Contemplating Atal Bihari Vajpayee :- People's Politician.
For the next 50 years, the Indian republic would not see any non-congressi Prime Minister, even completing a full term of 5 years in office.
Yes, after the independence, the seed of democracy - "people's power" was veritably sown, but politics at that time was a one side show, INC being the only national party having strong influence over the masses. The real ecosystem of democracy was yet to bloom.
Hence, the personality we will analyze today in our blog was the first non-congressi Prime Minister of India who completed his full term between 1999 to 2004. Also, he was elected for the first time just for 13 days in 1996, 13 months in 1998, for almost 6 years later.
Considered the gold standard of leadership in the ruling BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the first politician to truly challenge the legacy of the Congress, the grand old party, as he was the first non-Congress prime minister to last a full term.
During his tenure India has seen such a great development that according to me he laid a very deep foundation to India's current progress as a nation.
"Satta ka khel chalega (the game of power will go on). Governments will come and go. Parties will be made and unmade. This country should survive, its democracy should survive," Mr Vajpayee said in a speech before his government faced a trust vote in May 1996. His 13-day government fell soon after.
"We bow to majority and we will not rest until we fulfill our national mission. Mister Speaker, here comes my resignation," Mr Vajpayee said in the memorable speech that remains hugely popular on YouTube.
In 1999, his government lost a no-confidence motion by one vote.
Finally he got chance to work for India between 1999-2004. Hence in this blog we will review all his ground-breaking policies, decisions and also sketch his life.
Starting off, I think one of the best ways to judge a politician is to look at what ideals he or she supports and what fundamemtal progress criterias he or she fights for. For example, the most basic of them, and also the most powerful, are education,healthcare, clean water, electricity, roads and infrastructure.
I like Atalji because he had focused especially on education and scientific reaearch.
Education and Scientific Research
He revolutionised the education sector in 2001 by launching the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.
Under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan every child between the age of 6-14 years are given free and compulsory education.
This scheme turned out to be very successful - school drop out rates decreased, enrollment rates increased and how much was it successful that you can see the basis if data and statistics on this graph.
This graph is a UNESCO report on Enrollment of Indian Students in Primary Education.
To bring such a big change in 5 years is not less then any miracle. Atalji' government even declared that the Free education in our country is every child's right by passing 86 constitutional amendments.
Now comes his push on scientific research.
He launched a new Science and Technology Policy in 2003. Since our country got independence this was the just the 3rd policy on Science. In the policy, scientists were encouraged and research and developments were promoted.
The first objective of this policy was
- To ensure that the message of Science reaches every citizen of India
man and woman, young and old so that we advance scientific temper, emerge as a progressive and enlightened country.
This sounds very normal to hear but it has become very uncommon these days. In 2003 India used to invest only 1.1 % of GDP in scientific research.
Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji promised that this number will be raised till 2 % by 2007 but unfortunately he couldn't become the prime minister again.
You will be shocked to know that our average expenditure on research and development has dropped to 0.7% of our GDP from the last decade.
Scientific Achievements
Talking about the scientific achivements of Atalji's tenure.
The first spacecraft to go on space in 2008 from India, Chandrayan 1, it's approval was given by Atalji.
When Nuclear tests were conducte in the famous Pokhran, India was declared as the Nuclear state during Atalji's time.
Roads and Infrastructure
In infrastructure without doubt his most important achievement was Golden quadrilateral Highway project.
You must have read about it in the school text book. This was the largest highway network in the country, connecting Chennai-Kolkata-Mumbai-Delhi. It's total cost was 50,000 crore rupees.
Before Vajpayeeji's government had come, the total length of all the highway was 50,000km.
In 2004 when his Government ended, by that time the length of the highways were 65,000
That means he made 15,000km of highways in 5 years.
For comparison, during the time Manmohanji's government the length of highways increased to 69,000 in 10 years.
So whatever he has done in 10 years was done by him in less than 5 years.
After this, his another success was of the Grahmin sadak yojna - to make road reach every village.
Delhi Metros, which is one of the most successful projects in today's time, that project was also approved by Atalji.
Economic Policy
Talking about economics, he very well continued P.V. Narsimha Rao's historic economic liberalism reforms.
Inspite of facing so many problems during his government he maintained a steady economic growth.
There was a parliament attack in 1998-99, there was cyclones in 2001 and a devastating earthquake accounting for a loss of economics.
There was a world oil crisis, 9/11 attack, parliament attack in India and even Kargil war so these are such things due to which the economy can come down but he didn't let it come down.
Foreign Policy
Fourth very big achievement during Atalji's time was in the Foreign policy.
He used to believe that we must maintain peace with all our neighbours, and improve our ties.
His government resolved many territorial disputes that we had with China and even encouraged trade between India and China.
A new era was seen by US and Indian ties during Atalji's time. Bill Clinton, the US president visited India which was after a long term that a US president was coming to India.
Free and Fair election in Kashmir was also held for the first time during his time.
Many people even think that if Atalji would have been elected one more time then Kashmir would have a different scenario. Maybe it would have become a very peaceful state today.
But the most daring achievement in the foreign policy was his try to promote peace between India and Pakistan.
He started a new bus service between Delhi to Lahore in 1991 in which he himself went to Lahore.
He gave a famous speech in Lahore, which was telecast by Pakistani TV and was appreciated by Pakistanis.
But unfortunately Kargil war started after a few months and the peace talks had to end.
But even after that as soon as the war ended he resume the peace talks and 2001 he called President Parvez Musharraf to Agra, India
to start the bonding again and find the solution between the two countries.
Pakistan's former prime minister writes in his book that both the countries reached very close to end their enmity and find the solution in the Agra Summit. But that solution couldn't be materialised unfortunately.
Criticisms
Vajpayee’s decisive turn away from reform of the world’s most restrictive market for labor – not to mention land and capital – is the biggest reason India went on to lose to China the race to become the world’s manufacturing hub. In the years since 2001, world trade in goods exploded, even as India continued to de-industrialize. It was just too difficult to run a decent-sized factory in India.
Larger companies needed government permission to fire even one worker. India became an IT services superpower; trade and telecom fired up its growth rate. But the country signally failed to create the manufacturing jobs that became the foundation of the Chinese miracle. Under Vajpayee, India backed away from the only path that leads to prosperity.
When Vajpayee was giving up on fixing labor law because it was politically difficult, Chinese premier Zhu Rongji was fighting to reform state-owned enterprises, laying off millions in the process. Two decades on, it’s easy to see what India’s priorities should have been.
Signing off for today, with a quote of Atalji.
"Our aim may be as high as the endless sky, but we should have a resolve in our minds to walk ahead, hand-in-hand, for victory will be ours."
Thanks,
Daksh Parekh.
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