‘Aazaadi Abhi Adhuri Hai’: Remembering India’s Poet Prime Minister

India mourns the death of Poet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

(Photo: ‘Man of Contradictions’)

Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim

Atal Bihari Vajpayee – the poet, the lover and the statesman passes away at AIIMS on 16 August at the age of 93.

That the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a splendid gift of repartee is something he displayed in his conversations with journalists and in his speeches in the Lok Sabha.

The Poet and The Philosopher

Born in the family of a poet, and fondly called ‘India’s Poet Prime Minister’ Vajpayee would himself, in the 1940s, write "fiery poems about his Hindu heritage," says NK Singh, in an article that he wrote for the India Today Magazine in May 1996.

Vajpayee, the poet, had once confessed that his biggest mistake was "joining politics", which brought a "strange kind of void to my life."

In one of his poems, he wrote:

The higher you go

The more lonely you are.

A human being is

The only creature on earth

Who feels lonely in a crowd

And crowded when all alone.

Former prime minister Vajpayee, the poet, had once confessed that his biggest mistake was “joining politics”, which brought a “strange kind of void to my life.”

A Great Orator

Journalist Saba Naqwi in her book Shades of Saffron, writes:  "One day, even as he stepped out of his car, a volunteer who appeared to be in a state of frenzy, began shouting, 'Jai Shri Ram' (Hail, Shri Ram). I vividly recall Vajpayee turning around and snapping rather poetically, 'Bolte raho Jai Shri Ram; aur karo mat koi kaam!' (Keep shouting Jai Shri Ram; do little else)!".

Vajpayee was the 1st person to deliver a speech in Hindi at the United Nations.

A great orator and poet, he suffered a stroke in 2009 which impaired his speech

A great orator and poet, Vajpayee suffered a stroke in 2009 which impaired his speech.

A Journalist and An Avid Reader

He briefly nursed the idea of becoming a journalist, even working as an editor for Hindi publications Rashtradharma, Panchjanya, Swadesh, and Veer Arjun. He was an avid reader of political biographies, Hindi fiction and John Grisham.

Vajpayee briefly nursed the idea of becoming a journalist.

Feathers In His Cap

• He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1992
• He was awarded the Lokmanya Tilak Award and Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1994
• He received the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour in 2015
• In a special gesture the then President Pranab Mukherjee awarded Vajpayee the Bharat Ratna on 27 March 2015 at his residence

Pranab Mukherjee awarded the Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee at his residence on on 27 March 2015.