Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the 10th Prime Minister of India passed away on 16th August 2018 after being in a critical condition for the past several days.
The former PM was admitted into the AIIMS hospital in a critical condition in around June and as per some reports had been put on life support a few days back.
The hospital revealed information about the 93-year-old politician’s demise at 5 minutes past 5 pm on Thursday.
Vajpayee was truly an iconic figure, one who was PM of the country 3 times over the course of his political career, becoming the first person to deliver an entire speech in the Hindi language at the UN General Assembly in 1977.
It was also under his reign that India became a nuclear nation with successful testing being done during his second term in May of 1998.
But it was his interactions with the common people that truly made him a person to always remember with respect and admiration.
My uncle had apparently worked with Vajpayee for 20 days back during the 1977 elections when he was placed in his polling booth.
We take a look at his experience:
Those 20 days- 1977
This is a time of those days when I was studying in college. India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ended Emergency and announced the start of elections in the country.
The country’s 4 biggest parties had joined together as the Janata Party and entered the election race. Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji was fighting the election from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency.
I was given the responsibility of the Connaught place polling booth of Atal Ji’s zone where during the day while campaigning for the election in an auto, day and night we would go door to door and canvass the voters.
At night we would retire to the residence of Atal Ji himself at 30 Rajender Prasad Marg to rest and recharge for the night. During this time, sometimes we would get valuable guidance and teachings from Atal Ji.
Read More: Back In Time: 43 Years Ago, Indira Gandhi’s National Emergency Changed India’s Democracy
Atal Ji according to his nature would keep us party workers in a happy and jolly environment. When the election results came in we all got the privilege/honour of getting a ladoo from the hands of Atal Ji himself.
In those days itself, I had a strong feeling that we all were spending the most important time of our life in the presence of a revolutionary man.
My respectful homage with great salutes to Atal Ji.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Wikipedia, The Indian Express
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