Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a normal person with infinite patience: Shakti Sinha

By Shakti Sinha

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a normal person who had infinite patience and a firm conviction that India was destined to be a superpower. He was a leader who gave a lot of attention to contrarian views, but was firm in his conviction to go ahead with the nuclear tests in Pokhran.

He felt that besides growing socially and economically it was important for the country to be respected by the world community for its ability to be able to defend itself. So the first thing he wanted to do in 1996 when he got power was to try and set up the nuclear tests.


In fact it was Vajpayee’s predecessor, PV Narasimha Rao, who had asked him to bring in APJ Abdul Kalam to organise the tests. He had gone to meet Rao once and had talked about his dream and Rao had advised him to get hold of Kalam as soon as possible. Rao himself wanted to do the tests in 1995 but couldn’t.

Atalji told me in the afternoon one day that Kalam had to be located fast, but in those days cell phone connections used to be very patchy. It was already night when I finally managed to get hold of Kalam, who was in the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) guesthouse in Kolkata. He came to meet Vajpayee the very next morning.



But obviously, as the government fell, there was not much time to take things forward. Vajpayee, however, got a second chance in 1998, when he returned as prime minister. This time, he resumed the unfinished task. When the tests finally happened, I remember there were Advani, George Fernandes and Brajesh Mishra with us. The joy on Atalji’s face then was something I had never seen before. For him, it was a vision of 40 years coming true.

I have very fond memories of working under Vajpayee. He never had to show that he was the boss.

He was willing to listen to all points of views. He made it obvious that he was the boss without saying it even once because he was warm and open. He had the conviction that India will get its place in the sun.

That belief in him was tremendous. He wanted India to grow socially and economically and it was this firm faith in what he thought was absolutely possible that drove him to dedicate his life to achieving that.

(The author, director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, was private secretary to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As told to Vasudha Venugopal)