Former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away in New Delhi today. He was 93. He was Prime Minister for three terms between 1996 and 1999. He passed away at 5:05 p.m. on Thursday, August 16 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Vajpayee was suffering from kidney tract infection, chest congestion and several other complications.
Born on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, Vajpayee was a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He was first elected to Parliament in 1957 as a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a forerunner of the BJP. In 1977, the BJS joined three other parties to form the Janata Party, which led a government that lasted until July 1979.
As foreign minister in the government, Vajpayee is credited for improving relations with Pakistan and China. In 1980, there was a split in the Janata Party, and Vajpayee was among those who helped in reorganising the BJS as the BJP.
It is perhaps the Vajpayee government’s lack of quick reaction to the riots in Gujarat in 2002 that can never be forgotten. It was the most horrific riots the country ever witnessed, in which about 1,000 people (primarily Muslims) died.
In 2004, the coalition was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls, and he resigned from office.
He had slowly moved away from politics since 2005. In late December 2014, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited AIIMS last night after Vajpayee’s condition was stated to be critical. He was there for 50 minutes. Modi has visited AIIMS to check on Vajpayee thrice earlier.
From the time Vajpayee’s condition deteriorated yesterday, several senior leaders visited the hospital to check on him, including Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, ministers Piyush Goyal, Jitendra Singh, Harsh Vardhan, BJP president Amit Shah. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also left for New Delhi earlier today.
