Atal Bihari Vajpayee Dies At 93: Virender Sehwag Pays Touching Tribute To Ex-Prime Minister

Former India opener Virender Sehwag paid a touching tribute to former India Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who died on Thursday (August 16). He was 93 and was being treated at AIIMS  by a team of doctors for the past nine weeks.

Mr Vajpayee, three-time Prime Minister of India, was admitted to hospital on June 11 with a urinary tract infection and chest congestion. But after fighting for his life for weeks, he finally gave up at 5.05 pm on Thursday.

One of the country’s most respected politicians, Mr Vajpayee earned respect from every corner of the country. His birthday — December 25 — is celebrated as Good Governance Day.

He was a member of the Indian Parliament for over four decades, being elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, ten times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house. In 2009, he retired from active politics due to health concerns. Vajpayee was among the founding members of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh which he also headed from 1968 to 1972. He was the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

When the Janata government collapsed, it was him who restructured the Jana Sangh into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. He was the first Indian prime minister who was not a member of the Indian National Congress party to have served a full five-year term in office.

Mr Vajpayee also received India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India in 2015.

Ever since the news of his death came out, people from across the country are paying tributes. And Sehwag also took to Twitter to hail the great man, writing:

“Asaman ko choo gaya, jo asmaan sa vishal tha, dharti mein simat gaya, jo mitti jaisa narm tha.  Kaun hai jo Atal reh paya zindagi bhar, Atal banke wo zindagi ko paa gaya. Om Shanti #AtalBihariVajpayee ji ??”

Asaman ko choo gaya, jo asmaan sa vishal tha, dharti mein simat gaya, jo mitti jaisa narm tha.
Kaun hai jo Atal reh paya zindagi bhar, Atal banke wo zindagi ko paa gaya.
Om Shanti #AtalBihariVajpayee ji ?? pic.twitter.com/56Xi1sqzEf

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) August 16, 2018