Nation mourns Vajpayee’s demise |
Former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who set off a nuclear arms race with rival Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process, died Aug.16 after a prolonged illness. He was 93. Vajpayee, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had suffered a stroke in 2009.A onetime journalist, Vajpayee was the moderate leader of an often-strident Hindu nationalist movement. He was a lifelong poet who revered nature but who oversaw India’s growth into a swaggering regional economic power. He was the prime minister who ordered nuclear tests in 1998. Later, it was he who made the first moves toward peace with Pakistan. One of seven children of a schoolteacher in central India, Vajpayee was elected to Parliament in 1957. Later, he became the best-known figure in its moderate wing, and helped the Bharatiya Janata Party become one of India’s few national political parties. One of India’s longest-serving lawmakers, Vajpayee was elected nine times to the powerful Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament. He also served two terms in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house. He led the party to its first national electoral victory in 1996, but lasted just 13 days as prime minister before he resigned in the face of a no-confidence motion.
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