The nuclear tests conducted in 1998 introduced a paradigmatic change.
It has been an eventful half a century. I first met him when I was a student at Delhi University and he was a charismatic rising star in the Jan Sangh. I then worked under him in a long career in the Foreign Service, first when he was External Affairs Minister and later Prime Minister. I then joined the BJP, and got inducted into the Council of Ministers, which is implementing the vision for India worked out by him and amplified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To today, making arrangements for his farewell. It has been both an honour and a privilege to have known and served the man we all loved and adored. In any listing of all-time greats, no matter when prepared, he will figure as one of the great Prime Ministers.
Twelve-time Member of Parliament, ten through the Lok Sabha; a three-time Prime Minister—the first non-Congressman to complete a five-year term; and of course, a poet par-excellence—an artist with ability to make people laugh and cry at the same time. Such stalwarts and their accomplishments cannot be encapsulated in an op-ed.
India today is the sixth largest economy in the world, one of the fastest growing, with a growth rate of over 7.5%. In PM Modi’s words, “the sleeping elephant has woken up and has started running”. The foundations for this growth were laid by PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who ushered in a new age of economic reforms in India. Three measures merit mention in particular.
First, the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act in 2003, and the idea of maintaining the fiscal deficit under 3% of the GDP was a pioneering effort—it came five years before the 2008 financial crises and at a time when the leftist world-view of increased government expenditure without due consideration to macroeconomic fundamentals was the dominant narrative.
Second, reforms in the telecom sector changed the way Indians connect with each other. As of May 2018, India boasts of 984 million wireless telecom users, and schemes such as the Jan Dhan Yojana are leveraging this penetration to deliver goods and services to the poorest of the poor in the country. This has been facilitated by the New Telecom Policy introduced by him and the steps taken to end the state monopoly of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Phone banking and e-payments, which we take for granted today, are thanks to the vision of the then NDA government, led by Vajpayeeji.
Third, it would not be entirely wrong to describe Vajpayeeji as India’s first “Infrastructure Prime Minister”. L.K. Joshi, who was a member of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at the time, recently recalled Vajpayeeji’s words “humaare desh mein sadkon mein gaddhe hain ya gaddhon mein sadke hain (does our country have potholes on roads or roads in potholes)?” The Golden Quadrilateral Project and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana ushered in India’s first big push towards connecting fellow Indians with each other. It was independent India’s biggest push towards building roads and highways. The 28 km a day highway construction we see today draws from that vision. And while his emphasis on roads and highways is both recognised and acknowledged, his contributions to other infrastructure sectors, particularly civil aviation (he opened up India’s skies to private actors, both Indian and international, in 2003), are bearing fruit to this day.
For those of who worked in the profession broadly categorised as diplomacy and foreign policy, the legacy of External Affairs Minister and Prime Minister Vajpayee, is particularly impressive. He had a profound impact on how India conducted itself at the global stage, both bilaterally and in the multilateral framework. His speech in Hindi at the United Nations General Assembly in 1977 remains a source of pride and inspiration.
The nuclear tests conducted in 1998, Pokhran-II, introduced a transformative and paradigmatic change. The Americans were visibly upset and found support from India’s left-liberal brigade, as indeed elsewhere in the world. India faced sanctions from America, even as it was embarking on the second phase of its liberalisation. The European community was outraged. Pakistan’s hypocrisy was in full display as they appealed to US President Bill Clinton to make India a pariah, and the President was all ears to these cries. It took a steering speech in Parliament from PM Vajpayee to calm the nerves of India’s citizens, a befitting reply to the Opposition, which had chosen politicking over national security. My colleagues in the Foreign Service had clear instructions from the very top to convey to the world that a nuclear India would be a moral and ethical India. It is a testament to his diplomatic efforts that we are today recognised as a responsible nuclear power by all nations and even the United States feels comfortable entering into the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement. It was PM Vajpayee who had coined the phrase “natural allies” to define the relationship between the two nations.
One cannot write about Vajpayeeji’s legacy without mentioning his attempts to resolve our dispute with Pakistan, and his outreach to the people of Kashmir. The bus yatra he took to Lahore ushered in a period of unprecedented peace between the two nations, and were it not for the deceit on part of the Pakistan’s military establishment, my firm belief is that today the two countries would be partners, rather than foes. If his invitation to President Pervez Musharraf for the Agra Summit, despite the former General’s role in the Kargil War, showed Vajpayeeji could conduct diplomacy with a soft touch, his rebuke to the General’s demands at the Summit itself showed he was adept at realpolitik. Vajpayeeji could be a dove or a hawk, depending upon situation at hand, and that in essence is what diplomacy is all about.
Vajpayeeji’s usage of the word “insaniyat” in the Kashmir context changed the entire narrative around conflict resolution, not just in the region, but globally. It was a marked departure from the “human rights” centric approach, and the far-right “interventionist” framework, both of which have, over the years, showcased their limitations. During my years as a diplomat, particularly during my term as the President of the Security Council at the United Nations, I made many attempts to explain to my international counterparts the ethos behind “insaniyat”, as against the then prevailing narrative anchored in the use of force.
It is a testament to the life led by Vajpayeeji that many who had opposed him during his time in public service are today waxing eloquent praises. It is important to clarify that Vajpayeeji was a proud swayamsevak. It was him and his brother-in-arms Advaniji who gave a voice to Hindus, who almost came to be treated as a persecuted minority in their own country, and were a community often derided for its beliefs. They fought hard, and often bitterly, to build the Bharatiya Janata Party and made it a force to reckon with.
There are many lessons I have learnt from the life of Vajpayeeji. Some of these have come in the area of domestic governance, while others in foreign relations. But personally, my biggest learning from him was his approach towards the rights of women as a matter of public policy, and his belief that women deserve an equal stature in all walks of life. Having married a feminist, and raised two strong and independent daughters, my own thinking on the topic of women’s empowerment has been shaped by Vajpayeeji.
For these and many more life lessons, I shall remain eternally grateful. Thank you Vajpayeeji, you will be sorely missed.
Hardeep S. Puri is Minister of State (Independent Charge), Housing and Urban Affairs