Atal Quotes

Forgiveness is a refusal to armor your own heart—a refusal to live in a constricted heart,” he said, seemingly as much to himself as to me. “Living with that openness means feeling pain. It’s not pretty, but the alternative is feeling nothing at all.

Si es atal es atal.

Our news bulletins were full of killings and death, so it was natural for Atal to think of coffins and graves. Instead of hide-and-seek and cops and robbers, children were now playing army vs. Taliban.

There is no thing known as bad luck. There is luck, or no luck at all.

I have often found the most productive people appear not to be working at all.

आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ भरी दुपहरी में अंधियारा सूरज परछाई से हारा अंतरतम का नेह निचोड़ें बुझी हुई बाती सुलगाएँ। आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ हम पड़ाव को समझे मंज़िल लक्ष्य हुआ आंखों से ओझल वतर्मान के मोहजाल में आने वाला कल न भुलाएँ। आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ। आहुति बाकी यज्ञ अधूरा अपनों के विघ्नों ने घेरा अंतिम जय का वज़्र बनाने नव दधीचि हड्डियां गलाएँ। आओ फिर से दिया जलाएँ

Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit. It? I ast. Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It. But what do it look like? I ast. Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It. Shug a beautiful something, let me tell you. She frown a little, look out cross the yard, lean back in her chair, look like a big rose. She say, My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. And I laughed and I cried and I run all around the house. I knew just what it was. In fact, when it happen, you can't miss it. It sort of like you know what, she say, grinning and rubbing high up on my thigh. Shug! I say. Oh, she say. God love all them feelings. That's some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves 'em you enjoys 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like. God don't think it dirty? I ast. Naw, she say. God made it. Listen, God love everything you love? and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration. You saying God vain? I ast. Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. What it do when it pissed off? I ast. Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back. Yeah? I say. Yeah, she say. It always making little surprises and springing them on us when us least expect. You mean it want to be loved, just like the bible say. Yes, Celie, she say. Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk? Well, us talk and talk bout God, but I'm still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). Not the little wildflowers. Nothing. Now that my eyes opening, I feels like a fool. Next to any little scrub of a bush in my yard, Mr. ____s evil sort of shrink. But not altogether. Still, it is like Shug say, You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a'tall. Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind,water, a big rock. But this hard work, let me tell you. He been there so long, he don't want to budge. He threaten lightening, floods and earthquakes. Us fight. I hardly pray at all. Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it. Amen

Granma said everybody has two minds. One of the minds has to do with the necessaries for body living. You had to use it to figure out how to get shelter and eating and such like for the body... She said we had to have that mind so as we could carry on. But she said we had another mind that had nothing atall to do with such. She said it was the spirit mind. Granma said if you used the body-living mind to think greedy or mean; if you was always cuttin' at folks with it and figuring how to material profit off'n them ... then you would shrink up your spirit mind to a size no bigger 'n a hickor'nut. Granma said that when your body died, the body-living mind died with it, and if that's the way you had thought all your life there you was, stuck with a hickor'nut spirit, as the spirit mind was all that lived when everything else died... Granma said that the spirit mind was like any other muscle. If you used it it got bigger and stronger. She said the only way it could get that way was using it to understand, but you couldn't open the door to it until you quit being greedy and such with your body mind. Then understanding commenced to take up, and the more you tried to understand, the bigger it got. Natural, she said, understanding and love was the same thing; except folks went at it back'ards too many times, trying to pretend they loved things when they didn't understand them. Which can't be done. I see right out that I was going to commence trying to understand practical everybody, for I sure didn't want to come up with a hickor'nut spirit.

Atal felt a spectral change in the air, as if the laws of earth were bowing to greater laws.

Old age breeds the miracle of recall. You have no short-term memory atall; you can’t remember what you did minutes ago, but you can recall with exquisite clarity what you did on your fifth birthday and how it all felt.

दो दिन मिले उधार में, घाटे के व्यापार में, क्षण-क्षण का हिसाब जोड़ूँ या पूँजी शेष लुटाऊँ मैं? राह कौन-सी जाऊँ मैं?

journalist Vinod Mehta wrote, ‘I am convinced if Vajpayee had not been the PM, India would have been sent to fight in George Bush’s Iraq invasion. He dreaded phone calls from George imploring him to send even a token force. “His soldiers are dying and now he wants my soldiers to die. I will never let that happen,”’ Mehta remembered Atal having told him.

He didn’t blame his wife for this conditional acceptance; he’d grown up with parents who’d never accepted him at all.

«Davvero credi di meritare l’amore di qualcuno?» continua a sputarmi contro con disgusto.

He was rowed down from the north in a leather skiff manned by a crew of trolls. His fur cape was caked with candle wax, his brow stained blue by wine - though the latter was seldom noticed due to the fox mask he wore at-all times. A quill in his teeth, a solitary teardrop a-squirm in his palm, he was the young poet prince of Montreal, handsome, immaculate, searching for sturdier doors to nail his poignant verses on. In Manhattan, grit drifted into his ink bottle. In Vienna, his spice box exploded. On the Greek island of Hydra, Orpheus came to him at dawn astride a transparent donkey and restrung his cheap guitar. From that moment on, he shamelessly and willingly exposed himself to the contagion of music. To the secretly religious curiosity of the traveler was added the openly foolhardy dignity of the troubadour. By the time he returned to America, songs were working in him like bees in an attic. Connoisseurs developed cravings for his nocturnal honey, despite the fact that hearts were occasionally stung. Now, thirty years later, as society staggers towards the millennium - nailing and screeching at the while, like an orangutan with a steak knife in its side - Leonard Cohen, his vision, his gift, his perseverance, are finally getting their due. It may be because he speaks to this wounded zeitgeist with particular eloquence and accuracy, it may be merely cultural time-lag, another example of the slow-to-catch-on many opening their ears belatedly to what the few have been hearing all along. In any case, the sparkle curtain has shredded, the boogie-woogie gate has rocked loose from its hinges, and here sits L. Cohen at an altar in the garden, solemnly enjoying new-found popularity and expanded respect. From the beginning, his musical peers have recognized Cohen´s ability to establish succinct analogies among life´s realities, his talent for creating intimate relationships between the interior world of longing and language and the exterior world of trains and violins. Even those performers who have neither "covered" his compositions nor been overtly influenced by them have professed to admire their artfulness: the darkly delicious melodies - aural bouquets of gardenia and thistle - that bring to mind an electrified, de-Germanized Kurt Weill; the playfully (and therefore dangerously) mournful lyrics that can peel the apple of love and the peach of lust with a knife that cuts all the way to the mystery, a layer Cole Porter just could`t expose. It is their desire to honor L. Cohen, songwriter, that has prompted a delegation of our brightest artists to climb, one by one, joss sticks smoldering, the steep and salty staircase in the Tower of Song.

She flung a mental lifeline to that physical self, and tried to recall the feeling of being in it: all the sensations that made up being alive. The exact touch of her friend Atal’s soft-tipped trunk caressing her neck. The taste of bacon and eggs. The triumphant strain in her muscles as she pulled herself up a rock face. The delicate dancing of her fingers on a computer keyboard. The smell of roasting coffee. The warmth of her bed on a winter night.

«Allora, predatrice, qual è la tua scelta?»

Still, it is like Shug say, You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a'tall

«Ora non riguarda più solo me e te.» Mi preme le labbra umide sulla guancia. «Ora voglio far soffrire anche lei.»

Friendship should be more like a submarine, holding few and going deep. But we’ve made it more like a cruise ship, filled with lots of nice people whom we don’t know well at all.

आदमी की पहचान, उसके धन या आसन से नहीं होती, उसके मन से होती है। मन की फकीरी पर कुबेर की संपदा भी रोती है।

दाँव पर सबकुछ लगा है, रुक नहीं सकते। टूट सकते हैं मगर हम झुक नहीं सकते।

To those who try to reach The throne of power Over mounds of dead bodies Of innocent children Old women Young men, I have a question: Did nothing bind them To those who died? - Power

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on 8 May 1959, Atal said: ‘When we accepted the sovereignty of China on Tibet we made a mistake. That day was an unfortunate day. Where has the Panchsheel agreement gone? Those who proclaim Panchsheel say that according to Panchsheel democracy and dictatorship can live together. If for the communist imperialism the peace and religion loving people of Tibet can’t keep their way of life, then it is meaningless to say that in such a big world communism and democracy can co-exist. We don’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of Tibet. But Tibet is not an internal affair of China. I represent a small party but our party defends the independence of Tibet. We want friendship with China but we should not build the palace of this friendship on the dead body of Tibet’s independence.

