The Legacy of Advani

Lal Krishna Advani, one of the most debated public figure in this country is surviving his last few months in active politics. After the 2009 General Election debacle and the recent turmoil in BJP it is imminent that Advani ji shall be retiring from active politics sooner than later. A question arises in the mind does this person deserve so much turbulence and criticism at the end of his political career. So I decided to look at some of the aspects for which Advani shall always be remembered.

Advani, a long time member of Jan Sangh laid the foundation of Bhartiya Janta Party along with his colleague and friend Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the early 1980’s. That was a time when only two members of this party Advani and Vajpayee used to be elected to the parliament. Gradually they attracted the masses and the famous Rath Yatra of Advani in 1989 made BJP a political force to reckon with. This Rath Yatra was the event which gave voice to the nationalists who were struggling to find some other political platform than the Congress. The mass appeal of Advani grew leaps and bounds and eventually took BJP to the pinnacle of power in the late 1990’s.

The biggest contribution by LK Advani to this country has been the formation of a dual political voice, an alternative to the monopolistic Congress party. No democracy can thrive without a strong and active opposition. Today in every city, every town of the country we have two separate voices arguing for the future of the country which is the basic rationale of democracy.

At the same time, Advani cannot be spared without criticism. His ambiguous political statements such as the Kandahar hijacking issue, the Jinnah statement drew a lot of criticism even from his own party members. His inability to stand honestly on issues such as the Gujarat riots and the Babri Masjid demolition case are also debatable.

Vajpayee and Advani were the two stalwarts of BJP and their comparison is inevitable. Advani termed as the ‘iron man’ lacked the charisma and the shrewdness of Vajpayee. Advani was an able manager of the leader Vajpayee but as it very often happens, a successful manager cannot always rise to become an able leader.

Though his persuasion to stay as the leader of opposition after the election defeat has tarnished Advani’s image, but as Sir Mark Tully puts in a NDTV talk show, we do hope that the history will remember Advani as the person who gave this country a strong national political party strengthening the Indian democracy and not his last few turbulent months in the active politics.