HUMAN PAR EXCELLENCE: ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE (1924 - 2018).
My memory goes back to 2003 when I had shared a platform with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was the year in which Bangalore University in collaboration with ISRO had organized Indian Science Congress in the BU Campus. As is custom, the Prime Minister of India inaugurates the Congress every year. I as BU VC along with the PM, Governor T N Chaturvedi, the CM Sri S M Krishna, Vasundararaje Scindia, then Central Minister of Science and Technology, ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan and host of other dignitaries were on the dais. In my welcome speech I recited a few lines from Vajpayee's poetry, especially the one I have liked most: " Lord, do not take me so high that I cannot hug my people on the ground".
He was a tallest human being, a poet, a great parliamentarian, an extraordinary orator, and a debater with dignity hurting none, not even the opponents. His achievement as Prime Minister is too well known: Nuclear tests, The Lahore summit, Kargil War, National Highway Project, Foreign Policy, Economic Reforms, and so on, and faced difficult situation with calmness and dignity such as India Airlines hijack, attack on Parliament, Gujarat Violence. He was a real jewel of India-Bharata Ratna.
May he attain sadgati.
My memory goes back to 2003 when I had shared a platform with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was the year in which Bangalore University in collaboration with ISRO had organized Indian Science Congress in the BU Campus. As is custom, the Prime Minister of India inaugurates the Congress every year. I as BU VC along with the PM, Governor T N Chaturvedi, the CM Sri S M Krishna, Vasundararaje Scindia, then Central Minister of Science and Technology, ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan and host of other dignitaries were on the dais. In my welcome speech I recited a few lines from Vajpayee's poetry, especially the one I have liked most: " Lord, do not take me so high that I cannot hug my people on the ground".
He was a tallest human being, a poet, a great parliamentarian, an extraordinary orator, and a debater with dignity hurting none, not even the opponents. His achievement as Prime Minister is too well known: Nuclear tests, The Lahore summit, Kargil War, National Highway Project, Foreign Policy, Economic Reforms, and so on, and faced difficult situation with calmness and dignity such as India Airlines hijack, attack on Parliament, Gujarat Violence. He was a real jewel of India-Bharata Ratna.
May he attain sadgati.
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