Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Wednesday said he feels “awkward” attending functions where he feels his longtime associate and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee should have been present.
At a programme to launch a project on compilation of Mr Vajpayee works in a digital format, Mr Advani recalled his association with Mr Vajpayee. He said they first met in 1948 and worked hard in Delhi to ensure the victory of Bharatiya Jan Sangh candidate in Delhi’s corporation elections in 1953.
“We lost... To drown our sorrows, we went to a movie together at Paharganj’s Imperial cinema. Incidentally, the Raj Kapoor movie was titled Phir Subah Hogi... And we finally came to power at the Centre,” he said. Launching the project, former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said Mr Vajpayee often used to ask him how “your Pokhran is” and he used to answer “bahut sundar hai (it’s beautiful)”.
He credited Mr Vajpayee with the Pokhran-II nuclear implosion “which lit up several suns in the earth’s belly”.