Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose 100th birth anniversary falls today was known for his masterful oratory skills.
Here are excerpts from some of the speeches by the BJP stalwart as prime minister at various fora on a range of subjects, from the 1998 nuclear tests and Kashmir to freedom of the press and education: Vajpayee served as the prime minister first for a term of 13 days in May 1996, then for a period of 13 months in 1998-1999, followed by a full term from 1999 to 2004.
May 2003 - In Parliament: You can change friends but not neighbours. One cannot wish away the fact that before good neighbours can truly fraternise with each other, they must first mend their fences.
June 2003 - At Peking University: The Pokhran-2 nuclear tests were conducted neither for self-glorification, nor for any display of machismo. But this has been our policy, and I think it is also the policy of the nation, that there should be minimum deterrence, which should also be credible. This is why we took the decision to conduct tests.
While replying to the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha in May 1996:
If I break the party and forge new alliances to come to power, then I will not like to touch that power even with a pincer.
January 2004 - at the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad : Mutual suspicions and petty rivalries have continued to haunt us. As a result, the peace dividend has bypassed our region. History can remind us, guide us, teach us or warn us; it should not shackle us. We have to look forward now, with a collective approach in mind.
January 2004 - At inauguration of Global Convention on Peace and Non-violence.
We in India are inheritors to a great civilisation whose life chant has been "Shanti" – that is, Peace – and "Bhaichara" – which means, Brotherhood. India has never been an aggressor nation, a coloniser or a hegemon in her long history. In modern times, we are alive to our responsibility to contribute to peace, friendship and cooperation both in our region and around the world.
September 2003 - At 58th Session of UN General Assembly:
Poverty is multidimensional. It extends beyond money incomes to education, health care, skills enhancement, political participation at all levels from the local to the global, access to natural resources, clean water and air, and advancement of one's own culture and social organisation.
September 2003 - at the 125th anniversary of The Hindu
The freedom of the press is an integral part of Indian democracy. It is protected by the Constitution. It is guarded in a more fundamental way by our democratic culture. This national culture not only respects freedom of thought and expression, but also has nurtured a diversity of viewpoints unmatched anywhere in the world.
Persecution on account of one's beliefs and insistence that all must accept a particular point of view is unknown to our ethos.
April 2003 - In Parliament on Jammu and Kashmir: Gun can solve no problem; brotherhood can. Issues can be resolved if we move forward guided by the three principles of Insaaniyat (humanism), Jamhooriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmir's age old legacy of amity).
December 2002 - inaugural speech of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the University Grants Commission.
Education, in the truest self of the term, is a process of self-discovery. It is the art of self-sculpture. It trains the individual not so much in specific skills or in specific branch of knowledge, but in the flowering of his or her latent intellectual, artistic and humanist capacities. The test of education is whether it imparts an urge for learning and learnability, not this or that particular set of information.
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