Ever since the Modi government was sworn in, there has been talk of the government conferring the Bharata Rathna for their party senior leader and Ex-Prime Minister AB Vajapayee.Now the exercise has been completed on the government may award Bharat Ratna to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 90th birthday on December 25.
The government is going to bestow the Bharat Ratna award to him on January 26th, the Republic Day.Many BJP MPs have conveyed to the government that the party’s first prime minister should be conferred the highest civilian honour.
A renowned BJP leader, Vajpayee led the first NDA government as the 11th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004.He was also the first non-Congress leader to serve a full five-year term as the prime minister .He was a co-founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.Later when the Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee restarted the Jana Sangh as the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980.
Vajpayee has been keeping unwell for some years now and is not seen in public.He lost the 2004 General Elections with the Congress-led UPA coming to power.1998 underground nuclear tests conducted in Pokhran desert in Rajasthan, called Pokhran-II and the 1999 Kargil war against Pakistan which India won are some of the highlights of his tenure as PM.
Last year, when the UPA Government had announced the Bharat Ratna for former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist CNR Rao, the BJP had criticised the Congress for ignoring Vajpayee’s contribution to the nation.
