Atal Bihari Vajpayee, born on December 25, 1926 in Bateshwar in Uttar Pradesh, is

the Prime Minister of India, a Hindi poet and an orator known for his spellbinding
eloquence. Vajpayee's poetry is marked by nationalistic fervor and human values. He
believes that poetry should awaken a sense of duty and social responsibility in
people. He is inspired by Hindu mythology and his poetry is rich in religious
symbolism. Simple in language and imagery, his poems extol the heritage, history
and destiny of India. Ideas of cultural nationalism inform his vision of India.
According to Bhagwat S. Goyal, the man who translated Vajpayee's poems into
English, Vajpayee believes that "Politics and literature do not belong in separate
compartments. Rather they enrich and refine each other. When a litterateur gets
involved in politics, his politics gets more refined. Similarly if a politician has
a literary background he cannot ignore human feelings and emotions."

Prime Minister Vajpayee has occupied a number of distinguished positions during his
long and illustrious political career, including those of the Leader of the
Opposition and the Foreign Minister, before he took office as India's Prime
Minister on October 13, 1999. He has received many honors and awards including the
Hindi Gaurava Award and the Padma Bhushan.

The Library of Congress has in its collection twenty works by him and fourteen
books on him.