December 27, 2025 07:39 AM IST First published on: Dec 27, 2025 at 07:36 AM ISTDecember 25 marked the end of the centenary year of one of India’s greatest sons, a leader whom many described as an “ajatshatru” — one without enemies. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a gifted orator and poet, a leader for whom the nation came first above everything else, including his own party. He was, above all, a sterling human being. Not all leaders are remembered after 100 years. But some, like Vajpayee, are unforgettable because the “Vajpayee era spanned generations”, as Arun Jaitley once commented, and his aura will span decades, probably centuries.Vajpayee had many firsts to his credit. From an ideological standpoint, he was India’s first genuine non-Congress prime minister. He was also the first leader to show that coalitions work. Earlier, most coalitions were seen as unstable political compulsions. Vajpayee would say that coalitions should not be seen as a political compulsion, but they should be taken as “the aspiration of the people”. He was the first PM to run a coalition government, comprising more than 20 parties for a full five-year term. The term “coalition dharma” was a product of his politics.AdvertisementAs Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in an obituary, Vajpayee was “ahead of his times”. “Character of power is the same always,” Vajpayee once said, adding that “we should try to transform that character through personal example”. He tried to set such an example — initially as the leader of the Opposition for several years and later as the leader of the House. The speech he delivered while demitting office, after the 13-day government he formed in 1996 failed to muster numbers, was one of his best. “Sarkaren aayengi aur jaayengi, partiyan banengi aur bigadengi, magar ye desh rehna chahiye, desh ka loktantra amar rehna chahiye (Governments will be formed and dissolved, parties come and go, but this nation should remain and its democracy should be eternal).” This message to parties to change their character didn’t register with them. He lost power again in 1999 when a coalition partner withdrew support, and he failed to secure the vote of confidence in Parliament by just one vote. What if the character of power doesn’t change? “Just make sure you don’t lose your laughter,” he once said. He had the last laugh when he led a much stronger coalition to office in the elections that followed — it completed a full term in 2004.Although Vajpayee couldn’t completely change the character of power politics, he did influence the character of his own party. The BJP functioned as a constructive Opposition to the scam-ridden UPA government. Sushma Swaraj’s final address as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament in 2014 was a glowing testimony to the democratic spirit Vajpayee had infused in the BJP leadership. She praised leaders on the ruling side, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Kamal Nath and Sushil Kumar Shinde, for enabling the House’s functioning, and concluded in true Vajpayee spirit by emphasising that “there is one strong message at the root of Indian democracy — we are adversaries, not enemies”.After assuming office in 2014, PM Modi upheld the Vajpayee spirit by running a coalition government despite the BJP securing an absolute majority in 2014 and 2019. He extended an olive branch to Congress by granting it the status of the principal opposition party, although it failed to secure the number of seats (10 per cent of the House) required to qualify for that. He has tried to engage with the Opposition in matters of national interest.AdvertisementSome opposition leaders used to tell Vajpayee that he was the “right man in the wrong party”. “What good is this right man for you anyway?” he once asked. He was right. The last few years have shown that the Opposition’s politics has no place for the Vajpayee spirit.In 1928, after getting elected to the German Reichstag as one of the 12 delegates of Adolf Hitler’s party, Joseph Goebbels, who would become Hitler’s minister for propaganda seven years later, was surprised to find that he and his colleagues had the capacity to paralyse democratic processes. “The big joke of democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the means to its own destruction,” he wrote. Will the Opposition in India remain Goebbelsian, or can they find the “right man” in their party?The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP