68 Facts About Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full term in the office.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a Hindi poet and a writer.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a member of the Indian Parliament for over five decades, having been elected ten times to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, and twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the Member of Parliament from Lucknow, Gwalior, New Delhi and Balrampur constituencies, before retiring from active politics in 2009 due to health concerns.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was among the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, of which he was president from 1968 to 1972.

In March 1977, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the minister of external affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned in 1979, and the Janata alliance collapsed soon after.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee sought to improve diplomatic relations with Pakistan, travelling to Lahore by bus to meet with Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government introduced many domestic economic and infrastructural reforms, including encouraging the private sector and foreign investments, reducing governmental waste, encouraging research and development, and the privatisation of some government owned corporations.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was conferred with the Padma Vibhushan in 1992, India's second highest civilian award by the Government of India.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee died in 2018 due to age-related illness.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's mother was Krishna Devi and his father was Krishna Bihari Vajpayee.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's father was a school teacher in Gwalior.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee did his primary schooling at the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Gwalior and high school education from the Gorkhi School, Gwalior.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's activism started in Gwalior with Arya Kumar Sabha, the youth wing of the Arya Samaj movement, of which he became the general secretary in 1944.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1939 as a swayamsevak, or volunteer in Gwalior at the age of 12 years.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave up studying law due to the partition riots.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sent to Uttar Pradesh as a vistarak and soon began working for the newspapers of Deendayal Upadhyaya: Rashtradharma, Panchjanya, and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was released after giving a written statement that while he was a part of the crowd, he did not participate in the militant events in Bateshwar on 27 August 1942.

In 1951, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was seconded by the RSS, along with Deendayal Upadhyaya, to work for the newly formed Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu right-wing political party associated with the RSS.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was appointed as a national secretary of the party in charge of the Northern region, based in Delhi.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee soon became a follower and aide of party leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost to Raja Mahendra Pratap in Mathura, but was elected from Balrampur.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru to the extent that he mirrored his style, diction, and tone of his speeches.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968, running the party along with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and L K Advani.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was arrested along with several other opposition leaders during the Internal Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.

In December 1976, Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered the student activists of the ABVP to tender an unconditional apology to Indira Gandhi for perpetrating violence and disorder.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the minister of external affairs, or foreign minister, in Desai's cabinet.

In 1979, Desai and Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned, triggering the collapse of the Janata Party.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered to quit as party president following BJP's dismal performance in the election, but stayed in the post until 1986.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 from Madhya Pradesh, and was briefly the leader of the BJP in Parliament.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself was reported to be unhappy with the announcement, responding by saying that the party needed to win the election first.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as the 10th prime minister of India, but the BJP failed to muster a majority among members of the Lok Sabha.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned after 16 days, when it became clear that he did not have enough support to form a government.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been credited for managing this coalition successfully, while facing ideological pressure from the hardline wing of the party and from the RSS.

In late 1998 and early 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan.

However, in May 1999, the AIADMK withdrew from NDA, and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration was reduced to a caretaker status pending fresh elections scheduled for October 1999.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee sent a "secret letter" to US President Bill Clinton that if Pakistani infiltrators did not withdraw from the Indian territory, "we will get them out, one way or the other".

On 13 October 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as the prime minister of India for the third time.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself came under public scrutiny owing to his controversial speech one day prior to the mosque demolition.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's weakening health was a subject of public interest, and he underwent a major knee-replacement surgery at the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai to relieve intense pressure upon his legs.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated talks with Pakistan and invited Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf to Agra for a joint summit.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered Indian troops to mobilise for war, leading to an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Indian soldiers positioned along the international border between India and Pakistan under Operation Parakram.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration brought in the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 2002.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee reportedly wanted to remove Modi but was eventually prevailed upon by party members to not act against him.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled to Gujarat, visiting Godhra, and Ahmedabad, the site of the most violent riots.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced financial aid for victims and urged an end to the violence.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was accused of doing nothing to stop the violence, and later admitted mistakes in handling the events.

In July 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China and met with various Chinese leaders.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee recognised Tibet as a part of China, which was welcomed by the Chinese leadership, and which, in the following year, recognised Sikkim as part of India.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government introduced many domestic economic and infrastructural reforms, including encouraging the private sector and foreign investments, reducing governmental waste, encouraging research and development and privatisation of some government owned corporations.

In 2001, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan campaign, aimed at improving the quality of education in primary and secondary schools.

In December 2005, Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced his retirement from active politics, declaring that he would not contest in the next general election.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was referred to as the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics by former prime minister Manmohan Singh during a speech in the Rajya Sabha, a reference to the character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata who was held in respect by two warring sides.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was hospitalised at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi for a chest infection and fever on 6 February 2009.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was put on ventilator support as his condition worsened but he eventually recuperated and was later discharged.

Unlike purist Brahmins who shun meat and alcohol, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was known to be fond of whisky and meat.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a noted poet, writing in Hindi.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a stroke in 2009 which impaired his speech.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's health had been a major source of concern; reports said he was reliant on a wheelchair and failed to recognise people.

On 11 June 2018, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was admitted to AIIMS in critical condition following a kidney infection.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee authored several works of both Hindi poetry and prose.

The third longest cable-stayed bridge in India over the Mandovi River, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Setu was named in his memory.

The Films Division of India has produced the short documentary films Pride of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Know Your Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, both directed by Girish Vaidya, which explore different facets of his personality.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee appears in a cameo in the 1977 Indian Hindi-language film Chala Murari Hero Banne by Asrani.

In 2019, Shiva Sharma and Zeeshan Ahmad, owners of Amaash Films, acquired the official rights of the book The Untold Atal Bihari Vajpayee written by Ullekh N P, to make a biopic based on Atal Bihari Vajpayee's life from his childhood, college life and finally turning into a politician.

Hindi-language film "Main Atal Hoon", starring Pankaj Tripathi as Vajpayee, was theatrically released in India on 19 January 2024.