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Vajpayee visit was followed up by the Centre’s first ever talks with Kashmiri separatists. The meeting on 22 January 2004 saw five separatist leaders shake hands with the then deputy Prime Minister LK Advani to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. Vajpayee too had a photo-op with them. The second round of talks between Advani and the Hurriyat Conference was held on March 27, days before the BJP-led NDA government was voted out of power in 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
Throughout his tenure, Vajpayee laid special focus on the troubled state and also appointed former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief AS Dulat as his advisor on Kashmir affairs.
Vajpayee’s successor Manmohan Singh too held two rounds of talks with the Hurriyat Conference in May and September 2005. Since then, the dialogue process between the Centre and the separatist leaders has remained stalled.
However in May 2006, Singh proposed five working groups to take ahead the dialogue process and evolve a “consensual” resolution to the Kashmir issue.
A master orator and man of the masses, Vajpayee was elected to Lok Sabha nine times and twice to Rajya Sabha. He was the only political leader to get elected from four different states– Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Vajpayee’s brush with nationalist politics began with freedom struggle when as a student he joined the Quit India Movement in 1942.
A student of political science and law, Vajpayee’s journalist's career was cut short in 1951 when he joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He edited Rashtradharma Panchjanya, Swadesh and Veer Arjun.
A lifelong bachelor, he listed watching movies and cooking as his hobbies and also wrote poetry.
He towered over other politicians and had unique distinction of being idolised by masses and feted by the classes. It was Nehru who had once marked out Vajpayee as a leader to watch by.
Vajpayee was a man with a very large heart and a real spirit of magnanimity visible in his interactions with other political parties and their leaders.
With his death, an era came to an end in Indian politics. Most journalists have narrated anecdotes about how Vajpayee sidestepped controversial questions with his trademark deadpan humour and quick wit.
Pictures courtesy: Google