Bharat Ratna to Atalji & Malaviyaji
BOTH Atalji and Malaviyaji are close to my heart. I, as a child, used to hear a lot from my father about Atalji. My father was a government servant, so could not be actively involved in politics, but was associated with Vishwa Hindu Parishad, almost till his death. Atalji was in Chandigarh almost 40 years ago and some of the words of his speech still echo in my years : Ek the Nathpei, Ek tha Vajpai . MY father met him last when Atalji was the Foreign Minister. It was a courtesy call. Atalji asked my father the reason for visiting Delhi. Those days I was busy with my research & he had come to see me. Atalji frankly told my father that I should seek Commonwealth scholarship if I wanted; but I had other plans. I, along with my team of Tulsi Sansthan, an NGO with working Head Office in Barot (located almost midway between Allahabad and Varanasi) met Girdhar Malaviyaji, the grandson of Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviyaji, at his palatial house in Allahabad, to invite him to a function to be