Three-time Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has died, current leader Narendra Modi said of the ailing 93-year-old who had been hospitalized.
“It was Atal Ji’s exemplary leadership that set the foundations for a strong, prosperous and inclusive India in the 21st century,” Modi says in a tweet Thursday, using a Hindi-language honorific.
“Atal Ji’s passing away is a personal and irreplaceable loss for me.”
Vajpayee, who served three terms as prime minister, oversaw a major deepening of ties between India and Israel, particularly during his third stint in office from 1999 to 2004.
The highlight was Ariel Sharon’s visit to India in 2003, the first ever by an Israeli prime minister.
His Hindu Nationalist BJP party was far friendlier to Israel than the long ruling Congress party, which only formalized ties with the Jewish state in 1992.
— with AFP
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