By Dr Ahmed Raza
The book “Vajpayee: The Years that Changed India” by Shakti Sinha talks about how a stalwart of Indian politics and former prime minister of our nation Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji used to think and worked as an orator, philosopher, thinker, political strategist, parliamentarian, administrator, policy-maker with a global vision. Although, the book dealt with the years between 1996 to 1999 when Sinha worked with him very closely for three-and-a-half years as secretary to the Leader of Opposition (1996-97) and again as his private secretary (1998-99).
This book broadly helps us understand how Vajpayee as a decision-maker, handled Kargil war and post atomic tests despite of the political challenges he faced. Also, he remained intact in taking initiatives in the strategic and economic fields during his first term as prime minister, which have had a permanent impact. It would be enlightening for those political scientists who assume that coalition government lacked political stability leading to undermining the key initiatives in the strategic and economic fields, as Vajpayee well performed during his first term as prime minister.
The book did a great job of narrating the brilliant description of the historic events of the 13-day and later 13-month NDA governments in which major portions are focused on PMO and its functioning, experiencing crabbiness due to coalition politics as well as providing a detail account on successful Pokhran-II nuclear tests and its impact on the Indian economy. This book also dealt with the Lahore bus peace initiative and how Vajpayee ji handled Kargil war.
The book also reminds us a great gesture of Vajpayee ji towards normalising the relations with neighbours as he graced the occasion of India-Pakistan hockey match as his first action after assuming office as prime minister of India in 1998 even before portfolio distribution followed by the Lahore bus yatra.
An illustrative chapter by Shakti Sinha on Pokhran-II nuclear tests and its impact on the Indian economy would be a remarkable contribution as Sinha has done a thorough and well-researched job in highlighting the pull and pressure of the pre and post nuclear test. The chapter draw a complete insides account of the events that how Vajpayee ji did not think back and remained intact in his vision that India is emerging as a world leader including as a nuclear power nation. It also unfolded how Vajpayee ji countered all kinds of pressures and lobbies particularly from western nations on account of India being in the list of nuclear power nations.
In another chapter, this book narrated profoundly how Vajpayee ji showed Kargil victory to Pakistan despite of running a caretaker government. It also penned down of highly courageous and determined Armed Forces which led the country to Kargil victory leaving western countries to realise that India is a responsible and matured nation, and Vajpayee ji’s leadership must be acknowledged. Therefore, the release of book on the special occasion of Vajpayee ji’s 96th birth anniversary has been a tribute.
The book appeared to be a magnificent and fantastic appearance of Vajpayee ji’s model of governance as India political system is an eye witness of a numbers of remarkable reforms and strategic initiatives taken during the coalition period despite of the pull and pressure of several political parties and government ran on a thin majority. It glimpsed the ways Vajpayee ji handled the complexities of coalition government such as high expectations of regional parties, satisfying key and strategic decisions, and triumvirate of Maya, Mamata and Jaya. In order to make everyone understand on coalition politics and its pressures on Vajpayee ji’s government, a lot of incidences and events have been incorporated by the author in his book including an incidence of rolling back of wheat and rice price hikes in the public distribution system (PDS) for the BPL families, which led to an extra burden of a steep Rs 1800 crore.
The book also tried to shed light of Vajpayee ji’s observant nature, patient attitude, ability, nationalist thoughts and his courage to pursue against various odds or challenges. There have been numbers of initiatives taken during his tenure as prime minister of India which must be acknowledged and be popularized for the coming generations, the book did its job beautifully by incorporating, India’s one of the famous project connected the nation as Golden quadrilateral project, establishment of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to settle the Cauvery water dispute etc.
The book must be viewed as a great contribution of the author as he included a separate chapter on Lahore bus yatra which sheds light on Vajpayee ji’s sincere attempts at normalising the relations with neighbours. The complete chapter of the book accommodating Nawaz Sharif’s invitation to till the completion of the tour appeared to be a wonderful and significant for international relations scholars in order to know how Vajpayee ji dealt with Pakistan diplomatically with a global vision making the world aware of the power of India. At the same time, he also rejected any third party intervention on the Kashmir issue.
The book written by Mr. Shakti Sinha amounts to be a triumphant accounts for the years when he worked closely with the former prime minister during the most turbulent and interesting duration of the Parliament. Hence, the book deserves to be included into the list of a must read book for political scientist and the new generations as it is an insider account who worked closely with Vajpayee ji. The author’s understandings and his efforts towards penning down of the book for this contemporary time will serves as a good lesson to political science students, international relations and our political system as it provides an insider’s account of how Vajpayee ji thought and worked during the most turbulent period of the parliament during 1996 to 1999.
(Author is Assistant Professor, MANUU, Hyderabad & Project Director (MRP ICSSR), political commentator, author and columnist. The views expressed are the personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at ahmedraza@manuu.edu.in)
