In 1942, Atal Behari Vajpayee, around 16, as an active member of the RSS not only did not participate in the freedom movement (as decreed by the RSS which did not want to oppose the British) but gave a statement of his non-participation in the militant events in his home village of Bateshwar on August 27, 1942. Not only that, he also named the other participants in these events who bravely faced the punishment for the same. Vajpayee had himself accepted that the enclosed letter was signed by him. (Frontline, February 20, 1998)
It may be noted that before the investigation by some journalists in this episode, A B Vajpayee and his hangers-on had been claiming that Vajpayee%u2019s initiation in politics had started with Quit India movement. A sponsored article on Vajpayee%u2019s birthday on December 25, 1997 had asserted, %u201C%u2026.it was the Quit India movement that fired his nationalist zeal. He was arrested in 1942 for lending his voice to this mounting demand for freedom%u2026%u2026..%u201D (Frontline, February 20, 1998)
On January 21, 1998, Vajpayee himself issued a statement which had claimed, %u201CIt was my involvement in the Quit India movement and my imminent arrest at Gwalior that I was sent to my ancestral village, Bateshwar, about 60 miles from Agra. But I got involved in the Quit India movement in Bateshwar too.%u201D
