Aapne to kamal kar diya (you have done wonderfully well), Atal Bihari Vajpayee told Bhartruhari Mahtab, while congratulating him and eight other MPs of the newly-formed Biju Janata Dal for winning their maiden elections from their native Odisha.

The debutant MPs had visited Vajpayee days before he was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1998. Now, as a veteran MP, Mahtab still remembers the avuncular leader’s warmth. “He himself distributed sweets to us. Ours was a new regional party, and most of us were first-time members. But he appreciated our efforts and it was a surprise for all of us.”

Mahtab also remembers a discussion on communal harmony in the House the same year. “He was the Prime Minister, but he sat in the House and listened to all speeches. I was speaking about the colonial efforts to spread communalism in pre-independent India. My speech was cut short by Laxminarayan Pandey, who was chairing the proceedings. [Prime Minister] Vajpayee intervened and said ‘he is speaking about Bharatiyata’ and urged the Chair to let me speak. For a first-time MP, it was a huge appreciation.”

As a parliamentarian between 1957 and 2009, Vajpayee was instrumental in grooming many MPs, not just in the BJP, but in the Opposition parties, too. In 1994, he won the outstanding Parliamentarian award.

“It was a discussion on including the Dogri language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. I walked up to Vajpayee and said Santali language, spoken by one crore people in the country, should also be included, and if the government is not willing, I will move an amendment to the Bill. Within two hours, the then Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed me that the Centre would bring an amendment to include Santali. Vajpayee was a different BJP leader. He listened to the Opposition members. He was liberal; he was a person with character,” remembers nine-time MP and senior CPI(M) leader, Basudeb Acharia.

Acharia, a bitter opponent of Vajpayee’s political ideology, had numerous occasions to know the man from very close quarters. “I was part of an Opposition delegation that visited the areas hit by riots in Gujarat. We apprised Vajpayee about the situation, and he visited Gujarat soon after. He minced no words in criticising the State government. He reminded the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi about raj dharma. He was a consensus-builder. He always consulted the leaders of Opposition before taking important decisions,” Acharia said.

The Tamil poem

Vajpayee reached out to parties who were critical of the BJP. He recited a Tamil poem in 1996, during a debate on a no-confidence motion he had moved against the HD Deve Gowda government.

He had then also reached out to the DMK’s Murasoli Maran. “Thiru Maran is disturbed over our advocacy of one nation, one people, one culture. I am happy that he shares our perception of one nation. But I must say that he has got it all wrong on our interpretation of one people and one culture...I categorically state here that the BJP does not stand for uniformity. We recognise India’s multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic character. This view is best reflected in a poem by one of India’s greatest poets, Subramania Bharati,” he said, and recited the poem ‘ En Thaai ’ (My Mother). He reminded the DMK members that he had recited a Tamil poem in the UN, too. Three years later, the DMK would join Vajpayee’s NDA government. After three years of this debate, the DMK will join the NDA and support Vajpayee to make a government in 1999.

Apart from his roles as PM, External Affairs Minister, and Leader of Opposition, Vajpayee was an active MP: the Chairman of Committee on Petitions (1991), the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (1991-93), and then as Chairman of the Committee on External Affairs (1993-96).

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