A good man would tell you to stop writing. A good man would say to you, “No, love, don’t wait for me. Live your life.” A good man would be happy that you were off somewhere in the world doing all the things you deserve. But, Miss Ada, I am no good man. I am, in fact, selfish, very bleeding selfish when it comes to you. Good man or no, I will tell you I believe a life lived without love is one not worthy of living a’tall.

भारत-पाकिस्तान पड़ोसी, साथ-साथ रहना है, प्यार करें या वार करें, दोनों को ही सहना है, तीन बार लड़ चुके लड़ाई, कितना महँगा सौदा, रूसी बम हो या अमेरिकी, खून एक बहना है। जो हम पर गुजरी बच्चों के संग न होने देंगे। जंग न होने देंगे।

If one does nothing but think of someone, it takes up all the time you could use to do something about them. I wish nobody thought of me, but did a lot for me instead. It's just like someone else going to the sea-side when you're not, and sending a card back saying they're thinking of you; it's worse than if they weren't thinking of you at all, and now you have a horrid card that you have to be grateful for. And I have decided that I don't like being grateful —at—all.

Incidentally, at a reception at Governor House, Atal recited his poem ‘Ab jung naa hone denge hum’. Atal was felicitated at Lahore Fort where, hinting at the common heritage of the two nations, he pointed out how Shah Jahan was born in the fort and Akbar had spent close to a decade there. The audience was so impressed by Atal’s speech that Nawaz Sharif quipped, ‘Vajpayee sahab ab toh Pakistan mein bhi election jeet sakte hain. [Mr Vajpayee can now win elections even in Pakistan.]

I know, to the deepest marrow of my bones that I love you, that I want you, that I could not do, not a’tall, without making you mine one day. So call me weak, I don’t bleeding care. Call me greedy, for I am that. I want you now, forever and always.

I believe he has a purpose for everything. I believe he'll bring good out of this, maybe even in a way I won't like very much. It's his call, not mine." "Seems like any God a'tall would want you down here bustin' a gut, not leavin' it all up to him." "Seems like. But it doesn't work that way. We've got to let him do the heavy lifting. We've got to grunt, that's for sure, but we've got to let him lift. The challenge is to trust him. Right now, I'm trusting him. Running a little scared, but trusting him.

टू टे हुए तारों से फूटे वासंती स्वर, पत्थर की छाती में उग आया नव अंकुर, झरे सब पीले पात, कोयल की कुहुक रात, प्राची में अरुणिमा की रेख देख पाता हूँ। गीत नया गाता हूँ। टूटे हुए सपने की सुने कौन सिसकी? अंतर को चीर व्यथा पलकों पर ठिठकी। हार नही मानूँगा, रार नई ठानूँगा, काल के कपाल पर लिखता-मिटाता हूँ। गीत नया गाता हूँ।

Children,” the Queen laments, “always so certain they know everything.” “True,” Father agrees. “But were we really so different at their age, Your Majesty?” “Well…” Queen Lenora considers this question. And then she answers. “When I was young I was sure I knew everything… but it turns out I was right, so that’s not the same thing at’all.

you can't have _any_thing, you can't have anything at all. Because desire just cheats you. It's like a sunbeam skipping here and there about a room. It stops and gilds some inconsequential object, and we poor fools try to grasp it—but when we do the sunbeam moves on to something else, and you've got the inconsequential part, but the glitter that made you want it is gone—

