Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's 10th Prime Minister and perhaps also one of the most beloved leaders among the massed, changed the face of India and even Indian politics on the global platform. Showing the world just how crucial political positions are meant to be held, he put India on the roadmap to development and international recognition.

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Vajpayee was known for having been India's first non-Congress PM and his tenure was marked by a myriad of memorable events. An excellent orator, gifted writer and a visionary, he wished to make India strong, independent and glorious, and remains to be one of the most important personalities who redefined secularism in our nation.

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Born in Gwalior on 25th December 1924, Vajpayee's father was a poet and a school teacher who imbibed in him the love for the written word. A meritorious student, he scored distinctions in Hindi, English and Sanskrit in college and graduated with a first-class M.A. degree in Political Science from DAV College in Kanpur. Due to the India-Pakistan partition riots, he had to give up studying for his law degree.

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Vajpayee's first brush with politics was during the Quit India Movement when he and his elder brother were put in jail for 23 days. In 1951 he became the National Secretary of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was to later morph into the Bhartiya Janata Party. As the party's founding member, he went on to change the face of Indian politics in the years to follow.

When he took over the reins as PM in 1996, he stepped forward to shoulder his responsibilities with a vision in mind, one that he came to fulfil during his term. Though there have been a few events that went awry during his tenure, his achievements overshadow a lot of it and his ways continue to remain unparalleled to this day.

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While Vajpayee's roadmap to lead India towards development was well charted, he put his words to action and held open India's road to glory by launching ambitious and successful road projects - the Golden Quadrilateral and the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna. It connected a greater part of rural India and made access to health care, transport and education much easier.

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During his tenure, India's GDP saw an all-time high, one that was close to a double digit. The Fiscal Responsibility Act boosted public-sector savings, which rose from -0.8% of GDP in FY 2000, to 2.3% in FY 2005. 

The Telecom Revolution is credited to him because he introduced the New Telecom Policy, which led to greater telecom penetration which rose from 3% in 1993 to 70% in 2012.

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Vajpayee is also known for improving India's relations with the US as well as Pakistan. Bill Clinton's visit to India in 2000 ended the cold war between the two countries. He also inaugurated the Delhi-Lahore Bus service and rode on it to Lahore, thereby establishing road connectivity between the two nations since 1947.

His love for science and a strong belief in the development of India in the field of technology, allowed him to show faith in India's capabilities to achieve greatness in this arena too. 

In 1998, India successfully conducted 5 underground Nuclear tests in a week and this happened under his leadership, which gave India a major upper-hand internationally. Moreover, he also passed the Chandrayan-I project, which saw India's own spacecraft land on the moon in 2008. 

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Another great move by the former PM has to be the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2002 that declared education as a Fundamental Right in India, thereby providing universal access to free elementary education for children aged 6-14 years. A move that has been lauded by the nation at large and put India on its path to great achievements.

Interestingly, with Delhi Metro's latest Pink Line opening its gates to the public, we also need to mention that it was Vajpayee who had given approval to the Delhi Metro Project and made it the country's best mass transit public transport system!

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There is a lot more we'd like to say but words fall short at a time like this. When the entire nation mourns the loss of a great leader and visionary, we leave you with this quote by the amazing man himself: 

“This power of democracy is a matter of pride for our country, something which we must always cherish, preserve and further strengthen.”

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