Senior BJP leader L K Advani’s cryptic statement after meeting the RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat in Nagpur bares his true intentions. After meeting the RSS chief, Advani was on record of having said, "I have got so much from the party and the country ever since I started working in politics that it's much more than the prime minister's post".
Advani may have given this statement under compulsion from RSS to tell the world that he is not in the race for primeministership, but he has not given up the ambition.
The truth is, there is still a burning desire left in Advani to become India's Prime Minister , at least once. His ambition is to hoist the tricolour from the ramparts of Red Fort but the RSS is is his main obstacle now.
Advani was summoned by the RSS chief to Nagpur to tell him that enough was enough and he should not carry the hope that there may be some chance for him to become the PM.
The RSS chief bluntly told Advani that he should now make way for younger leaders, though the fact remains that these 'younger ' leaders in his party are more than 55 years of age. A senior leader had once told Advani that he should be thinking of retiring, but the indefatigable leader that he is, Advani fished out his medical reports and with tears in his eyes told him that he was more physically agile than the so-called younger leaders. Advani told him he was neither suffering from diabetes, nor from obesity, nor had he undergone heart surgery, and nor does he lack stamina. But Advani may be the last person to know that people do laugh behind his back when he makes such statements.
Almost everybody in the Sangh parivar accepts that Advani devoted the major part of his life for the sake of the organisation and his character has been unblemished. He is undoubtedly the seniormost BJP leader alive and active. Almost all the aspirants for the PM's post in the BJP are those who have been personally trained by Advani , be it Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi, or Sushma Swaraj. Yet, none of these leaders are ready to allow Advani to have one last go at the PM's post.
Going back, Advani's ambition to become PM took shape for the first time in 1991, when he undertook the Rath Yatra to Ayodhya on the Ram temple issue. Till then, Advani had been content from being a Metropolitan Councillor in Delhi to a membership in the Rajya Sabha. He never fought Lok Sabha elections as he lacked mass base. But during the 1991 Rath Yatra, Advani and all the other leaders joined hands and elbowed out Vajpayee to the sidelines. Lakhs of supporters gathered to greet the Rath Yatra on an emotive issue, and Advani felt that he was now India's most popular leader.
For the first time, Advani felt that he could leave Vajpayee behind in the political stakes, but his plan to become PM was scuttled by the very people who destroyed the Babri mosque on that fateful afternoon. So long as the idol of Ram Lala was lying inside the Babri masjid, Advani's Ram temple movement had been running on full steam, but with the destruction of the mosque, all the grandiose plans prepared by Advani bit the dust.
Sensing change in the political weather, Advani had to declare that Vajpayee would become the PM if ever the BJP came to power. But he and his strategist Govindacharya believed that they would be using Vajpayee as a 'mukhota' (mask) and it was Advani who, in fact, would be running the government. But even this plan came to nought when Vajpayee took over as Prime Minister.
In fact, Vajpayee's stature was so big that even the party and the government looked smaller in comparison. Atalji gave Advani the due respect that he deserved. Vajpayee made him the Deputy Prime Minister and even allowed him to take major decisions, because his stature in politics was so big that it didn't matter to him the least. Vajpayee had no affection for the PM's seat. The erudite orator never depended on the post of PM for popularity and political strength. He had it all.
Vajpayee, however, knew that Advani was in a hurry to become the Prime Minister. To achieve this ambition, Advani once wanted Vajpayee to be made President, and he be given the PM's post. BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu once went to Vajpayee with this proposal, but got a severe tongue-lashing in return and he had to come back empty-handed.
It was now time for Advani to wait till the 2004 elections. He gave the slogan 'India Shining' and hoped the party would win because of Vajpayee's image, so that in the event of BJP returning to power, he could send Vajpayee to retirement and then run the government. But Vajpayee was a man who had the ability to judge the straw in the wind. Vajpayee suddenly declared one day - 'neither am I tired, nor have I retired'. He took the wind out of Advani's sails with this single statement. BJP lost the elections, and Vajpayee fell ill. Advani again became the aspirant for the PM's post. He had almost made up his mind that nobody could now stop him from becoming the Prime Minister.
Before the 2009 elections, Advani was so sure of a win that he was busy more in chalking out ways of how to run his government rather than mapping out a strategy to win the electoral battle. He was so over-confident that he called in security experts, doctors, legal experts and economists to prepare his government's policies even as the elections were on. The BJP lost the elections badly dashing Advani's hopes again. What happened afterwards is in the public domain. In order to gain a secular image a la Vajpayee's, he went to the extent of extolling the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
It was then that the RSS decided that enough was enough, and Advani should now retire. But the old man was not ready. Considering his seniority and experience, nobody wanted to insult him, but the RSS had already made up its mind. It did not want to see him as Leader of the Opposition, nor as President of the party.
After much technical wrangling, a convenient way was found. Advani was made the chairman of the BJP parliamentary party. Not resting at that, Advani with tears in his eyes sought the room where Vajpayee used to sit inside the Parliament House. Nobody wanted to embarass Advani and this demand, too, was met. But after getting the post and the room, the ambition for becoming PM resurfaced. Advani felt that if Manmohan Singh's government fell, he could get a chance to become the PM. He now frequently came out of his shell, and became more active in public.
In the last few months, when Manmohan Singh's government began facing political heat because of scams and corruption, Advani saw a new opening in front of him. He suddenly finalized a plan for another Rath Yatra. BJP leaders did not show much interest in this yatra, but Advani made the announcement during the debate on cash-for-vote. Out of respect for a senior leader like Advani, the party leaders did not openly oppose. Nobody among the BJP leaders wanted Advani to bring out the rath, but Advani had made up his mind that his Rath this time would, at last, lead him to 7, Race Course Road.
The party leaders were now in a quandary. They knew that Advani's ambition for becoming the PM was not yet extinct. But this ambition could lead to the party's defeat at the hustings. But the question that arose was: who will bell the cat? Who will tell Advani that he should forget becoming the PM? It was left to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to convey the blunt message to Advani. Even after listening to Bhagwat's diktat, Advani has not shown any sign to signal that he has abandoned his ambition to become PM altogether.
Advani may feel hurt, but he should understand that this country will never accept a man who is power-hungry to become the Prime Minister. This nation accepted Gandhiji as its tallest leader because he shed his clothes and wore a loincloth to work among the masses. This nation accepted Jaiprakash Narayan as the leader, because he stayed away from the seat of power. This nation supported Anna Hazare because he does not want any power for himself. If Advani declares that he would never contest elections, never accept any government post, will return his security, resign from the Lok Sabha, and then go among the people with his rath, he would be getting the honour more valuable than that of the Prime Minister's post. It is now for Advani to decide : whether to ride on false hopes, or get his name immortalized in history.
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