I would expect such behavior from the children,not from their mother." She tsked at him, not even a little daunted. "Aren't you the least bit curious?" "Certainly,but I can wait until-" "But I can't wait," she cut in passionately. "Come with me, Warren. I'll be careful with it. And if it's nothing more'n a simple gift, albeit a mysterious one, then I'll have the box wrapped up again perfectly, so no one will know we tampered with it." "You're serious about this?" he asked. "You're actually going to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night like an errant schoolgirl-" "No,no,we are, like two perfectly sensible adults making a reasonable effort to solve a mystery that has been around far too long." He chuckled at that point, used to his wife's strange logic, and used to her ignoring any of his attempts at sternness.But then that was the magic of Amy.She was unlike any other woman he'd ever known. He gave in gracefully with a smile. "Very well,fetch our robes and some shoes.I would imagine the fire has been banked in the parlor, so it will be a mite chilly." It wasn't that long before they were standing next to The Present, Warren merely curious, Amy finding it hard to contain her excitement, considering what she expected to find beneath the pretty cloth wrapping.The parlor wasn't chilly at all,since whoever had lef the room last had closed the doors to contain the earlier warmth, and Warren had closed them again before he lit several of the lamps. But the doors opened once more, giving Amy quite a start since she was just reaching for The Present when it happened, and Jeremy said as he entered the room, "Caught in the act,eh? Amy,for shame." Amy,noticeably embarrassed despite the fact that Jeremy wasn't just her cousin, but one of her closest friends, said stiffly, "And what,pray tell, are you doing down here at this hour?" He winked at her and said dryly, "Same thing you are, I would imagine." She chuckled then. "Scamp. Close the door while you're at it." He started to,but stepped out of the way instead as Reggie sauntered in, barefoot and still in the process of tying her bed robe. When everyone else there just stared at her, she huffed indignantly, "I did not come down here to open The Present-well, maybe I did, but I would have chickened out before actually doing so." "What a whopper, Reggie," Derek said as he came in right behind her. "Nice try, though. Mind if I borrow that lame excuse? Better than having none a'tall.

You have exciting eyes,Becca. Too dark to read, which cloaks you in mystery. Pink would offset that, don't you think?" How was she supposed to think a'tall?! Her pulse was racing out of control. She could even feel him pushing himself against her hips! "If we really were alone right now, I think I'd have to lift your skirt." Whispered in his low,masculine voice near her ear, the outrageous remark made her draw in her breath so sharply she almost choked. It completely saved her and brought her to her sense.He'd stepped back as she coughed. She swung around, glaring at him, and was met with a cheeky grin. "Will you throw yarn at me if I kiss you again?" he asked with a twinkle in his pale blue eyes.

When will you be returning?" "Not as soon as I'd like to. I'm going to have to waste a couple days finding an....acceptable...wife." Her eyes widened. "You're going to France to get married?" He didn't answer immediately; he was in fact giving her such a thoughtful look that it began to make her distinctly uncomfortable. But he finally answered, "Not a'tall. While that might delight my mother, I think even she would prefer an English daughter-in-law. Fortunately, I'm in no hurry to delight her. It's not a real wife I need, just a woman to play the role for a few days." "A fake wife?" He smiled enigmatically. "Exactly." "Whatever for?" "If you're offering to play the part, we can discuss it further. Otherwise, it's none of your business." She snorted and had to wrestle with her curiosity a bit before she could tell him, "Real or fake, I find marriage to you so detestable that my answer isn't just no,it's a resounding no.

Rebecca,why haven't you burned his wardrobe yet?" Rebecca turned to see what had provoked that question, then just stared. Her husband was wearing one of those horribly bright satin coats better suited to a costume ball, this one in a ghastly orange, with excesive lace at the wrists and the throat. With his long black hair and his soft cheeks so smoothly shaved,it made him look somewhat effeminate when she knew he was anything but. But he actually looked to be trying not to laugh when he said to his mother, "She'll do nothing of the sort. She likes my taste in clothes. It reminds her of when we first met." Rebecca continued to just stare, her mind in a whirl. It sounded as if he was just teasing, but she couldn't be sure. To imply that she had fond memories of their first meeting wasn't even remotely amusing. She had nothing of the sort. "You can't seriously intend to take your wife out wearing something like that?" Julie continued. "What's wrong with what she's wearing?" "Not her,you fool.You! You're married now. Your old taste in clothes-" "Marriage has nothing to do with taste, Mother," Rupert cut in. "Well, perhaps a little,at least in women, but nothing a'tall to do with one's wardrobe.Shall we go, m'dear?" The last was added for Rebecca as he put an arm around her to lead her out of the room. His hand on her hip was all she could think about. But his mother refused to be dismissed so easily. Julie actually shouted at him, "Find a new tailor! You're mortifying your wife!

