How world media covered Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s death

The international media paid homage to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the man who made India a nuclear power.

Pic Courtesy: PTI

The demise of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came as a shock to not just Indians, but many others living across the world. While Indian mediapersons queued outside All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the political stalwart breathed his last, the international media also paid homage to the man who made India a nuclear power.

Here’s a look at how the international media covered the demise of Atal Bihari Vajpayee:

BBC:

The Britain-based media giant termed Vajpayee as a mercurial moderate. Remembering the humble beginnings of the three-time Prime Minister, BBC noted that Vajpayee was the son of a school teacher in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. The obituary also made references to Vajpayee standing strong against India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The article recalled, “In parliament, he once said that Nehru had "inverted vision" because of too much standing on his head during yoga practice.” According to the BBC, when voted to power, Vajpayee created a “fence” of moderate leaders around him to keep hardliners at bay.

The Guardian:

The Guardian called Vajpayee a “political contradiction” and “a moderate leader of an often strident Hindu nationalist movement”. The article recalled how Vajpayee raised the fears of war with Pakistan with the Pokhran nuclear test and just a few years later, made the first move towards peace with the neighbouring country. It further said that Vajpayee failed to see the world in black and white.

The New York Times:

NYT remember Vajpayee as an Indian Prime Minister who “stunned the world” by conducting the nuclear test at Pokhran, but at the same time managed to ease tensions with Pakistan and build closer ties with the US. The article referred to Vajpayee as “the grandfatherly face of the world’s most populous democracy”. It further talked about Vajpayee supporting equal rights for Muslims, Christians and others in an “overwhelmingly Hindu nation”.

The Washington Post:

The headline says - Atal Bihari Vajpayee, prime minister who made India a nuclear power, dies at 93. According to The Washington Post, it was the nuclear tests conducted under Vajpayee that “established India as an overt nuclear-weapon state”. The article further talks about Vajpayee’s personal charisma that helped the BJP not just rise to power, but also manage a coalition with several regional parties.

Dawn News:

Pakistan-based Dawn News remembered Vajpayee as the Indian Prime Minister who “launched a groundbreaking peace process with Islamabad”, even as it said that the nuclear tests at Pokhran “stoked fears of atomic war with Pakistan”. The article calls Vajpayee the “most rare thing in Indian politics” and “a man untainted by corruption scandals”.