Vajpayee Best Quotes

The last year of the Vajpayee government, 2003–04, was the best ever—not just reckoning the years since 1947 but even going back to the last century, to the years of the East India Company, to the reign of Akbar and of Ashoka, and to the time when our forefathers had discovered Pythagoras’s theorem, mastered the art of organ transplant and flew aircraft to other planets.

One of Atal’s best-known poems is ‘Geet Naya Gaata Hoon’ (I Sing a New Song). The poem begins with the protagonist in a crestfallen mood saying, ‘Geet nahin gaata hoon [I do not sing]’, and further, ‘Benakaab chehre hain, daag bade gehre hain; toota tilism, aaj, sach se bhaya khata hoon, geet nahin gata hoon.’ In the second stanza, the protagonist has regained his confidence and says, ‘Geet naya gata hoon; toote hue taaron se, phoote vasanti swar; paththar ki chaati mein ug aaya nav ankur.’ It ends, ‘Kaal ke kapal par likhta, mitata hoon.