He could not be boxed into any narrow party ideology

I had the rare privilege of working as the secretary to Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister. I had also spent time with him way back in 1984, when he had visited Japan and I was there. There are a few characteristics of Atal ji which stood out. The first was that he could not be boxed into the narrow confines of any party ideology. He had a national vision and recognised the need for India to join the global economy.

When I was appointed as his secretary, he gave me flexibility and handed over all economic departments. He had a macro vision and wanted to constitute both the Economic Advisory Council and Council of Trade and Industry.

What he had in mind was a small body where, in a drawingroom atmosphere, the PM could share ideas. For the Council of Trade and Industry, we had some regular names -- Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani. From the east, I suggested the name of RP Goenka. But Brajesh Mishra (Vajpayee’s principal secretary) said he was busy printing the posters of (then-congress president) Sonia (Gandhi). Atal ji immediately said, “Matlab ka aadmi hai, kaam ka aadmi hai ki nahin? Agar hai toh unhe aap avashya rakhein. (Is he useful or not? If he is, please take him).”

A key area of focus for him was telecom. He had inherited a legacy where all the private companies had bid for licenses with unrealistic amounts of revenue generation as target. They were going bust. Banks had non-performing assets. Courts were going after them. The telecom minister was Jagmohan. The PM was worried and asked, what should we do? I said, technically, Jagmohan was asking for guarantees to be encashed. But there were real economic concerns for the sector with this.

He then said – ‘why are we doing it then? Let us solve this’. Jagmohan was sidelined. Soli Sorabjee was put in charge. The Supreme Court had to be persuaded. We moved to a new revenue-sharing model. We regained our leadership in telecom.

We were travelling to New York. The next day, the PM was scheduled to talk to business and industry. He asked us to come up something new. Brajesh Mishra and I then said we should deregulate telecom and gave him an assessment of the costs and benefits. He said let us go ahead.

His sagacity in dealing with allies was immense. He once told me, “Chandrababu Naidu has not asked for anything, no ministry, yet he supports us. You give him what he wants. He should not come to me.”

We solved his problems. In the most difficult and stressful circumstances, one joke of his, one repartee would be enough to ease the tension. He grappled with a lot of internal resistance on pace of reforms. Yet, he constantly supported change, reform, productivity, and liberalisation. Enhancing economic change and helping India achieve leadership status remained his prime motivation. A Ratna of Bharat is no more. I have fond personal and professional memories of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that persuaded me to believe in him on an as-iswhere-is basis, if not in the ideology with which he was associated all his life. Here are notes from a reporter’s diary in remembrance, and respect.

AT MINAR- E- PAKISTAN

“Kya chal raha hai, partner?” What’s up, asked Atal ji, seeking me out of a crowd of journalists at Lahore’s Minar-e-pakistan on February 21, 1999. He was aware of my stint earlier as HT’S Pakistan correspondent, and was perhaps keen to know how his State visit, the last since by an Indian prime minister, was playing out in that country.

In the winter of 1999, I wasn’t quite sure until Vajpayee’s helicopter landed at Iqbal Park that the PM from a party that spoke of “akhand bharat” would visit the memorial to the Muslim League’s 1940 call for a separate homeland. “It’s a miracle, sir,” I gushed. “If that’s the message toh zara tafs-

PARADIGM SHIFT

The right wing, anti-india Jamaat-e-islami later had the Minar washed with rosewater in what it termed the memorial’s ‘ablution’ after Vajpayee set foot there. But that did not erase from the popular mind the impression the Indian leader made by his

ANTI-SIKH RIOTS

I once asked a senior BJP leader to recall one action or policy for