Vajpayee, Atal Bihari, << WAHJ py, ah TAHL bih HAHR ee >> (1924-2018), served as prime minister of India briefly in 1996 and then again from 1998 to 2004. His middle name is also spelled Behari. Vajpayee was a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s main conservative political party. He viewed India as an essentially Hindu nation and believed that government policies should reflect this view. Vajpayee was a long-time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization. However, he was generally considered to be a member of the BJP’s moderate wing.
Vajpayee’s term as prime minister in 1996 lasted less than two weeks. In elections held in 1998, the BJP won the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha, the more powerful of the two houses of India’s Parliament. Vajpayee became prime minister in a coalition government. In April 1999, his government was defeated in a parliamentary vote of confidence. He then served as acting prime minister until elections were held in September of that year. In those elections, a BJP-led coalition of parties called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won the most seats in the Lok Sabha, and Vajpayee remained as prime minister. In 2004, an alliance led by the Congress Party defeated the NDA in Lok Sabha elections, and Vajpayee stepped down as prime minister.
Vajpayee was born on Dec. 25, 1924, in Gwalior, in what is now the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. He attended Victoria (now Laxmibai) College in Gwalior and DAV College in Kanpur.
In 1942, the British colonial rulers of India jailed Vajpayee for his pro-independence activities. In 1951, after India had become independent from the United Kingdom, Vajpayee helped found the Hindu nationalist party called Jana Sangh. He first won election to Parliament in 1957 and served as the leader of Jana Sangh in Parliament from 1957 to 1977. In the early 1970’s, he participated in protests calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Vajpayee, like many other opponents of Gandhi, was imprisoned from 1975 to 1977, during a state of emergency she had declared.
In 1977, Vajpayee helped found the Janata Party (JP). The JP, which was a coalition of opposition parties that included the Jana Sangh, defeated Gandhi’s Congress Party in elections held in 1977. From 1977 to 1979, Vajpayee served as minister of external affairs in the Janata government. In 1980, disagreements over policy led Vajpayee and some other Janata members to leave the JP and form the Bharatiya Janata Party. Vajpayee served as the first president of the BJP from 1980 to 1986. He was the leader of the BJP in Parliament from 1980 to 1984, in 1986, and from 1993 to 1996.
Vajpayee was known for his excellent speaking and debating skills in the Hindi language. He was also a published writer and poet in Hindi. In 2015, Vajpayee was awarded the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India), India’s highest civil honor. He died on Aug. 16, 2018.
