Atal Bihari Vajpayee Biography and Works.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born to Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee on December 25, 1924 in a Brahmin family in a town in Gwalior. Vajpayee’s father Krishna Bihari was a poet and schoolmaster in his hometown.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee attended Gwalior’s Victoria College, the present Laxmi Bai College, and graduated with distinctions in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. He did his Post Graduation in Political Science from the DAV College in Kanpur.

He started his career with joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and served the Rashtradharma, Veer Arjun and Panchjanya newspapers as a journalist and poet.

Vajpayee never married, becoming the first and, till date, only bachelor Prime Minister of India.

After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from March 19, 1998 till May 19, 2004.

Vajpayee has been a parliamentarian for over four decades. He was elected to the Lok Sabha a record nine times and to the Rajya Sabha twice.

He was the Member of Parliament for Lucknow until 2009, when he retired from active politics due to health constraints.

Trivia

Vajpayee was referred to as The Bhishma Pitamah’ of Indian Politics by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in one of his speeches.

Quote

“Global interdependence today means that economic disasters in developing countries could create a backlash on developed countries.”