Mrs Kaul, Vajpayee's companion and 'household member', passes away

Rajkumari Kaul, Vajpayee’s constant companion of many years and the mother of his adopted daughter Namita Bhattacharya, died following a cardiac arrest at AIIMS, New Delhi, on Saturday, reported  The Indian Express . [caption id=“attachment_125042” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An unconventional life. Reuters[/caption] According to the report, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi also called upon the former PM to pay her condolences. Other leaders who came to the funeral were “L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad…Jyotiraditya Scindia was the lone major Congress leader who attended the funeral,” says the report. Vajpayee, who is bedridden, could not attend the last rites, adds the report. The report points out that the press release described the 86-year-old as Vajpayee’s “household member". When it comes to the personal life of the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, not much is known. We know that he never married, that he lived with college friends Mrs Rajkumari Kaul and her husband Prof BN Kaul in Delhi and that he had adopted the Kauls’ daughter Namita as his own. As the report says that “very few outside Vajpayee’s close circle had actually interacted with the woman” and that she often “fielded calls made to the BJP leader’s house simply saying “Mrs Kaul bol rahi hoon.” According to an earlier report in the New Indian Express , Mrs Kaul was a former college sweetheart, one Vajpayee could not marry but nevertheless became a family member in her marital home, an unconventional relationship that saw much rumour-mongering and intrusion. Even when his adopted daughter Namita’s husband Ranjan Bhattacharya got into trouble during his prime ministership, he never felt compelled to explain. According to the report: “Both Atalji and I have never felt the need to offer apologetic explanations to my husband once the dirty rumours began,’’ Mrs Kaul had said in a Savvy magazine interview, “my husband and my relationship with him is far too strong for that…’’ And so it emerged that their relationship was never given a name. The RSS may have disapproved, but did little.  In fact, Vajpayee might be amused, says The Indian Express, that RSS functionary Suresh Soni and RSS pracharak and BJP general secretary (organisation) Ramlal were present at  the funeral.