One day I saw my little brother Atal digging furiously in the garden. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked him. ‘Making a grave,’ he said. Our news bulletins were full of killings and death so it was natural for Atal to think of coffins and graves. Instead of hide and seek and cops and robbers, children were now playing Army vs Taliban. They made rockets from branches and used sticks for Kalashnikovs; these were their sports of terror.

pay enough or don’t pay at all.

If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, then don’t say it at all.” Bridget MacCarthy

When Pakistan reciprocated Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s peacenik bus trip to Lahore with a military invasion of the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999, the Indian Army was not allowed to cross the Line of Control and strike at the invaders’ bases and supply lines in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This raised the death toll among Indian soldiers, the typical Gandhian price for a pose of saintliness,

Delhi was the political capital and the Parliament where Atal went, allowed a vantage point that gave him a bird’s eye view of what was happening across the country. This gave him a sort of detached view and enabled him to rise above the party line. It also made him realize what makes India tick and appreciate the unity in the diversity of the country.

Before he became prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to joke that he was the longest prime minister-in-waiting in India.

Live the life you have now instead of longing for the life you think you will have but which you actually cannot control at all.

We want autonomy for ourselves and safety of those we love' That remains the main problem and paradox for the frail.

Then, I got up one mornin’ and I forgived you. I got up the next mornin’ and forgived you again. And the next.” She sighed. “The Bible says you got to forgive seven times seventy times, and folks think that means forgivin’ that many hurts. But that ain’t it a-tall. What it means is that it takes that many times and more to forgive one hurt, ’cause you got to do it over and over, ever day. Until one day, the forgiveness comes down outta your head—outta your mouth where you been sayin’ it but not meanin’ it—and it lands in your heart.” She patted her flat chest. “When it lands here, the forgivin’s done.” Her

there is experimental evidence that trans fatty acids may inhibit growth, for instance from a study by Dr. Atal and his coworkers at various institutions at the University of Maryland and at the National Institutes of Health.[263] They gave young mice two different diets. The only difference between the diets was that a tiny amount of normal fatty acids (not of the vital ones) was substituted with the same amount of trans fatty acids. After two years the body weight of the mice fed with trans fatty acids was 20-25% lower than the weight of the control mice. Thus,

you might be the lust, but you can't take over the love. so leave the spot or turn it into love.

Everybody is very smart because they manage to fool you. You are smarter because you allow them to fool you.

I was talking to him, but he spoke to my eyes.

हरी-हरी दूब पर ओस की बूँदें अभी थीं, अब नहीं हैं। ऐसी खुशियाँ जो हमेशा हमारा साथ दें कभी नहीं थीं, कभी नहीं हैं। क्वार की कोख से फूटा बाल सूर्य, जब पूरब की गोद में पाँव फैलाने लगा, तो मेरी बगीची का पत्ता-पत्ता जगमगाने लगा, मैं उगते सूर्य को नमस्कार करूँ या उसके ताप से भाप बनी, ओस की बूँदों को ढूँढ़ूँ? सूर्य एक सत्य है जिसे झुठलाया नहीं जा सकता मगर ओस भी तो एक सच्चाई है यह बात अलग है कि ओस क्षणिक है क्यों न मैं क्षण-क्षण को जीऊँ? कण-कण में बिखरे सौंदर्य को पीऊँ? सूर्य तो फिर भी उगेगा, धूप तो फिर भी खिलेगी, लेकिन मेरी बगीची की हरी-हरी दूब पर, ओस की बूँद हर मौसम में नहीं मिलेगी।

Because the creator of all the worlds cannot be a participant in worldly matters. Gods are the detached operators of the contents of this Universe- the Brahmand; which consists of twenty Lokas: Six are above the Prithivi, the mother Earth and they ago by the name - Jan, Tap, Satyam, Mah, Swa, Bhuv. A total of seven Lokas, including our earth - Prithivi Lok. Then there are fourteen Lokas below the Earth, of which seven are the Naraks, meaning hells and they go by the name of; Aveech, Mahakal, Ambrish, Rorav, Maharorav, Mahasutra and Andhatamisr. Above them are the seven Patal Lokas below the earth namely- Mahatal, Rasatal, Atal, Sutal, Vital, Talatal and the Patal.

