G R O U N D   Z E R O

Can’t write Advani off, as yet
On which party would head the next govt, Advani says that would be decided by how low the Cong tally is. What remains unsaid is that if the BJP gets only 165 seats, Modi may find it difficult to become Prime Minister. That’s when Advani, with his stature, will stand a chance.
Raj Chengappa

Evernote, the computer app that helps you ‘remember everything’, has become the latest rage in cyber-world. LK Advani, though 86 years of age, doesn’t need it. The BJP leader already has the memory of an elephant. I discovered that at a function recently, when we were both on the dais and he told the audience that I had covered his first election campaign when he contested for a Lok Sabha seat in Delhi in 1989. I had almost forgotten that I had, and was touched that he would remember it despite 24 years having passed.

I called on him at his Delhi residence on Friday and again Advani impressed me by his amazing recall on a range of events. We spoke about his 1989 campaign and I told him how he surprised me by confessing that he was terrified of public speaking and was uncomfortable going around canvassing for votes. Prior to that, he had always represented the Bharatiya Janata Party and its earlier avatars as a Rajya Sabha MP. He told me he developed a speech complex in the 1950s when he saw Atal Behari Vajpayee’s oratory hold the audience spellbound. Vajpayee then advised him not to bother about delivery, for, according to the BJP great, as important as diction was the person saying the words.

LK Advani at his residence in New Delhi. File photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

The Friday I saw him was December 6. Neither of us missed the irony — it was on this day 21 years ago that the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya by activists of the Sangh Parivar. Advani still has cases pending against him for allegedly being party to its destruction. I broached the subject and Advani said he had never approved of the act and had in fact left Ayodhya in disgust and pain that evening. In his voluminous book ‘My Country, My Life,’ which I got him to autograph, he described it as the “saddest day of my life”. History though will never let him forget that day and the blot will remain.

We shift to more current topics, including the outcome of the latest round of state elections and its impact on the forthcoming 2014 General Election. Advani shrugs his shoulder when asked about Narendra Modi being nominated by his party as the prime-ministerial candidate. The gesture is both a sign of his acceptance and also that of disappointment with the “Sangha,” as he calls the RSS. He was not for announcing its prime-ministerial candidate before the elections as he believes that India’s federal structure was most unlike the US presidential system.

I remind him that as Union Home Minister in the NDA regime he had prevented Modi from being sacked as chief minister by Vajpayee after the post-Godhra riots in 2002. Advani said Vajpayee wanted Modi to go because the NDA’s allies were upset. But Advani was of the opinion that Modi was a good administrator and removing him as chief minister was not the solution. “I backed Modi because I had to do what was right by my conscience,” he recalled.

On the flight to Goa to attend the BJP’s National Executive meeting soon after the riots, Vajpayee told Advani that Modi should have at least offered to resign. Advani then said he would tell Modi to do so. But at the meeting when the Gujarat chief minister offered to quit, the party refused to accept his resignation. I asked Advani if he was hurt by the way he was rudely sidelined by his party to make way for Modi recently. He shrugged off the question and his silence was loud enough.

I wanted his assessment on who would win the current round of state elections. Advani had campaigned in many of the states and he said he had seen a clear anti-Congress wave that indicated his party would win in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh. But he was quick to add that in Chhattisgarh the Congress seemed confident of winning.

On the 2014 elections, his assessment was interesting. He said it was now certain the Congress would not return to power. Reason: Everywhere people wanted better governance than what the UPA had provided. But he advised the BJP to avoid running a negative campaign and instead come up with a positive and inspiring vision to take India forward. Advani was also clear that the BJP would emerge as the single largest party, but was not willing to estimate how many seats it would win. On which party would head the next ruling coalition, he said that would be decided by how low the Congress tally is.

What remains unsaid in the assessment is that if the BJP falls below its maximum tally of 182 that it got in 1999 and the party ends up with only 165 seats, then Modi may find it difficult to win allies who would want him to be Prime Minister. Even within the BJP, Modi may not find acceptance. That’s when Advani, with his stature, will stand a chance of becoming Prime Minister. So don’t write him off as yet.

raj@tribuneindia.com