Hyderabad: BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed that only Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi can be called “natural prime ministers” while others are “accidental prime ministers”.
Speaking at a program organized here on the occasion of Vajpayee’s birth centenary, Trivedi alleged that Jawaharlal Nehru became India’s first Prime Minister despite not getting a single vote from the 15-member Congress committee tasked with selecting the post. He claimed that all 15 members supported Sardar Patel.
Highlighting Vajpayee’s contribution, Trivedi called the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test a significant achievement. “It was a remarkable achievement to conduct nuclear tests without detection by US spy agencies. It acts as a nuclear deterrent against Pakistan and China,” he said.
Trivedi also noted the impact of Vajpayee’s leadership on Indo-US relations. He pointed out that even though the then US President Bill Clinton spent five days in India during his visit to India in 2000, he broke the normal protocol of a full visit to Pakistan after visiting India and spent only five hours in neighboring Pakistan.
“This was due to India’s enhanced global image under Vajpayee’s leadership,” Trivedi added, praising Vajpayee’s selfless approach, noting that he never sought the prime minister’s chair for personal gain.
The MP also shared a lesser-known anecdote about former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. “In 2002, when I met Narasimha Rao in the US, I asked him when he had consulted Vajpayee on important issues like the economic crisis of 1990, terrorism in Punjab, the LTTE issue or managing a minority government. Rao told me that Vajpayee had called him frequently. Difficult times,” revealed Trivedi. did
With Union Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy presiding over the event, BJP national leaders reflected on their experiences of visiting the state. He stressed the party’s slogan of ‘nation first, party next, self last’.
Former governor. Vidyasagar Rao recalled Vajpayee’s restraint after the 2001 terror attack on Parliament, how he led the next day’s proceedings with clarity and decisiveness. Earlier, a photo exhibition of Vajpayee was organized at the BJP state office in Nampally.