An examination of Vajpayee's three terms as PM and his role as the political bridge between independent India and the country it became.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India three times — a record that reflects both his political resilience and the unusual breadth of coalition he could hold together. He co-founded the Bharatiya Janata Party, led India through the 1998 nuclear tests and the Kargil conflict, and launched the Lahore Declaration as the first serious attempt to reset relations with Pakistan. He was also a published poet. That combination — idealist, statesman, and wordsmith in a single person — is what Dr D. K. Hari and Dr D. K. Hema Hari set out to examine.
The book reads Vajpayee's leadership as a bridge: between the India of independence and the India that followed, between traditionalism and the demands of a liberalising economy, between Hindu nationalist politics and the consensus-building that his governance actually required. The authors argue that his distinctive contribution was working from the inside out — changing India's self-image before its external image could shift.
For readers trying to understand how New India's political culture was formed, Vajpayee is the figure this book presents as the necessary prologue.
This book throws light on the Beacon of New India. A great leader, who showed the path to New India and defined what New India should be all about. A leader, who bridged the time window from Independent India to New India. A leader, who founded the largest political party of India and was sworn in thrice, as the Prime Minister of India. A leader, who had firmly balanced traditionalism, humanism, idealism, poetry, and politics with statesmanship in Governance. A leader, who threw light on the changes to be done within India, to change its image outside India. A leader, who worked from Inside Out. A " Consensus Colossus " in consensus. He was a prequel to New India. And, so is this book, to Knowing New India.
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