Beacons of hope and love born on December 25

Hyderabad: On December 25 every year, many parts of India come alive with the festive spirit of Christmas with singing of carols, dazzling Christmas lights, decked-up Christmas trees, youngsters greeting each other, indulging in gift-giving and feasting. It is a blend of cultural festivities and religious observance which symbolises the return of light and hope.

December 25 is also a day when some great leaders were born in India that is Bharat. It happens to be the birth anniversary of Madan Mohan Malaviya, Ganganath Jha, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, and Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Atal Behari Vajpayee will be remembered for ever for shaping post-independent India’s domestic and foreign policy. A veteran Parliamentarian whose career stretched for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha nine times and to the Rajya Sabha twice, a record by itself. Vajpayee made the first serious attempt to make technology accessible to the common man.

He was a poet and a compassionate leader. He was a great statesman who served three terms as the Prime Minister of India – first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for 13 months from 1998 to 1999 and after that a full term from 1999 to 2004.

“‘Satta ka khel chalega’ (the game of power will go on). Governments will come and go. Parties will be made and unmade. This country should survive, its democracy should survive,” he said in Lok Sabha in 1996 when his government faced trust vote which is recalled by many leaders even today in many debates in the Parliament.

Atal Behari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary gained importance as it is celebrated as “Good Governance Day.”

His first brush with nationalist politics was in his student days when he joined the Quit India Movement of 1942 which hastened the end of British colonial rule. As a student of political science and law, he developed a keen interest in foreign affairs – an interest he has nourished over the years and put to skillful use while representing India at various bilateral and multilateral fora. He had a tremendous sense of humour. He was an orator par excellence and was also a composer and writer, apart from being a voracious reader. Similarly, we had other great leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya (25 December 1861 – 12 November 1946), who was not only a great freedom fighter, politician, and educationist, but also a great social reformer.

Ganganath Jha (25 December 1872 – 9 November 1941) was a great scholar of the Sanskrit language.

Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (25 December 1880 – 10 May 1936) was a renowned physician, and a nationalist Muslim leader who participated in the Indian National Movement and lived in Varanasi and contributed to establish the Kashi Vidyapeeth and Jamia Millia in Delhi.