Atal Bihari Vajpayee – The Poet, Lover, and ‘Strange Recluse’

Vajpayee, the poet, had confessed that his biggest mistake was “joining politics”, creating a “void in my life.”

A picture of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (L) from his younger days with popular poet Gulab Khandelwal.

(Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

That the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a splendid gift of repartee is something he displayed in his conversations with journalists and in his speeches in the Lok Sabha.  Sample this conversation that journalist Saba Naqwi was a witness to when Vajpayee was on a campaign trail in Gujarat's Surat in the mid-90s.

Naqwi, in her book Shades of Saffron, writes:  "One day, even as he stepped out of his car, a volunteer who appeared to be in a state of frenzy, began shouting, 'Jai Shri Ram' (Hail, Shri Ram). I vividly recall Vajpayee turning around and snapping rather poetically, 'Bolte raho Jai Shri Ram; aur karo mat koi kaam!' (Keep shouting Jai Shri Ram; do little else)!".

Journalists and commentators have always admired him for the access he granted to Vajpayee, the politician, but only a handful of people knew Vajpayee, the person.

Born in the family of a poet, Vajpayee would himself, in the 1940s, write "fiery poems about his Hindu heritage," says NK Singh, in an article that he wrote for the India Today Magazine in May 1996.

However, Singh also says that the former prime minister had, decades later, become an affable figure for his moderate views, setting him apart from other BJP leaders.

Vajpayee, the poet, had once confessed that his biggest mistake was "joining politics", which brought a "strange kind of void to my life."

In one of his poems, he wrote:

The higher you go

The more lonely you are.

A human being is

The only creature on earth

Who feels lonely in a crowd

And crowded when all alone.

Vajapyee and Mrs Kaul

Another deeply personal aspect of his life, though not completely unknown to the political corridors of the national capital, was his relationship with a long-time friend Mrs Kaul.

When Mrs Kaul died in May 2014, while Vajpayee was himself bed-ridden, journalist KP Nayar in The Telegraph wrote that her death “ended forever the greatest love story in the Indian politics.”

Nayar further said that she was "Auntie" to those with "privileged access to the Vajpayee household and Mrs Kaul to everyone else."

Upon her demise, the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in the middle of an excruciating campaign for the 2014 general elections, dropped in on Vajpayee. Sonia's visit signified Mrs Kaul's reputation and her contribution to Vajpayee's life.

Vajpayee had first met Rajkumari Kaul in Gwalior where they were both students, writes Nayar, adding that she became Mrs Kaul after getting married to Professor BN Kaul.

Journalist Kingshuk Nag, in his book Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A Man For All Seasons, quotes Sanjeev Kaul,  a businessman from Delhi whose family is related to Mrs Kaul's.

Actually she wanted to marry Atal but there was tremendous opposition at her home. The Kauls considered themselves of a superior breed, although Atal was also a Brahmin.

Sanjeev Kaul, as quoted by Nag

Years went by, and circumstances once again brought the two college friends face-to-face when Vajpayee became a parliamentarian, and Kauls had moved to Delhi. Professor Kaul had started teaching Philosophy at the University of Delhi.

Soon after, Vajpayee moved in with the Kauls when they were at the Ramjas College Warden's quarter, recalled Professor Kaul’s student SK Das in his conversation with Nag. The author explained that the press never made a big issue out of Atal and Mrs Kaul's friendship, and therefore, the former prime minister's life "never came under the scanner".

In her only interview to a woman's magazine, Mrs Kaul, when asked about Vajpayee and herself, said that she "never felt the need to offer apologetic explanations to Mr Kaul once the dirty rumours began."

She added that her relationship with her husband was far too strong for that, Nag wrote in the book.

Vajpayee, ‘a Strange Recluse’

Vajpayee served the Lok Sabha for 10 terms, not consecutive though, beginning as early as 1957. He, however, was "a strange recluse", wrote journalist Saba Naqwi, in April 1998, weighing in on Vajpayee, the person, for India Today magazine.

"Between the guns and the guards, there are also two dogs, Sassy and Sophie, and a cat named Ritu, who spends hours keeping pace with the SPG commandos. An old family retainer remembers Vajpayee breeding rabbits in the early '70s, and always keeping pet dogs," Naqwi wrote back then.

Ranjan Bhattacharya, son-in-law of Kauls, and Vajpayee’s “point man during the election campaign” in the 1990s told Naqwi that the former prime minister’s idea of relaxation was to “play with the dogs and take them for long walks”.

“Between serious political biographies and Hindi fiction, he does not hesitate to browse through the latest bestsellers from the West. During the election campaign, Vajpayee was seen lost in a John Grisham. Eventually, he read The Client and The Firm on the stump,” Naqwi had written in 1998.

Appa Ghatate, another old friend of Vajpayee, recounted in his interaction with Naqwi how a public Vajpayee was completely different from a private Vajpayee. "He hardly speaks in private. He and I have travelled together for hours without exchanging a word. But the minute he goes on to the public stage he is a changed man," Ghatake told her.

He added that Vajpayee had never learnt to drive, was not religious or superstitious, and "had a hearty laugh when Ganesh drank milk."

In 2004, fresh from victories in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the then prime minister called snap elections. While early trends had suggested that Vajpayee was set for his fourth term as prime minister, the NDA crumbled, with many attributing their loss to "false bravado and arrogance".

With BJP’s defeat, Vajpayee slowly retreated from public life, spending most of the time at home. On 16 August 2018, at 5:05 pm, Vajpayee breathed his last at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), bringing down the curtain on an era.