‘Kaal ke kapal par likhta, mitata hoon.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“He also believed that ‘you can change friends but not your neighbours’, and that is why he aggressively pursued peace with neighbours like Pakistan.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“The greatest curse, not merely of Indian politics but of national life as a whole, is the general incapacity to work together. Let’s learnt to unite, instead of dividing to create harmony where disharmony exists and to keep our self-interest and ego in leash.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Atal realized that if the Congress party was successful in hanging on to power, it was because it reflected the desires and aspirations of the citizens in some measure. The easiest course for an opposition party is to launch a course of action and espouse an ideology that is diametrically opposed to that of the ruling party. However, Atal never aspired to do so. He knew that if the Congress party was doing something right, it had to be imbibed even at the risk of being criticized.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“WISE MEN SAY THAT a combination of bad luck and overconfidence can lead anyone to disaster”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“ACCORDING TO NEWTON’S THIRD law of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This holds true for the physical sciences, but in the field of policy reforms and political moves, while every action leads to a reaction, the reaction is not equal to the action. In some cases, the reaction is greater than the action and in others it is the reverse.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“A livid Atal answered, ‘Main aisi charcha mein nahin padna chahta [I do not want to be drawn into such discussions].’ He added: It is alleged that I work under pressure. I do not work under anybody’s pressure. Your party under pressure stopped nuclear tests. The dates were ready and the preparations had been made. But under foreign pressure the tests were stopped. But we went ahead with the nuclear tests in spite of the pressures. When we were fighting in Kargil, Clinton pressured us to talk to Pakistan. But we said that so long as Pakistan holds one cent of our land we will not talk. What does Soniaji want to say? When she was in Italy I had started doing parliamentary work. I know about my countrymen more than you. Who are you to tell about the Sangh Parivar pressure? This is an internal Parivar matter. Aap dakhal mat dijiye.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Every time, however, Atal rose to the defence of the RSS. For instance, on 27 May 1996, when the short-lived Atal government was sought to be replaced by Deve Gowda, Atal said on the floor of the Lok Sabha that the RSS was an organization that was wedded to the cause of the nation. He gave two examples, one of the Republic Day parade of 1963 (after the Chinese debacle) when the RSS was one of the organizations invited to send in representatives to participate in the march past to demonstrate national unity. The other one related to 1965 when, at the time of the Indo-Pak war, the government had deployed RSS men to regulate traffic on the roads of Delhi. Atal went on to quote Deve Gowda who, while speaking at a function in Bangalore in the midst of the Emergency, had said, ‘RSS is a spotless organization.’ Atal added that the RSS was an independent organization and while ‘you can differ with the RSS, the allegations against them are not required’.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“At the same time, Atal also advised that journals connected with the RSS should not take sides in the power games going on in the political arena. He also said that the RSS should not be involved in youth bodies that interacted with political parties or with trade unions. He significantly advised the RSS to formally enunciate its accepted stand that by Hindu Rashtra it meant Bharatiya Rashtra.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Further, a solution to the Kashmir problem must take into account the interests of India, Pakistan and above all the Kashmiri people (the words ‘above all’ were inserted at the instance of Atal).”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“He told India Today in the interview quoted earlier: ‘Yes, the tests have entailed a price. But we should not worry about it. India has a reservoir of resources and inner strength. If we tap its reservoir, the benefit will be a hundred times more than any price that we may have to pay in the short run.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“On 17 April 1999, the government got 269 votes in its favour while 270 votes went against. On the morning of that day, Atal spoke to BSP chief Mayawati, who promised to support the government. However, when Mayawati stood up to address the Lok Sabha, she announced that her party would vote against the government.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons

“Atal also answered the charge that his party should not have tried to form the government since the BJP got only a minority of votes. He pointed out that the first-past-the-post Westminster system that was followed in the country counted only the seats that a party won and not the percentage of votes polled. By implication, the BJP could not be blamed for jumping in to try and form a government.”
― Kingshuk Nag, Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man for All Seasons