Wednesday, December 25, 2013

From my scrapbook: An interview with Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1985!

Look what I found in my scrapbook!! An interview with Atal Behari Vajpayee circa 1985!

He was visiting Guwahati in the immediate aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections in December 1984. 

The BJP was down to 2 seats in the Lok Sabha. He himself was defeated by the young and dashing Madhavrao Scindia. As a young upstart reporter (less than two years in journalism) when I asked him to analyse the result of the Lok Sabha results, he was candid enough to admit that Opposition lost because in Mrs Gandhi's assassination, it had lost the prime target of criticism!

Now 29 years later, when I look back, I laugh at my own naivety! 

I asked him as the last question (see below): What is the role of RSS in the BJP? 

His answer: "The RSS has no role to play in the BJP." 

No comments:

Post a Comment