Premiership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Last updated

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (crop 2).jpg
First Term
In office
16 May 1996 –1 June 1996

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of India, first from 16 May to 1 June 1996, and then from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee was the tenth Prime Minister. He headed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the Indian Parliament, and became the first Prime Minister unaffiliated with the Indian National Congress to complete a full five-year term in office. He died at the age of 93 on Thursday 16 August 2018 at 17:05 at AIIMS, New Delhi.

Contents

Formation of government

After the 1996 general election, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Vajpayee was invited by President Shankar Dayal Sharma to form a government, but after 13 days in office, proved unable to muster a governing majority and resigned. He was succeeded by H. D. Dewe Gowda, leader of the United Front (UF) coalition, and became the Leader of the Opposition.

The United Front was only able to sustain a majority in Parliament until 1998, resigning after the Indian National Congress withdrew its support. In the 1998 Indian general election the BJP again emerged as the single-largest party, but was able to assemble a governing coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Other constituents of the NDA included the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Bahujan Samaj Party, Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal, National Conference (NC) and the Trinamool Congress (TC), amongst others.

By early 1999, the NDA government lost its majority after the AIADMK withdrew its support. [1] President K. R. Narayanan dissolved the Parliament and called fresh elections – the third in two years. Public anger against smaller parties that jeopardised the NDA coalition and the wave of support for the Vajpayee government in the aftermath of the Kargil War gave the BJP a larger presence in the Lok Sabha. The NDA won a decisive majority with the support of new constituents such as the Janata Dal (United) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Economic policy

The Vajpayee government expanded the process of economic liberalisation initiated by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government (1991–1996). His government initiated the privatisation of most state corporations, including the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. His government also began the establishment of special export processing zones, Information Technology and Industrial Parks across the country to bolster industrial production and exports. In its third term (1999–2004), his government launched the National Highway Development Project, with the first phase being the Golden Quadrilateral. In 2003, the government launched the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Honouring of Non-Resident Indians) and initiated plans to establish an Overseas citizenship of India to enable NRIs to invest and do business freely in India. His government also expanded efforts to encourage foreign investment, especially from Europe and the United States.

Foreign policy

The Vajpayee government improved India's ties with the People's Republic of China, boosting trade and seeking the resolution of territorial disputes through dialogue. India also established strategic and military cooperation with Israel, with both nations establishing cooperation in fighting terrorism. In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first American president to visit India since Jimmy Carter. The U.S. and India ended the Cold War-era distant relationship and expanded trade and cooperation on strategic issues. After the 11 September 2001 attacks, India provided much strategic assistance to the U.S. in its war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

In 1999, Vajpayee personally travelled to Pakistan on the inaugural Delhi-Lahore Bus, which established a regular road link between the two countries for the first time since 1947. Vajpayee and the then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued the Lahore Declaration, which committed the two nations to resolve bilateral disputes through dialogue and concurrently boost trade. However, the Lahore summit's success was diminished by the outbreak of the Kargil War just months later. In 2001, Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held the Agra summit, which failed to produce results and was overshadowed by the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff. In 2003, Vajpayee declared in the Indian Parliament that he was making his final initiative to make peace with Pakistan, and oversaw considerable improvement in relations and a ceasefire between Indian forces and militant groups in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

National Security

Pokhran-II nuclear tests

In May, 1998 India conducted five underground nuclear tests – Pokhran-II, following the Pokhran-I test of 1974. These tests established India as a nuclear weapons power, although it also resulted in the imposition of limited sanctions by the U.S., UK, Canada and other nations. By 2001, most of these sanctions had been lifted.

Kargil War

In 1999, two months after the bilateral summit in Lahore, India discovered that Pakistani army disguised as terrorists had infiltrated through the Line of Control (LoC) into the state of Jammu and Kashmir with active Pakistani assistance and participation. In response, the Indian armed forces launched Operation Vijay to evict the infiltrators. By July, 1999 Indian forces had reclaimed territories on its side of the LoC. The Vajpayee government also established the Defence Intelligence Agency to provide better military intelligence and monitor India's border with Pakistan.[ citation needed ]

