Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away today at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, was a skilled orator and politician. We bring to you a timeline based on The Hindu's archives, documenting his political life. According to The Hindu, Vajpayee was an "out and out a politician, with oratory as his forte. He can cast a spell on his audiences and to their delight, and with his biting sarcasm, demolish the case of his opponents. Compared to others, Mr. Vajpayee is liberal, flexible and open to conviction." December 25, 1924: Atal Bihari Vajpayee born in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. Vajpayee had a brilliant career both at school and in the university with scholarships won on merit. He was a fluent speaker in English, inheriting the gift of the gab from his father Pandit K. B. Vajpayee. Father and son created history in the Lucknow University where they studied Law together. 1939: Member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), and after finishing his Masters in Political Science from Kanpur, he began to work full-time for the RSS in 1941 1942: During the 1942 Quit India movement, he gave up his studies to court imprisonment and later came back to win another scholarship to pursue his post-graduate studies. He had his political training under the late Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerji. He was Dr. Mukerji's private secretary, and was with him when he died in a Kashmir jail. Before entering Parliament, Mr. Vajpayee was a journalist by profession and edited Rashtra Dharma and Veer Arjun. 1951: He was one of the founding members of the Jan Sangh, becoming its president in 1968 on the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya. 1957: Vajpayee was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh and was twice member of the Rajya Sabha. 1958: Vajpayee was imprisoned during the U.P. food agitation in 1958 and during the talks with Pakistan on Kutch in 1967. June 13, 1964: As his parliamentary career flourished, Vajpayee made a name for himself as an orator and for his poetic flourishes. Vajpayee, as a member of the Jan Sangh, paid a glowing tribute to Jawaharlal Nehru, in According to The Hindu, Vajpayee was a firm believer in secularism. He was fond of repeating that "Hinduism was not a religion but a secular way