Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former prime minister and tallest leader of the BJP till date, was dubbed as the mask of the party. The comment was attributed to RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya, who earlier this month said that he had actually called Atal Bihari Vajpayee the face of the BJP. Vajpayee, who died on August 16, was considered a "moderate" and "liberal" in a "Hindu nationalist" party. The sobriquet of mask remained attached with him.

Vajpayee's intermittent utterances having communal tinge are cited as proof by his opponents. Three instances are, in particular, of interest. The BJP was formed in 1980 after the fall of Janata Party. The erstwhile members of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh founded the Bharatiya Janata Party with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as president.

Three years later as Assam was going into Assembly polls. Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a controversial speech at an election rally in Assam hitting out at illegal migrants in the state.

Nellie Massacre and Vajpayee

Nellie massacre took place in February 1983. Nellie is located in Morigaon district of Assam. More than 2,000 people were killed. Almost all were Bengali Muslims. Assam was preparing for polls and Vajpayee, as the BJP president, was campaigning in the state.

In one of his speeches, Vajpayee was quoted as saying, "Foreigners have come here and the government does nothing. What if they had come into Punjab instead? People would have chopped them into pieces and thrown them away." Atal Bihari Vajpayee was quoted by former CPI-M MP Indrajit Gupta during a debate on trust vote moved by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in May, 1996. The attributed portion of speech went uncontested in the Lok Sabha.

Soon after his speech violence erupted in Nellie. Vajpayee had returned to New Delhi after his speech in Assam. In New Delhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee condemned Nellie massacre.

Babri Mosque Demolition and Vajpayee

Mughal era Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was brought down by kar sevaks in December 1992. The kar sevaks had assembled in Ayodhya for a show of strength as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the BJP campaigned for building a Ram temple there. On December 5 - a day ahead of the Babri Masjid demolition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave a speech at Lucknow saying that there was no question of stopping kar seva at Ayodhya even as situation had turned tense and a mishap was not ruled out.

Referring to the site where the VHP and BJP proposed to build a Ram temple, Vajpayee said, "Sharp and pointed stones have come out. No one can sit there. The ground has to be leveled. It has to be made fit for sitting. Arrangements for a yagya will be done, so there will be some construction."

The Babri Masjid was demolished the next day. Vajpayee, now back in New Delhi, termed the day of Babri Masjid demolition as "the saddest day of my life". At one point, he clarified that his comment in Lucknow as made in lighter vein and was not a prediction about demolition of the mosque.

Post-Gujarat Riot Speech At Goa

Gujarat saw one of the worst communal riots in 2002. The riots broke out following a train burning incident at Godhra, where kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive. The Godhra incident occurred on February 27. Communal riots broke out the next day in various parts of Gujarat. Violence continued for three days and hundreds of people were killed.

Demand for removal of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was raised from various quarters - both within and outside of the BJP. At one of the press conferences, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee advised Modi to "follow Rajadharma" (the duty of state). It became the headline in news media. But in the same press conference, after an interjection by Modi, Vajpayee said that the chief minister was "doing the same".

Later, at the BJP national council meet on 12 April 2002, Vajpayee said, "we should not forget how the tragedy of Gujarat started. The subsequent developments were no doubt condemnable but who lit the fire? How did the fire spread?"

Vajpayee went on to say, "Wherever Muslims live, they don't like to live in co-existence with others, they don't like to mingle with others; and instead of propagating their ideas in a peaceful manner, they want to spread their faith by resorting to terror and threats. The world has become alert to this danger."

But the same Atal Bihari Vajpayee also told Parliament only a month later: "I accept the Hindutva of Swami Vivekananda but the type of Hindutva being propagated now is wrong and one should be wary of it."

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