Jawaharlal Nehru predicted Atal Bihari Vajpayee would become PM 'one day'
New Delhi : Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had quite a few things in common. Both Nehru and Vajpayee were the first leader from their respective parties to become the Prime Minister of India. As incumbent prime minister, Nehru had predicted that Vajpayee would occupy his seat "one day".
Before joining politics, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a journalist. He worked for newspapers like Rashtra Dharma of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, Panchjanya (the RSS mouthpiece in Hindi) and dailies - Veer Arjun and Swadesh.
Four years after becoming an RSS pracharak (full-time worker), Vajpayee got associated with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (precursor to the BJP) in 1951. He was the political secretary to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the BJS founder-president, when the latter launched campaign against the government's permit order for entering Jammu and Kashmir.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the one to pack the baggage for Mookerjee and saw him off at the Delhi railway station on 8 May 1953 as the BJS leader left on a mission to enter Jammu and Kashmir defying the entry permit order. Mookerjee was arrested on the Jammu and Kashmir border. He was found dead on 23 June in Srinagar jail under mysterious circumstances.
Vajpayee carried Mookerjee's message - "there can't be two law codes (vidhaan), two chiefs (pradhaan) and two symbols (nishaan) - for a bigger agitation to the rank and file of the party. Vajpayee became a full-time member of the BJS in 1953 after Mookerjee's death.
Vajpayee saw a meteoric rise in the BJS, which nominated him as a candidate in 1955 by-election for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, which had fallen vacant following resignation of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Vajpayee's election campaign was noted for his impressive oratorical skills. He finished third in the bypoll.
Two years later, Vajpayee was nominated from three Lok Sabha seats in the second general elections by the BJS. Vajpayee won from Balrampur, finished runner-up in Lucknow and lost deposit at Mathura. Coming from a small party against the Congress of Pandit Nehru, Vajpayee performed exceptionally well as a debutant parliamentarian.
Vajpayee got the attention of Pandit Nehru with the range of questions that he raised in the Lok Sabha, speeches that he delivered and interventions that he made in the proceedings of the House. His range varied from international developments like German Unification to domestic laws.
Pandit Nehru was so influenced with his eloquence in Hindi that in 1957 he predicted Vajpayee to be the prime minister of India in future. While introducing Vajpayee to a foreign dignitary, Nehru said, "This young man one day will become the country's prime minister." Nehru's prediction came true almost 40 years later in 1990s.
Vajpayee, despite having told Nehru to "have a split personality", had tremendous respect for the first prime minister. When Vajpayee became the external affairs minister in 1977, he returned the favour that Nehru might have done by making "the PM prediction".
As Vajpayee was set to take charge of the external affairs ministry, the bureaucrats got busy with removing all the signs of Congress rule in the office as the Janata Party had won on a huge anti-Indira anti-Congress wave. On entering his office, Vajpayee was quick to notice a blank spot on the wall.
Historian Ramchandra Guha has quoted Vajpayee as telling his secretary, "This is where Panditji's portrait used to be. I remember it from my earlier visits to the room. Where has it gone? I want it back." Pandit Nehru remains the longest-serving foreign minister of India - 17 years.
courtesy : indiatoday.in
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
We need to create system in which people's skills get their due: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Friday called for creating a system in which people's skills get their due and everyone's contribution is respected, as he shared a Diwali video in which he interacts with paint job workers and potters.
Posting the over nine-minute video which features him also having a conversation with his nephew Raihan Rajiv Vadra on YouTube, the former Congress chief said, "A memorable Diwali with special people - I celebrated this Diwali working with some painter brothers and making earthen diyas with a potter family."
"I saw their work closely, tried to learn their skills and understood their difficulties and problems. They don't go home. We celebrate festivals happily and to earn some money, they forget their village, city, family," Gandhi said.
"They make happiness from clay. While lighting up the festivals of others, are they able to live in light themselves? Those who build houses can hardly run their own houses!" he said.
Gandhi said Diwali means light that can remove the darkness of poverty and helplessness.
"We have to create such a system -- in which people's skills get their due and contribution is respected -- makes everyone's Diwali a happy one. I hope this Diwali brings prosperity, progress and love in the lives of all of you," he said.
In the video, Gandhi is seen working with labourers at the 10 Janpath residence and learning to paint walls along with his nephew. In the second part of the video, Gandhi goes to the house of a woman who makes earthen lamps with her five daughters.
Gandhi tries his hand at pottery and makes 'diyas', which he says he would give to his mother and sister.
Since his Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra and his Manipur to Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Gandhi has been interacting with a cross-section of people from mechanics and cobblers to labourers and bus drivers.
He often posts videos of his numerous interactions and highlights the plight of various sections of society.