Terrorism

The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament building on 13 December 2001, conducted by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists [2] [3] led to the death of a dozen people (5 terrorists, 6 police and 1 civilian) [4] and the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff. In response to these attacks and an escalation in terrorist attacks in other parts of India, the NDA government promulgated the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Although a tougher anti-terrorism law than Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, POTA was criticised as compromising civil liberties and encouraging profiling of the Indian Muslim community. [5] As the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, was controlled by opposition parties, the Vajpayee government called a historic joint session of both houses of the Indian Parliament in order to enact POTA into law. [5]

Gujarat violence

On 27 February 2002, the Sabarmati Express train was attacked at Godhra by a Muslim mob. [6] [7] [8] [9] 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were killed in the attack. [10] Lasting for over a month, the riots claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. [11] [12] [13] The state government, led by Narendra Modi of the BJP, was severely criticised for being unable or unwilling to stop the violence. [14]

Vajpayee officially condemned the violence. [15] Later Vajpayee made controversial remarks: "Wherever there are Muslims, they do not want to live in peace with others. Instead of living peacefully, they want to propagate their religion by creating terror in the minds of others." According to Sanjay Ruparelia, Vajpayee used Muslim terrorism to justify the violence in Gujarat. [16] Ornit Shani believes that Vajpayee's government believed that Muslim provoked violence against themselves by simply being Muslim. [17] The Milli Gazette criticized Vajpayee as "Muslim-bashing". [18] Rafiq Dossani believes that Vajpayee was appealing to a post-9/11 neo-conservative mood. [19]

Vajpayee was accused of doing nothing to stop the violence. He later admitted his mistake in underestimating the violence and not doing enough to stop it. [20]

K.R. Narayanan, then president of India, stated that the violence stemmed from a "conspiracy" between Vajpayee's central BJP-led government, and Gujarat's BJP government. [21] Narayanan said he wrote several letters to Vajpayee asking him deploy the Indian army to quell the violence. Narayanan didn't speak out against Vajpayee during his term as president. [19]

See also


Related Research Articles

Politics of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic in which the president of India is the head of state & first citizen of India and the prime minister of India is the head of government. It is based on the federal structure of government, although the word is not used in the Constitution itself. India follows the dual polity system, i.e. federal in nature, that consists of the central authority at the centre and states at the periphery. The Constitution defines the organizational powers and limitations of both central and state governments; it is well recognised, fluid and considered supreme, i.e. the laws of the nation must conform to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atal Bihari Vajpayee</span> 10th Prime Minister of India in 1996 and from 1998–2004

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician and poet who served three terms as the 10th Prime Minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 to 1999, followed by a full term from 1999 to 2004. Vajpayee was one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the BJP. He was a member of the RSS, a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation. He was the first Indian prime minister not of the INC to serve a full term in office. He was also a renowned poet and a writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. R. Narayanan</span> President of India from 1997 to 2002

Kocheril Raman Narayanan was an Indian statesman, diplomat, academic, and politician who served as the ninth vice president of India from 1992 to 1997 and tenth president of India from 1997 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bharatiya Janata Party</span> Indian political party

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics, and its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. It has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer paramilitary organisation. As of March 2023, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. K. Advani</span> 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India

Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a long time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a volunteer organisation. He is also the longest serving Minister of Home Affairs in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government from 1998 to 2004. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha and also the longest serving person of this post. He was the Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bajrang Dal</span> Hindu nationalist militant organisation

The Bajrang Dal is a Hindu nationalist militant organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva. It was founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, and began spreading more in the 2010s throughout India, although its most significant base remains the northern and central portions of the country.

The following lists events that happened during 2000 in the Republic of India.

Events in the year 2001 in the Republic of India.

Events in the year 2002 in the Republic of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narendra Modi</span> Prime Minister of India since 2014 (born 1950)

Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician who has served as the 14th Prime Minister of India since May 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Godhra</span> City in Gujarat, India

Godhra is a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district. Originally the name came from gou which means "cow" and dhara- which have two meanings depending on how you pronounce the word: 'dharaa' means a feminine thing or person that "holds" something and it usually means"land", and the other pronunciation is 'dhaaraa' in which means "flow". However, the second pronunciation is not popular nor is usually associated with this word. Hence, 'Godhra or Godharaa' means the Land of the Cow.

