Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first Non-Congress Prime Minister who completed his full tenure but that cannot define his identity alone. His benevolent behaviour towards the opposition – delineates his magnanimous personality, but if we look only at the personality it would be injustice with his puissant contribution for the country. Here are a few things we should remember him for:
Economics And Finance
Atal Bihari carried out economic reform forward when he left the office to Manmohan Singh in 2004, the country’s GDP touched a remarkable 8% which is 3% more than 1999. Despite facing so many difficulties such as the Kargil War, cyclone in 2001, Gujarat Bhuj earthquake, the terrorist attack on the Parliament and international oil crisis, India constantly progressed. He also concentrated on cutting out the country’s fiscal deficit. He introduced the Fiscal Reform Policy which boosted public-sector savings which rose from -0.8% of GDP in FY 2000, to 2.3% in FY 2005. Simply, it seems shocking that this implicates that India was deficit-free and in a profitable condition of 2.3% of GDP.
Education
He understood that education reform is one of the most important contributing factors in the country’s progress. He started the famous “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” in 2001 which ensures free education for a child between the age of 6 to 14 years. This resulted in an immense boost to school admissions. In 2004 only 2 million children were left out of education which was 25 million in 2000.
Science And Research
India is the third biggest economy after the US and China, despite having that India came out as so backward in the field of Scientific Research. If Atal Bihari was alive today the condition would be different. He proposed a bill in Parliament which stated: “It is the duty of government to ensure that every citizen must understand Science and be aware of Technology.” This seems so simple but the impact was so powerful. In 2002, the Indian Government allocated 1.2% of GDP budget for research which was the highest ever after Independence. He imagined it would be 2% in 2007 but unfortunately, his succeeding government by Manmohan Singh never found it important and today India only contributes 0.68% GDP to research which is quite low. Additionally, Atalji initiated “Chandrayan I” the first project to reach Moon, He also helped India get nuclear power status by experimenting “Pokhran II” tolerating so much international pressure and threat from the US.
Highways And Infrastructure
Almost all of us read about the Golden Quadrilateral in school, this project was passed by Atalji and it took only three years to complete the biggest highway project (this project links Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai with a single connecting road). Moreover, the “Gramin Sadak Yojna” was also his initiative. Statistically, in 1999 the road length across the country was 45,000 km while when Atal Ji completes his tenure in 2004 it was 65,000 km even UPA I & II combined construct only 19,000 km of roads in 10 years whereas the Atal government construct 20,000 km in just 5 years.
Kashmir Issue And Relation With Neighbours
Intellectuals and several journalists believed that if Atal Bihari was allowed one more tenure, Kashmir problem would have been resolved and in full peace. He believed in amicable relations with every neighbouring country. He bolstered trade with China and US, even with Pakistan, He started a bus service from Delhi to Lahore, and invited former President Musharraf for the Agra Meet. However, when Pakistan initiated the Kargil War, he retaliated strongly and showed that India will not tolerate terrorism or any attack on the dignity and pride of the nation.
His idea of secular India, his speeches never attacked anyone personally. Even Opposition leaders respected the dignity with which he worked.