Former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a Hindu nationalist who set off a nuclear arms race with neighboring Pakistan, has died at the age of 93. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where Vajpayee had been hospitalized for more than two months with a kidney infection and chest congestion, announced his death on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported. One of India’s longest-serving politicians, Vajpayee was elected nine times to the powerful Lok Sabha, or lower house of parliament, and served as foreign minister from 1977 to 1980. But it was his time as prime minister for which he is greatly remembered. He served three times: for 13 days in 1996, before he resigned in the face of a no-confidence motion, 11 months in 1998 to 1999, and then from 1999 to 2004.
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