New Delhi: Very few politicians of independent India can be credited with bringing about paradigm shift in the political discourse of the country. L K Advani is definitely one of them. Advani is the man who successfully metamorphosed the concept of ‘hardline Hindutva' into a viable political philosophy that changed the contours of Indian polity like never before.
It was Advani who made the modern BJP, brick by brick. When he took over as the president of the BJP in 1986, the party was in tatters. It had only 2 members in the Lok Sabha as the Congress party led by Rajiv Gandhi had swept the general elections in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination. Advani had his task cut out.
Advani realized that Congress party under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi was taking a soft-Hindutva political line on issues like Ram temple in Ayodhya and Shahbano case. He thought that the Congress party was trying to encroach upon a territory that actually belonged to BJP, given the fact that the party was attached to RSS, a pro-Hindu socio-cultural organization, with the proverbial umbilical cord.
