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Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 20
Top leaders of all political parties paid rich tributes to late Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a "sarvajanik sarvdaliya pratharna sabha" —a prayer meeting — organised by the BJP in memory of the former Prime Minister who passed away on August 16 after a prolonged illness.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said despite being away from the public life for so many years Vaypayee impacted lives of millions, a proof of which was overwhelming response after his death. “Yesterday (wrestler) Bajrang Punia, who I think has never seen him, dedicated his (Asian Games) gold medal to Atalji, I think this says a lot about his personality,” he said.
However, it were the opposition leaders — Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress), Farookh Abdullah (National Conference) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) — who stole the show with their heartfelt, poignant references to the late BJP leader, one of the Indai’s most loved prime ministers. Highlighting Vajpayee for his secular nature and good relations with opposition parties, Azad said even in his death the BJP leader had brought together leaders cutting across ideological divides under one roof, which was great.
Speaking of his personal rapport with Vajpayee, Azad said distance seen between the ruling party and the opposition today was not there earlier. He said many people in Vajpayee's party (BJP) might not know him as well as he did — a relationship formed over several interactions during Parliament's sessions between him as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the PV Narsimha Rao government and Vaypayee, the leader of the Opposition.
Vajpayee was such an eloquent speaker that even his criticism sounded pleasant whereas there are some leaders who, even when they say something good, make it sound like abuses said Azad — telling words in the presence of the top BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Modi, party chief Amit Shah, with whom opposition leaders share a rather frosty relationship today.
"The distance we see today was not there then,” Azad said.
Mehbooba, with whom the BJP ran the Jammu and Kashmir government till about some weeks back before acrimoniously parting ways, called Vajpayee a “Messiah”, the “first Indian leader who trusted the people of the state and whom the people trusted”.
Abdullah said perfect tribute to Vajpayee would be to build an India where there is love, again loaded remarks given the allegations of “divisive” politics against the BJP by opposition parties. “If you want to remember Atalji, make a country where there is so much love that the whole world bows before it,” Abdullah said before ending his tribute with “Bharat mata ki jai”.
"If you look for definition of certain words, you have to look in the dictionary. But there’s one word you don’t need to look in dictionary…if you look at his face you will get the meaning of the word ‘secular’,” said Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress, a party with which the BJP is currently engaged in a fierce battle in West Bengal.
Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Badal, who read out a speech by patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, said Vajpayee lost Gwalior in 1984 because of his support to the Sikh community after the anti-Sikh riots. Calling him the emperor of people’s hearts, she said: “I bow before that emperor”.
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