RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee A man full of Ideas...
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who held the post for three non-consecutive terms in 1996, 1998-99, and from 1999-2004, passed away on Thursday. He was 93. Mr. Vajpayee’s long career in public life was no doubt crowned by his being elected Prime Minister, but the course of it was peppered with long years as a parliamentarian, and with struggles to establish the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and later the BJP, in national politics. Born on December 25, 1924 in Gwalior, Mr. Vajpayee was elected 10 times to the Lok Sabha from four different States (the first time in 1957 from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh), and was twice a Member of the Rajya Sabha in a storied career. He got an early start in public life when he got involved in the Quit India Movement of 1942 and was arrested for it. He was already a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) since 1939, and after finishing Masters in Political Science from Kanpur, he began to work full-time for the RSS. ...