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India's former PM Vajpayee dies

August 16, 2018

India's former three-time prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has died aged 93. The Hindu nationalist and poet initiated Indian nuclear testing in the nineties, but also led a diplomatic bus trip to rival Pakistan.

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Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Image: Getty Images/AFP/P. Singh

Announcing Vajpayee's passing in a New Delhi clinic Thursday, India's current prime minister Narenda Modi said his predecessor had "set the foundations for a strong, prosperous and inclusive India in the 21st century."

"Atal Ji's passing away is a personal and irreplaceable loss for me," Modi said, using a Hindi-language honorific for Vajpayyee.

Read more: Modi's BJP wins in Gujarat

The former premier died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, where he was admitted nine weeks ago. He had suffered a stroke in 2009.

"Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best efforts, we have lost him today," AIIMS said in a statement.

Foundations laid for BJP

Vajpayee, a former journalist and poet-turned-politician and sometimes described as a moderate Hindu nationalist, was widely credited with helping lay the foundations for the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which stoked fears of India's Muslim minority.

He led the BJP to its first national electoral victory in 1996, but lasted just 13 days as prime minister before he resigned in the face of a no-confidence motion.

Indien Pakistan Teilung
In 1999, Pakistan battled Indian forces in KashmirImage: picture-alliance/AP/A. Rahi

He returned to power in 1998 for 13 months after forging an alliance of 22 parties, and went on to ordered nuclear testing that prompted international alarm over the possibility of war between India and Pakistan. Islamabad responded with its own tests.

Despite clashes in the disputed Himalalayan region of Kashmir, Vajpayee resisted military pressure to widen the conflict.

In February 1999, he led a groundbreaking bus ride to Lahore, Pakistan, where he met with its then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. That diplomatic journey inaugurated the first regular bus service between the two nations.

Indien Pakistan - Treffen zwischen Nawaz Sharif und Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Lahore 1999: Pakistan's Sharif and India's Vajpayee attempt peacemakingImage: picture alliance/AP Photo/B.K. Bagash

Vajpayee last served as India's prime minister from 1999 to 2004.

Blamed over Gujarat anti-Muslim riots

Critics excoriated Vajpayee for failing to quell anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat state in 2002. More than 1,100 people, mostly Muslim, were killed. The riots began due to a train fire that killed 60 Hindu pilgrims.

Read more: life sentences in 2016 for Gujarat riots

Shortly before leaving office, he launched a peace process with Pakistan that, while often rocky, still underpins negotiations on the sub-continent.

As a parliamentarian, Vajpayee would take his dogs for walks. He never married, but lived with his adopted daughter, her husband and their daughter.

India's highest civilian award was made to Vajpayee in 2015.

ipj/rc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)