If you listened to all the radio paeans of praise to Vajpayee, you'd think the man was a saint.
Here's what seems to be a more balanced appraisal, from this side of the world: QUOTE: On the other side of the balance sheet, like Rajiv Gandhi, Vajpayee was accused of encouraging cronyism and corruption among his friends and foster-family. Again, like Narasimha Rao this time, he was complicit in acts that damaged the secular fabric of the Republic. If Rao had so willed it, the Babri Masjid would not have been demolished, thus also avoiding the terrible loss of life in the riots that followed. Vajpayee did scold Narendra Modi after the 2002 Gujarat riots, but he should have gone further, and replaced him. In the event, the failure to do so shamed India in the eyes of the world, since we were made to appear as the Hindu analogue of that other country which was governed in the interests of a religious majority, namely, Pakistan. UNQUOTE https://scroll.in/article/890693/atal-bihari-vajpayee-1924-2018-a-poet-among-bigots [image: Mailtrack] <https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality6&> Sender notified by Mailtrack <https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality6&> 17/08/18, 02:31:37