Vajpayee Excelled In All Roles He Donned: Uttarakhand CM Dhami

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday said Atal Bihari Vajpayee excelled in all the roles he donned, be it as the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, prime minister or a poet.

Dhami was speaking at a lecture series organised in the memory of Vajpayee at the Writer's Village in Thano in Dehradun district on the occasion of the former prime minister's 100th birth anniversary.

"Uttarakhand owes a special debt of gratitude to him as it was during his tenure as prime minister that it attained statehood," Dhami said, adding India became a nuclear-capable country during his prime ministership.

Noted journalist and India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma described Vajpayee as a mesmerising orator who possessed a personality even bigger than people generally think.

"If he had the height of the skies, he also had the depth of an ocean," Sharma said in his speech Writer's Village or Lekhak Gaon is a unique village developed near Dehradun at the initiative of former chief minister and Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

"Vajpayee's personality was rich because it was a combination of contradictions. He had the heart of a poet but at the same time he could be hard as a rock when it came to taking big decisions -- a fact displayed amply by the determination with which he went ahead with India's nuclear testing in Pokharan which took countries like the US by surprise," Sharma said.

"Atal ji wanted friendly ties with neighbours including Pakistan and even went in a bus to Lahore to express that feeling but when Pakistan disappointed him, he did not hesitate in giving a fitting reply to that country in Kargil, " Sharma said.

He said he felt blessed to have had the opportunity to know Vajpayee from close quarters.

"There was no orator as mesmerising as Atal ji in the last 100 years, nor can there be in the next 100," he said.

He said how a human sea gathered to listen to him at a public meeting in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan in 1977 despite Raj Kapoor's super-hit film 'Bobby' being telecast on TV to divert the crowds.

Recounting an experience, Sharma said he once told Vajpayee that he wanted to learn from him the art of oratory to which the latter replied with his characteristic wit saying if at all he wanted to learn anything from him, he should learn where not to utter a word and keep silent.

Sharma said Vajpayee was the only politician capable of speaking highly about his political rivals whom he opposed ideologically.

Citing an example, he said as the lone MP from the Jan Sangh, he often attacked former prime minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in Parliament but when the House assembled two days after the latter's death, Vajpayee paid him a moving tribute which was a veritable piece of poetry.

He also quoted some lines from Vajpayee's tribute to Nehru saying, "Only Atal Ji was capable of doing something like this." Sharma also praised Nishank for establishing a 'Writer's Village' saying it was a true tribute to Vajpayee who was also a poet.

A statue of Vajpayee was unveiled on the occasion besides the unfurling of a 72-feet high National Flag.

Nalanda Library and Research Centre was also inaugurated on the occasion at the village.

The programme was also attended by Nishank and Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla.