[Letter to Patel]

Summary

This is a brief Hindi letter dated 22 September 1979 from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then a Member of the Lok Sabha, written on Government of India letterhead from 7, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, and addressed to Shri Harihar Patel of 312 Kharavel Nagar, Bhubaneswar. Vajpayee acknowledges Patel’s letter of 16 September and warmly welcomes a Janata Party proposal to bring intellectuals (बुद्धिजीवियों) into the party fold, calling it a source of great joy. He responds with particular enthusiasm to the prospect of Minoo Masani standing for election, describing it as a matter of pride for both the country and the party (देश और दल दोनों के लिए गौरव).

The body of the letter runs to only a handful of sentences on a single page; page two of the scan carries the reverse/bleed-through of the same sheet along with a photograph of the inland letter card envelope, whose Bhubaneswar postmark reads 27 September 1979 and confirms the year of dispatch. Though slight in length, the note captures a specific late-Janata-Party moment when Vajpayee was actively courting classical-liberal figures — Masani had been the founding face of Swatantra — for the Janata Party’s electoral project, and it documents Harihar Patel’s role as one of Vajpayee’s Odisha-based correspondents on that effort.

Key points

• One-page personal letter from Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his Lok Sabha MP letterhead (अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी, संसद सदस्य, लोक सभा), headed with the Ashoka lion emblem and the 7, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi address.
• Salutation is ‘प्रिय श्री पटेल जी’ (Dear Shri Patel Ji); recipient identified below the letter as श्री हरिहर पटेल, ३१२ खरावल नगर, भुवनेश्वर-७५१००१.
• Directly replies to a prior letter from Patel dated 16 September (आपका १६ सितम्बर का पत्र मिला).
• Vajpayee endorses a Janata Party suggestion to bring intellectuals (बुद्धिजीवियों) into the party, calling it a source of great joy.
• The letter’s substantive line welcomes the possibility that Minoo Masani will contest an election, framing it as a matter of national and party pride.
• Signed off ‘शुभकामनाओं सहित, आपका, अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी’ with Vajpayee’s handwritten signature.
• Page 2 of the scan shows the reverse of the letter and the inland letter card envelope, whose postmark (‘27.9.79’) confirms September 1979 dispatch.