The Agra summit was a historic two-day summit meeting between India and Pakistan which lasted from 14–16 July 2001. It was organized with the aim of resolving long-standing issues between India and Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi</span> Indian politician

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is an Indian politician and was the Union Minister of Minority Affairs. He had served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from 2002 to 2022 and was Deputy Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha between 2021 and 2022.

The Godhra train burning occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002: 59 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station in the Indian state of Gujarat. The cause of the fire remains disputed. The Gujarat riots, in which Muslims were the targets of widespread and severe violence, occurred shortly afterward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Gujarat riots</span> Sectarian violence in the Indian state

The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhavna Chikhalia</span> Former Indian government minister

Bhavna Chikhalia was a Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs and of Tourism and Culture in Government of India from 2003 to 2004. She was also a member of Lok Sabha and the first lady of Gujarat who won four consecutive term of Lok Sabha from Junagadh constituency, Gujarat. She was executive secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliamentary Wing from 1993 to 1996, and party Whip and Party Vice President in 1998. She was Chairperson of the Railway Convention Committee during 1999–2002.

Religious violence in India includes acts of violence by followers of one religious group against followers and institutions of another religious group, often in the form of rioting. Religious violence in India has generally involved Hindus and Muslims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naroda Patiya massacre</span> Massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election</span> Dissolution of Gujrat Legislative Assembly in 2002

The 2002 Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections were held in December 2002; they necessitated by the resignation of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the dissolution of the legislative assembly in July 2002, 8 months before its term was due to expire. Modi resigned due to widespread allegations that he had taken insufficient action to prevent the riots that took place a few months earlier. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was led by Modi, with the Indian National Congress being the chief opposition.

There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.

References

  1. ↑ "South Asia Vajpayee's thirteen months". BBC News. 17 April 1999. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Govt blames LeT for Parliament attack"
  3. ↑ "Terrorist Attack on the Parliament of India - December 13, 2001". Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  4. ↑ "Terrorists attack Parliament; five intruders, six cops killed". 2006. Rediff.com. Rediff India. 13 December 2001
  5. 1 2 Sudha Ramachandran (27 March 2002). "New Indian terror law strikes fear". Asia Times . Archived from the original on 14 April 2002. Retrieved 12 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ↑ India Godhra train blaze verdict: 31 convicted BBC News, 22 February 2011.
  7. ↑ It was not a random attack on S-6 but kar sevaks were targeted, says judge The Hindu — 6 March 2011
  8. ↑ The Godhra conspiracy as Justice Nanavati saw it Archived 2 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine The Times of India, 28 September 2008. Retrieved 2012-02-19. Archived 21 February 2012.
  9. ↑ Godhra case: 31 guilty; court confirms conspiracy Rediff.com, 22 February 2011 19:26 IST. Sheela Bhatt, Ahmedabad.
  10. ↑ Sabarmati Express set ablaze, 57 dead,The Tribune
  11. ↑ These figures were reported to the Rajya Sabha by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal in May, 2005. "Gujarat riot death toll revealed". BBC News. 11 May 2005.
  12. ↑ "BJP cites govt statistics to defend Modi". ExpressIndia. Press Trust of India. 12 May 2005. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  13. ↑ "254 Hindus, 790 Muslims killed in post-Godhra riots". Indiainfo.com. Press Trust of India. 11 May 2005. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  14. ↑ "Court orders Gujarat riot review". BBC News. 17 August 2004.
  15. ↑ "Vajpayee condemns Godhra carnage, Gujarat communal violence".
  16. ↑ Sanjay Ruparelia (April 2006). "Rethinking Institutional Theories of Political Moderation: The Case of Hindu Nationalism in India, 1996-2004". Comparative Politics. 38 (3): 317–336. doi:10.2307/20434000. JSTOR   20434000.
  17. ↑ Ornit Shani (2007). Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat . Cambridge University Press. p.  172.
  18. ↑ "Vajpayee equates Islam with terrorism".
  19. 1 2 Rafiq Dossani (2008). India Arriving: How This Economic Powerhouse Is Redefining Global Business. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 154.
  20. ↑ "Vajpayee admits mistake over Gujarat". CNN. 13 April 2002. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
  21. ↑ "Narayanan Blames BJP for Gujarat Riots". 3 March 2005.
  22. ↑ "Atal Bihari Vajpayee Awards - Late Prime Minister of india"". Indore [M.P.] India. 6 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.