Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpaye

NEW DELHI: In the summer of 2004, the blanked-out visage of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on highway signposts showed how the vote had gone. Some estimates had it that around Rs 125 crore went into whitewashing the pictures of Vajpayee a hopeful NDA had put up as it sought to turn the 'India Shining' slogan into a renewed mandate.

'Drishti Atal Par, Vote Ka Abki Baari, Atal Bimal Par'; ' hari'; 'The Man India Awaits' were BJP slogans aimed at cashing in on its most popular leader, and the hook worked in the 1990s, before its two successive defeats put the spotlight back on the Nehru-Gandhis and Congress took charge of official nomenclature.

But, when the Modi government assumed office at the Centre in 2014, Vajpayee was back in focus. The 90-year-old saffron stalwart, though confined by ill health, now holds the distinction of having the most number of official schemes and institutions named after a leader while they are alive. In this regard, the two-term former PM has left behind even his Nehru-Gandhi predecessors Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, who were made such dedications mostly posthumously.

However, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty remains ahead of all other Indian leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, when one counts the number of schemes and institutions named after a leader regardless of whether they are alive or dead.

The Modi government has taken a series of steps to celebrate Vajpayee, a pioneer of right-wing politics in India and one of the founding fathers of Jan Sangh, later BJP. The patriarch, often seen as more amenable to consensus and more acceptable among BJP leaders, now lends his name to dozens of development and welfare schemes.

The NDA administration has recognised Vajpayee's birthday, December 25, as 'Good Governance Day'; the PM Pension Yojna is now Atal Pension Yojna; and, last year, he was decorated with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Today , Atal Pension Yojna is a flagship scheme of NDA.

Last year, Modi launched Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), for the renew al of urban infrastructure, as a replacement for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Even BJP-led state governments have chipped in generously. The Rajasthan government has renamed Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras as Atal Sewa and Suvidha Kendras. As many as 9,000 Gram Panchayat Kendras have been named after Vajpayee.

The MP government, on the other hand, established Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis.

Shiv Kumar, a long-time associate of the former PM, feels gratified by the way the BJP brass has acknowledged Vajpayee's contributions.“No doubt, it feels good to see a senior leader being honoured,“ Kumar told TOI .

