Nation remembered former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birthday a couple of days back. Though Atalji belongs to a political party I never supported but personally I always loved him. He is a stalwart in his own right and I don’t mind calling him the last Mogul of contemporary India. I feel that apart from Gandhi family, Atalji has been the only post-independent era politician who managed to capture the imagination of the entire nation. Atalji is a multifarious personality; he has been a smart politician, a thinker, a poet and a family man. He is the only one who could give a stable alternate to the Congress, which is visible after his retirement that his party is struggling to stay intact. He was a true mass leader and reached out to all sections of society during his regime. Despite being in BJP he had concern for minorities also and I believe that he is the only BJP leader who was tolerated even by the Muslims. Unlike Mayawati, who discontinued all the good policies of Mulayam Singh once she took-over, Atalji did not disturb the process of liberalization initiated by Narasimha Rao. Though, communication and information technology was brought on forefront by Rajeevji but real IT revolution took place in Atalji’s regime. We entered in 21st century during his regime and nation could not have expected better leadership at that point of time.

His penchant for spicy food is one of his traits that I liked the most. It is irony of fact that due to health reasons both Atalji and myself are medically restrained to enjoy good spicy stuff. Incidentally, both of us share same physician Dr. Ramesh Kumar, a nephrologist working with Batra Hospital. Atalji had tremendous capability of switching from a serious conversation to light hearted poetry.

He used to have the decency of treating all political rivals as friends and he was also capable of accepting his criticisms with open heart. That is why I was little surprised when I met a complaining Ranjan (Atalji’s foster son-in-law) during Atalji’s birthday calibrations at FICCI auditorium. I am not aware of my leader Mulayam Singh’s parliament speech that had rattled the sensibility of the ailing legendry leader. Mulayam Singhji holds Atalji in very high esteem and when an erstwhile Samajwadi and now Congress’ prized catch Beni Verma called Atalji “Neech” during Librahan discussion in the parliament. Mulayam Singh ji got very upset and was very prompt in condemning Beni Babu. Even Congress was compelled to follow my leader’s stand on Beni Babu’s comment on Atalji.

On one of my Birthdays on 27th January, Atalji called me at his official Prime Ministerial residence and asked me about Kalyan Singh’s protégé Kusum Rai’s stint as PWD minister in Mulayam Singh’s cabinet. To the best of my memory, I had never heard Atalji talking ill of anyone including known contemporary adversaries. But that day I could feel a tinge of sadness in his voice while mentioning Kalyan Singhji’s statement about him in which Kalyanji called Atalji a “Bhulakkar” (a habitual forgetful person), “Gumakkar’ (a vagabond) and “Piakkar” (a drunkard). Moral of the story is that be careful about making personal remarks and I feel greatly embarrassed for my own comments made against Mrs. Sonia Gandhi in the past.

I visit him once in a while to seek his blessings and was really pleased know that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ji visited Atalji on 25th to wish him on his birthday. Now, though Atalji has retired from active politics but I think nation still needs his guidance, I wish him a long life….

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