Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and the BJP had lost an election in Maharashtra that the party believed it could have won. Mr Vajpayee had summoned his top ministers and party leaders to analyse the defeat. He let them do the talking. One accused alliance partner Shiv Sena for sabotaging the BJP’s chances, the second spoke about consolidation of Muslims against the party and the third, blamed the weakened party organization.

Some famous quotes by Atal ji

You can change friends but not neighbors.

We hope the world will act in the spirit of enlightened self-interest.

Global interdependence today means that economic disasters in developing countries could create a backlash on developed countries.

Our nuclear weapons are meant purely as a deterrent against nuclear adventure by an adversary.

No state should be allowed to profess partnership with the global coalition against terror, while continuing to aid, abet and sponsor terrorism.

The Bio-diversity Convention has not yielded any tangible benefits to the world’s poor.

In the euphoria after the Cold War, there was a misplaced notion that the UN could solve every problem anywhere.

The reality is that international institutions like the UN can only be as effective as its members allow it to be.

The UN’s unique legitimacy flows from a universal perception that it pursues a larger purpose than the interests of one country or a small group of countries.