Advani now suffers from foot in the mouth disease | Girish Nikam

Published on 31-03-2008 In National

Viewed 2619 times

Advani now suffers from foot in the mouth disease

A couple of weeks ago this column had unabashedly appreciated BJP leader and NDA's Prime Minister-in-waiting L.K.Advani for his daring to come out with his autobiography at the stage at which he is in his career. Now as more and more details of his tome tumbles out, and the grand old man of the Sangh Parivar, grants more and more interviews to promote it, the party men seem to be slinking away. One of them was heard wondering whether this was something which a Prime-in-waiting could afford. Another senior leader of the Congress, gleeful that the veteran patriarch was giving them an issue a day to corner him, remarked, "it is a justification of the unjustifiable acts of his".

Advani meanwhile seems to be in a more cathartic mood, when he is giving those promotional interviews, than he has been in his book. And these are potentially more damaging than what he has written in his autobiography.

The other day, in an interview with Karan Thapar, he spoke about the bad vibes he and Congress President Sonia Gandhi shares, and spoke about how it is difficult to bridge the gap. And soon after giving the interview, he baffled everybody by landing up at 10, Janpath with his wife, Kamla, to hand over a copy of his book, to Sonia. It neither helped in breaking the ice, nor did it get him appreciation from any quarters. In fact all that he got was jeers and embarrassed shrugs of shoulders, from his own party men, and sarcastic tut-tut from the Congressmen.

Then he went on to claim in another interview to Shekhar Gupta on Walk the Talk , that he had no idea that Jaswant Singh was to accompany the released terrorists to Kandahar to exchange them for the hijacked Indian Airlines Passengers in 1999. Promptly came the response from none other than his colleague, and former Defence Minister George Fernandes that he was very much present in the meeting of senior ministers, which decided to send Jaswant Singh. Now whose memory is playing a trick on them, both being octogenarians, has become a topic of debate. Jaswant Singh is still silent on the whole issue. Worse, Advani's remark that Jaswant Singh must have discussed with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, helps less, as that puts Vajpayee in the dock. Not just that, it looks as if Advani himself is trying to absolve himself of the responsibilities. A fact that Vajpayee admirers in the Parivar and outside, are not too appreciative about.

And now in the second part of Walk the Talk, Advani has made another controversial statement. After writing in his book, that Vajpayee wanted Narendra Modi to resign after the Gujarat carnage, and he being opposed to it, he now says, he had asked Modi to resign but since it created a furore in the Goa National Executive meet, he did not. And more shocking is his absolute clean chit to Modi. He says, "he was completely innocent", of what happened during the carnage.

Interestingly, this clean chit to Modi comes on the same day that newspapers carried stories of the motives of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India(SIMI) leaders and activists arrested in Indore last week.

The interrogation of these suspects has apparently brought out, according to reports, their plan to target both Advani and Modi. Why? Because the two were seen as behind the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the post-Godhra carnage of Muslims in Gujarat.

And this statement of Advani will only reinforce the beliefs of these youths, who also have told interrogators that the slow justice system, and the lack of progress of the Commissions set up to look into these two inarguably darkest events in post-independent India, motivates them to target the two leaders. Though it is no justification for such actions or even plans, Advani's blatant defence of Modi, is also not going to help him win friends, and more so, in his quest for Prime Ministership. Moreover, in another interview he did what in his party is considered blasphemous. Naming the next generation leader! He has actually anointed Narendra Modi as the most likely to take over the leadership of the BJP after him! Apart from it being completely against the philosophy of the Sangh Parivar, which prides on its collective leadership, whenever it targets Congress for its dynastic traditions, has also irritated the other gen next leaders of the BJP.

The more Advani talks the more he seems to be suffering from the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, as he gets entangled in a web of his own making. His another statement that he was about to retire into anonymity, after his party recently declared him as the Prime Ministerial candidate, also sounds odd. For a person, who has to lead the party as well as the NDA into a tough election year, such statements is not going to exactly help boost the morale of the cadre. And going by the mood as well as the need of the times for authors of new books to give such promotional interviews, Advani may well commit more and more faux pas, which is not going to help matters in any way, neither for him nor his party nor the NDA.

The Book while being a useful tool for historians and political analysts who of course will need to sift the grain from the chaff, more and more of his party men are getting convinced that it is not going to help the party much.

One particularly incisive Congress Minister pooh poohed Advani for writing an autobiography being a practicing politician. "All that he has done is glorify himself and wherever he could vilify Vajpayee, without being really truthful on anything". Interestingly he pointed out, even Mahatma Gandhi stopped writing his autobiography after 1922, as he knew he could not tell the truth, being absorbed in day to day politics. Advani has done what even Gandhi did not dare, and going by the reactions and repercussions of the former's efforts, probably Gandhi was wiser.

1 Comments

Blog

Print