Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 100th birth anniversary to be celebrated on 25 December 2024

Bharat Ratna revered Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 100th birth anniversary is going to begin on 25 December 2024. This is an occasion when we will remember that great leader of the country, who set a new record in independent India. After independence, India was under the leadership of only and only the Congress Party, because before 1947, the leadership of independence was in the hands of revered Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the Congress Party was not a political party but a freedom movement, but after 1947, the leadership of the Congress came into the hands of late Jawaharlal Nehru, who used that freedom struggle for his political benefit and used it to continuously form the governments of the Congress Party. Atal Bihari ji became the first person who advocated that governments should run with Indian thinking, Indian ideas, Indian thinking, Indian perspective. The leadership of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was established by Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, came into the hands of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the 1950s and in 1957 he reached the Lok Sabha for the first time as an MP and his aura, his oratory skills, his poetic heart, attracted the whole country towards him. As long as Atal ji was alive, he remained in active politics, whether a person belonged to any party or a person from the general society, he was eager to listen to Atal ji. At various places, a large number of people participated in his programs who did not have any relation with Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party, and were also opposed to them, they also used to listen to Atal ji. It was because of his qualities that while being the leader of the opposition, he represented India in the UN. He had a deep love for the Indian language i.e. Hindi and a firm resolve that India’s development will happen only through Indian languages. Due to which, when he went to the UNO, for the first time an Indian politician, an official presented his views on the world stage using Hindi. In 1975, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country and sent thousands of people behind bars, Atal Ji, Advani Ji and all the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh were put in jail. Atal Ji led the country while being in jail and for the survival of democracy, he accepted the merger of his party, his party, into the Janata Party. The Janata Party was formed by merging many parties. In the elections held in 1977, for the first time a non-Congress government was formed in the country. Morarji Bhai Desai became its first Prime Minister and respected Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji led the country as the Foreign Minister. Within two and a half years, due to ideological differences, the party broke up and Bharatiya Jansangh was transformed into Bharatiya Janata Party. Thus, Bharatiya Janata Party was formed on 6 April 1980 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee became its first national president.

Under his leadership and the duo of Atal Advani, this party started growing at a fast pace. The then leaders of the Congress party used to laugh at the Bharatiya Janata Party, used to mock that the party is a national party with only two MPs, but the duo of Atal Ji, Advani Ji took it to almost 200 seats by 1996, and for the first time Hon’ble Atal Ji graced the chair of the Prime Minister and what kind of personality he had, what kind of character he had, can be easily guessed. When Atal Ji’s government fell on the floor of the House due to lack of one vote, he did not indulge in further sabotage, he did not do any business, he did not do horse trading and presented the reality before the entire country and resigned. Again, after taking oath as the Prime Minister of the country in 1997-98, if any person did the work of making India a nuclear power, then his name is Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On 11 May 1998, after carrying out three explosions one after the other in Pokhran, India’s nuclear test was completed. The world imposed sanctions on India and pressure was exerted on India that India will not become a nuclear power. Atal Ji bravely faced these sanctions of the world and said that India will become powerful and will remain so. If India became a nuclear power, then the reason behind it was respected Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji. Vajpayee Ji was fully aware and concerned about the development of villages. The funds received from the center used to go to the states for the development of rural roads, but due to the poor economic conditions of the states, the states used to use the money for those roads for other purposes instead of spending it on roads. Atal Ji took this matter seriously and gave birth to the “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana”. This scheme means a road will be built which will completely touch the village and will be a paved road, 100% of the expenditure of which will be borne by the central government and the maintenance will also be done by the central government. I remember very well that in the first phase itself, Rs 64 thousand crore was kept for the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana in the year 2000. This was such a huge amount that a network of connecting roads started getting laid in the rural areas of the country and if we see today, there is no state which is not taking advantage of these connecting roads and this Gram Sadak Yojana became the most popular scheme. Similarly, the production of food grains increased a lot in Atal ji’s government and the work of delivering food grains to the poor started. In 2001, Antyodaya Anna Yojana was started by respected Shanta Kumar ji in Atal ji’s government. This Anna Yojana stood as a welfare scheme for the poor. We can describe many such schemes, which Atal ji gave to change the fate of my country and the result was that the country moved forward at a steady pace. Atal ji was fully aware of Swadeshi, Atal ji was always aware of Indian languages, Sanskrit, Indian culture and the cultural heritage of India, one such personality who stood out in the politics of India in the post-independence era was Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, we bow down to his feet and pay our tribute to him. The Kargil war became an example for the country when Atal Ji himself reached the border and boosted the morale of the Indian soldiers. He told America clearly that as long as even a single Pakistani is inside the Indian border, there will be no ceasefire and no talks.

The form of honour given to soldiers was changed. The martyrdom of the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives on the border began to be saluted.

Such was Atal ji who, from his poetic heart, gave an unshakable challenge to the entire world that whatever may be the good or bad, he stands firm on his national duty with his head held high in the face of adversities.