Atal Bihari Vajpayee: India pays tribute to its former prime minister on his first death anniversary

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Death Anniversary: The nation is paying tribute to its first former prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his first death anniversary.  The poet cum philosopher leader had died last year on August 16th after a long critical illness. President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and his cabinet colleagues paid rich tributes to the veteran leader at Atal Bihari Memorial at Shanti Van. 

Some senior BJP leaders like Bhupendra Yadav have already reached to the 'Sadaiv Atal' — the Atal Bihari Vajpayee memorial. Leaders from Non-NDA parties like Samajwadi Party, TDP, AIADMK are also expected to visit Sadaiv Atal and pay tribute to the seasoned politician, who died last year after a prolonged illness.

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Atal Bihari Vajpayee first entered the Lok Sabha in 1957 and his presence was felt by the then prime minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, who often praised Vajpayee for his poetic style of criticism of the Pt. Nehru's policies. In fact, Vajpayee had a long haul in opposition but had friends in the ruling Congress party as well. Once Ghulam Nabi Aazad (who is now the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha) had praised Vajpayee citing, "Tere Lab Par Sheri Hain Sanam, Gaaliyan Sun Kar Bhi Maja Aa Gaya" (Your mouth is so full of cherries that it makes even pinching words sound sweet.) Azad was speaking about the statesmanship of Vajpayee after the criticism of the Congress party by the veteran leader over J&K policy. Today, article 370 has been virtually scrapped.