Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s liberal admirers sometimes described him as the right man in the wrong party. His critics called him a “mukhauta’’, a mask which hid his party’s harsh uncompromising Hindutva agenda. But it was his successor as prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who gave Vajpayee the epithet by which he will be remembered in history, “Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics’’.

Polls rating the popularity of India’s prime ministers invariably place Vajpayee as among the tallest.

People close to Atalji, as he was called by those who knew him well, say the defining characteristics of the man was his humanism, humour, his love for poetry, food and music. And, above all, his pragmatism.

Credit by - The Indian Express

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