LK Advani

Today ,I am writing about one of the tallest leader of a non Congress political party and he was  one of the main architect for his party which was formed after independence to become ruling party. A party which had only 2 MP in 1984, and getting 182 MP in 1998 and form a coalition govt. Now he is 90 plus in age, and  Marg Darshak (mentor) of his party BJP, and he is

 LK Advani

 You all will recall , it was his Rath Yatra helmed, which was stopped by Lallu Prasad’s govt in Bihar in Nov 90, which led to BJP withdrawing support  to VP Singh’s Govt, which fell and Janata Dal was disintegrated and Chandra Shekhar formed a minority govt with Congress’s outside support .BJP deciding to be on its own in Indian politics, at that time LK Advani was BJP’s President and main leader.

BJP is an off shoot of Jana  Sangh , when in 1977 Jana Sangh was dissolved and its members joined Janata Party and LK Advani was Minister for Information & Broadcasting in Morarji Desai’s Govt. After the dis integration of Janata Party in 1979, LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee revived the  old Jana Sangh  and named it as Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

LK Advani as Rajya Sabha member from Delhi from 1970 to 1976 and from Gujarat during 1976-1982. For next two terms he became member of Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.

In the General Elections which took place after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, BJP won only 2 seats. The collective leadership of BJP then thought the moderate approach to Elections will not suffice and then it was decided that the party should adopt strong Hindutva face and become different political party as compared to others.

In the mid 80s under Advani, the BJP became the political face of Ram Janmabhoomi campaign, which was earlier started by Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP).   The Ram temple construction was part of BJP manifesto during 1989 general elections and they won 86 seats , and they gave the outside support to  VP Singh’s govt.

To gather more nation wide support for Ram Janambhoomi movement Advani started  Rath Yatra  ( actually it was air conditioned van, decorated to look like Chariot) in Oct 1990, from Somnath in Gujarat and which was to end at Ayodhaya after going through various states of Central and North India. This rath yatra was stopped in Bihar, which was then ruled by Janata Party under leadership of Lallu Prasad Yadav. BJP then withdrew the outside support to VP Singh’s Govt , which fell and Chandra Shekhar broke the Janata party  and became PM with support of  Congress Party.

In early 1991 this govt also fell, when Congress withdrew the support and fresh elections were called. After the 1^st phase of elections in 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and Congress with sympathy factor in second phase crossed 200 seats mark and with support from other like minded parties formed the govt under the leadership of PV Narsimha Rao. BJP performance was also quite impressive as they increased their  tally of seats to 120 from 85 in earlier Lok Sabha.

In the mean while Hindu groups like VHP, Bajrang dal and others started campaign to build Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and Kar Sewaks started collecting the materials from all over the nation at Ayodhya. And BJP was giving them tactical support, and on 6^th Dec 1992 there was big rally organised at Ayodhya for future action where LK Advani and other BJP leaders were present. The Kar Sewak went  out of control and they demolish the Babri Masjid cordon  and broke the Masjid structure. Next day BJP’s UP CM resigned stating that he could not save the structure after giving assurance to Supreme Court. Later LK Advani was also implicated in Babri Masjid demolition case.

In the mean while LK Advani’s name got involved in Jain hawala scam, by which he got very upset  and said that he is resigning from his parliamentary seat and will not contest the elections  till he is proven not guilty, which subsequently happened when court declared  him not guilty and acquitted him of all charges.

In the interim period it was decided by the BJP top brass  that as LK Advani’s political career is linked with Hawala scam, they projected moderate leader  Atal Bihari Valpayee as the PM as and when BJP came to Power. They did came to power in 1996 for 13 days, then after the fall of Deve Gowda and IK Gujaral’s Govts election took place in 1988, when BJP formed the Govt with its allies and outside support of AIDMK. In this govt LK Advani was Home Minister. This govt lasted one year and after the elections in 1999, BJP again formed the govt which lasted its full term. In this govt LK advani was Home Minister plus later on he became Deputy PM also.

In 2004 elections BJP lost  to Congress, which formed the alliance Govt UPA 1. In the 2009 elections BJP projected Advani as their PM candidate and fought the elections under his leadership but they  and their allies could not get majority and again Congress with its allies formed the govt known as UPA 2.

By the time of next elections Atal Bihari Vajpayee had retired from the politics and Advani was in his late 80s, after initial reluctance he supported Narendra Modi’s for the post of PM, and under PPwhose leadership BJP and its allies won the election and secured 330 plus seats, and BJP of its own got the absolute majority in Lok Sabha. Advani won his Lok Sabha seat from Gandhinagar.

Presently he is 90 plus in age and not that active in politics,the BJP supporters and leaders through out country acknowledge their gratitude to LK Advani, for what he has done for the party.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

3^rd Dec, 2018