In a bid to forever immortalise late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s contributions and achievements, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has introduced his famous poem ‘Kadam Milakar Chalna Hoga (We have to walk together)’ in a Class 8 textbook. Through this poem, the poet makes an appeal to countrymen that irrespective of difficulties we all should walk together for a better tomorrow.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the poem is now a part of Hindi textbook Vasant which carries essays, poems and short stories by renowned writers like Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Harishankar Parsai, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Ismat Chughtai and Suryakant Tripathi Nirala. The revised version of Vasant will be available for students from next month before the new session starts.
The decision to introduced a poem written by the late PM was taken by the NCERT after the government advised it to explore ways of immortalising Vajpayee’s contributions and achievements.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was one of country’s most charismatic leaders. He had served three terms as the Prime Minister between 1996 and 2004. He was also first non-Congress leader to serve a full five-year term in office.
He was also a noted poet, writing in Hindi. His published works include Kaidi kavirai ki kundalian, a collection of poems written when he was imprisoned during the emergency in 1975. Vajpayee, 93, died on August 16 in 2017 after prolonged illness.
This is the second NCERT textbook which finds mention of Vajapyee. Before this, Vajpayee was mentioned in the Class XII Political Science textbook, Politics in India Since Independence.