‘VAJPAYEE WAS A GREAT FAN OF BANARSI MASTI’

VARANASI: Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee shared a strong connection with Varanasi and visited the city several times.

He walked in the city’s famed narrow lanes spent time at the ghats in the 1960s.

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) volunteer Arvind Rastogi, now in his late seventies, first met Vajpayee in the early 1960s, when he, along with Bharatiya Jan Sangh co-founder Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay, paid a visit to the city.

“Atalji was a great fan of Banarsi masti (carefree lifestyle) and Subah-e-Banaras, view of the rising sun from ghats. He was fond of kachauri-jalebi. He also liked thandaai and lassi,” Rastogi said.

Rastogi said, “Atalji used to participate in RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) shakhas at Company Bagh and various other places in the city. He lived in the Sangh office in the Godaulia area. Quite popular among the locals because of his oratory, he worked for strengthening the RSS base in Varanasi.”

Prof Kaushal Kishore Mishra, who teaches political science at Banaras Hindu University, recalled: “In 1997, Vajpayeeji attended an event at Varanasi Municipal Corporation auditorium where he honoured tabla maestro Pt Kishan Maharaj, shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, sarod maestro Pt Jyotin Bhattacharya, and (eminent Kathak exponent) Sitara Devi. In fact, the event was organised on his instructions.”

“Atalji recited his famous poem ‘Geet Naya Gata Hun’ at the event. As he concluded the poem, the auditorium reverberated with applause,” he said.

The late Prof Veerbhadra Mishra, the then chief priest of Sankatmonchan temple, was a friend of Vajpayee.

In 1981, he visited the Sankatmochan temple and met the chief priest, said Kaushal Kishore Mishra. Vajpayee also visited the city when he was external affairs minister (in the Morarji Desai government in the 1970s) and called on spiritual leader Karpatriji Maharaj at Vrindavan Bhavan where the two held a long discussion, he said. “Kapatriji Maharaj had given a discourse on Rajdharma and Vajpayeeji listened to it attentively,” he said.

Pt Batuknath Shashtri, Prof Veerbhandra Mishra, Prof Harihar Nath Tripathi, and Vedanti Swami were also part of the meeting, Kaushal Kishore Mishra recalled. “Vajpayeeji was highly impressed by Karpatriji Maharaj’s preaching on Rajdharma. In fact, Atalji liked such interactions that were completely non-political,” he said.