In 1998, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unseated by a vote of no-confidence, Sonia made an abortive bid to become prime minister. She was thwarted by Mulayam Singh Yadav who withdrew support to the Congress-led government after indicating an initial willingness to offer it.

The Bible says you got to forgive seven times seventy times, and folks think that means forgivin’ that many hurts. But that ain’t it a-tall. What it means is that it takes that many times and more to forgive one hurt, ’cause you got to do it over and over, ever day. Until one day, the forgiveness comes down outta your head—outta your mouth where you been sayin’ it but not meanin’ it—and it lands in your heart.

If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.

on 12 October 1984, just a few weeks before the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Atal declared, ‘Our hour of trial is approaching. This government is a danger to democracy. In its insatiable lust for power, one single family has jeopardized the unity of an entire nation. In Punjab there is neither peace nor settlement. In Assam there is lull before a storm; a terrible crisis in Assam can erupt now.

Atal also wondered whether Indira Gandhi was mulling a presidential system for India and was planning to rule India with the army sharing power. He said, ‘[The] PM is glibly telling the world that there is no harm in having a national debate on the desirability of the presidential system. One wonders if the PM has any clear concept apart from perpetuating her family in power.

There is nothing that succeeds like success and conversely nothing fails like failure.

Atal also answered the charge that his party should not have tried to form the government since the BJP got only a minority of votes. He pointed out that the first-past-the-post Westminster system that was followed in the country counted only the seats that a party won and not the percentage of votes polled. By implication, the BJP could not be blamed for jumping in to try and form a government.

On 17 April 1999, the government got 269 votes in its favour while 270 votes went against. On the morning of that day, Atal spoke to BSP chief Mayawati, who promised to support the government. However, when Mayawati stood up to address the Lok Sabha, she announced that her party would vote against the government.

He told India Today in the interview quoted earlier: ‘Yes, the tests have entailed a price. But we should not worry about it. India has a reservoir of resources and inner strength. If we tap its reservoir, the benefit will be a hundred times more than any price that we may have to pay in the short run.

Further, a solution to the Kashmir problem must take into account the interests of India, Pakistan and above all the Kashmiri people (the words ‘above all’ were inserted at the instance of Atal).

Atal realized that if the Congress party was successful in hanging on to power, it was because it reflected the desires and aspirations of the citizens in some measure. The easiest course for an opposition party is to launch a course of action and espouse an ideology that is diametrically opposed to that of the ruling party. However, Atal never aspired to do so. He knew that if the Congress party was doing something right, it had to be imbibed even at the risk of being criticized.

The greatest curse, not merely of Indian politics but of national life as a whole, is the general incapacity to work together. Let’s learnt to unite, instead of dividing to create harmony where disharmony exists and to keep our self-interest and ego in leash.

He also believed that ‘you can change friends but not your neighbours’, and that is why he aggressively pursued peace with neighbours like Pakistan.

I am ready to ask kar sevaks who were small in numbers to come forward and openly confess that they demolished the structure and face the music. I would also like to state that there were a large number of kar sevaks not involved in demolition. If the intent was to demolish secretly and according to a plan it would not require kar seva. Whatever happened there, we regret the incident.

When Atal was in office, some of his associates had raised the clamour that he should award the Bharat Ratna to himself. This was after his success in the Kargil conflict. His predecessors, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, had awarded themselves the Bharat Ratna, Nehru getting it in 1955 and Indira Gandhi in 1971. Atal, however, was not a man to do such a thing.

Manmohan had thought very highly of Atal ever since the mid-1990s. Apparently, Atal had sternly criticized Manmohan in the Lok Sabha when he was the finance minister. Manmohan was so taken aback that he went to submit his resignation to his boss Narasimha Rao.

L.K. Advani wrote a personal letter to Manmohan Singh, putting forth the demand. Stories doing the rounds suggest that Manmohan Singh, the then prime minister, was not averse to it, but UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi would not agree.

Nehru once introduced Atal to the British prime minister, stating, ‘He is a young leader of the opposition who is always criticizing me, but I see in him a great future.