ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE

Atal Bihari Vajpayee remains the only non-Congress prime minister to have occupied
the chair three times and only the third overall after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira
Gandhi. His first tenure was uneventful in terms of governance but the other two
terms, which were consecutive, changed India forever in many aspects.

As prime minister for six years between 1998 and 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is
credited with reviving the India story in the global economy. India opened its
economy in 1991 when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister
Manmohan Singh formed a colossal partnership.
After the defeat of Rao government in 1996, the economy faced derailment. Vajpayee
brought it back on the track and when he demitted the office of the prime minister,
Indian GDP was growing at over 8 per cent and a double-digit growth was in sight.

Telecom Revolution
When Atal Bihari Vajpayee assumed office in 1998, India's telecom sector was static
and lacked almost any momentum. Though the first mobile phone call had been made
in 1995, nothing much had happened thereafter. Vajpayee brought the new telecom
policy and opened up the sector.
The monopoly of the government-owned telecom companies ended and private
players infused life in the moribund sector. Vajpayee government waived off a fixed
fee that the companies were asked to pay for using spectrum. Under the new policy,
the companies had to pay a part of their revenue.
Vajpayee introduced a win-win telecom formula. The government got more revenue
from the profits made by the private companies. The new policy reduced the cost of
telecom companies owned by the government. The old telecom department was turned
into a corporation - BSNL. The government's monopoly on international calls brought
to an end.
Competition among private telecom companies led to lowering of tariff. Foreign
companies suddenly arrived in India with their latest phones. The service provides
raced against one-another to offer better network and greater internet speed. Today,
India has more smartphones than toilets and schools. The country is on the way to
becoming the second largest market for the smartphones in the country.

Connecting India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee envisaged a highway network to connect the corners of the
country. This is the fifth largest highway project in the world. This project looks like
an urban centre connection programme but it was actually a policy to give Rural India
access to Urban India.
A total of around 6,000 km of the highway was built - completed in 2012, six years
after the original deadline of 2006. It generated thousands of employment
opportunities for Rural India. It was aimed at facilitating greater and faster access to
produces of the villages and agricultural farms.
The significance of the golden quadrilateral project of Atal Bihari Vajpayee can be
gauged from the fact that road connectivity has largely remained ignored in the history
of India. Such highway connectivity programme was undertaken by Mauryan king
Ashoka, revived by medieval ruler Sher Shah Suri and reconstructed by the British
colonial masters of India.

Rich And Healthy Government

The first serious attempt to make Indian government economically strong was made in
1991 when doors were opened to private sectors in all fields except those related to
national security. But by the time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister,
the government was still the single-largest job provider and guarantor of the economic
well-being of the masses. Indian government never had the means to do the job.
Vajpayee undertook the task of disinvestment as a mission. His was the only
government to have a separate ministry for disinvestment. Former journalist and
economist Arun Shourie was made the minister for disinvestment. The PSUs like
BALCO, Hindustan Zinc, IPLC, VSNL were freed from government control.
It was Vajpayee government that made it a legal responsibility to bring fiscal deficit
under control. The Fiscal Responsibility Act was passed in 2003 making it mandatory
for the government to keep the finances in good health. The move suddenly improves
public sector saving, which is crucial for investment by the government in
development projects. Further, higher fiscal deficit makes international loan costlier.

Nuclear India
Indira Gandhi government had conducted the first nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1974.
But following Rajiv Gandhi's emphasis on nuclear disarmament, India had ignored its
nuclear programme. The nuclear powers including China, meanwhile, had taken their
nuclear technology to the next level. India clearly lagged behind.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee government revisited Pokhran in 1998 with five nuclear
explosions in May. With this Vajpayee declared India's nuclear capabilities to the
world with no-first-use policy. Pakistan followed the move by testing its own nuclear
bombs within days. Vajpayee was criticised for starting a nuclear race in South Asia.
But the nuclear tests of 1998 were not actually aimed at Pakistan, which already had
acquired nuclear capabilities through clandestine means. Vajpayee's move was to
create deterrence against China, which was amassing nuclear weapons at the time. It is
no surprise that following nuclear tests by India, China showed greater intent to
engage with India commercially.

Education For All

For decades after Independence, the governments at the Centre had failed to find a
way to give a big boost to school education and check drop-out rates. Atal Bihari
Vajpayee government came up with a simple yet novel scheme called Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyaan or campaign for universal education.
Vajpayee government launched the scheme in 2001 with the objective of achieving
the goal of universal literacy in India. Atal Bihari Vajpayee government also made
education a fundamental right of all children between six and 14 years. The result was
that the school drop-out rate came down by 60 per cent in just five years.

Synopsis of election
This is the list of members of the 12th Lok Sabha, (10 March 1998 – 26 April 1999) after
the Indian general election, 1998held during February–March 1998. This was the third
consecutive Lok Sabha like the 10th Lok Sabha and 11th Lok Sabhaelections that did not
provide the country with a stable government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the 16th Prime
Minister of India but the government lasted for only about thirteen months due to no clear
mandate. Also, the party was not able to get support from other parties, after the withdrawal of
support by AIADMK.[1] After his resignation, then President K. R. Narayanan asked Sonia Gandhi,
the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha to form the government; however, Gandhi
responded that the UPA would not be able to form a government at the centre, following which
President Narayanan dissolved the House. The next General elections of 1999 for 13th Lok
Sabha provided India a stable government that lasted for full five years.