2018 - Atal Bihari Vajpayee

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The third release ceremony of Calendar year 2018 saw the release of commemorative coins of Rs 100 on Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This is the 4th Ocassion when coins were released in the year of Death on Prime Minister; earlier being 1964 Jawharlal Nehru, 1985 Indira Gandhi and 1991 Rajeev Gandhi.

This issue has only Rs 100/- non circulating denomination and there are no circulating denomination. This is after 1981 when a commemorative issue did not have a circulating denomination. Although there were few issues like 150 Years of Telecommunications, Gur Ta Gaddi, etc where circulating denominations were not put into general circulations, but they were notified and were available in Mint Sets. It looks like Governmnet is moving away from issuing commemorative coins in circulating denominations, the recent gazette notifications of Shri Guru Gobind Singh, 75 years of Tricolour in Andamans, Paika Rebellion published before Vajpayee release also don’t have circulating denomination. However Vajpayee is the first issue to be released and other are still notifications.

The coin details are;

Release Function:

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi releasing the commemorative coin in honour of Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in New Delhi on December 24, 2018. The Speaker, Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley, the Minister of State for Culture (I/C) and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma and other dignitaries are also seen.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was a politician who served three terms as the Prime Minister of India. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he was the first Indian prime minister who was not a member of the Indian National Congress party to have served a full five-year term in office.

He was a member of the Indian Parliament for over four decades, having been elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, ten times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house. Vajpayee was among the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), of which he was the president from 1968 to 1972. The BJS merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party, which won the 1977 general election. Vajpayee became the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai. He resigned in 1979, and the Janata alliance collapsed soon after. The erstwhile members of the BJS formed the BJP in 1980, with Vajpayee as its first president.

During his tenure as prime minister, India carried out the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998. Vajpayee sought to improve diplomatic relations with Pakistan, travelling to Lahore by bus to meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. After the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan, he sought to restore relations through engaging with President Pervez Musharraf, inviting him to India for a summit at Agra.

He was conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in 2015. The administration of Narendra Modi declared in 2014 that Vajpayee's birthday, 25 December, would be marked as Good Governance Day. He died on 16 August 2018 due to age-related illness.