The thoughts of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have inspired not only the BJP but also the leaders of other parties. The way he ran the government by taking important decisions during his tenure, he is mentioned even today. This style of his makes him different from other leaders and this is the reason why his works were appreciated not only in India but also abroad.
Atal ji used to focus on only one task at a time and hardly anyone else could do the way he handled controversial issues. Remembering him, former editor of The Indian Express and former Union Minister Arun Shourie has shared some such anecdotes, which people hardly know about.
Arun Shourie was a minister in the Atal government. He said in an interview with The Indian Express that Atal ji had a way of dealing with controversial issues. While narrating an old anecdote, he told that I remember one thing of the Non-Aligned Movement conference when the former Prime Minister answered the question asked about Ayodhya in such a way that the media became silent. Shourie said that I remember we were on a tour of Sri Lanka for the conference in Kuala Lumpur. At that time in a press conference someone asked him to comment on the Shila Puja in Ayodhya on the call of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, then Atal ji said – We will meet the people of Ayodhya by going to Delhi, now we are going to meet the people of Lanka. In this way he easily avoided the issue.
As long as Atal ji remained in the party and focused on his work
When he was asked whether he had any regrets on joining BJP, Shourie said as long as Atal ji was in the party, not till then. He was asked that whatever is happening in BJP today, was there a similar situation at that time also? To this, Shourie said that my focus was always on Atal ji and my work. Maybe it was my blind devotion, but whatever work I got, I did it with full devotion.