Advani and his silence…

Ajith Vijay Kumar The BJP is at crossroads and so is LK Advani, the man who along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee constructed the saffron edifice; the most successful right-of-centre alternative in Indian politics. But today he is a lonely man. He looks on helplessly even as his creation is crumbling brick-by-brick, but he is maintaining silence…stoic silence. Yes, it’s true to articulate that it is not easy for anyone; leave alone a man of Advani’s stature, to see onetime confidants to gun for you so very publicly. Right from Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie to the latest Mamata Banerjee admirer Sudheendra Kulkarni, the blows are raining and they are raining hard. Especially Jaswant Singh seems to be hell-bent on seeing the end of Advani raj. He is giving one interview after another, and he has a new disclosure to make in each of these, and is his bag of secrets not empty yet…Santa Claus in the making? Common sense argues: Why is all this happening now and that too with such a sense of urgency and brazenness as shown by the rebels? One reason might be that they understand that to move a mountain, collective effort is needed. Advani is no pushover, that’s why to push him over, more hands the better! Yes, BJP has a problem. But it is not a day’s creation; it has built over time, only the speed hastened post the 2009 election debacle. So where were all of the self-professed custodians of the party all this while? Blunder land Nevertheless, coming back to the crisis that has engulfed the BJP, it’s clear that there has been a serious drifting of the party from its moorings. The once disciplined party is in tatters; divided into factions and ‘without a common denominator’, its heading for the worse, if things don’t change soon. Everybody, except a select coterie - Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaih Naidu - that runs the party today, feels that the High Command culture, as in the Congress, has crept into the onetime ‘different’ party. And, that too such a High Command which doesn’t believe in sharing responsibility when the going is tough. How can they ever come up with a justification for asking the regional chieftains to take responsibility for the defeat, while they get themselves promoted? They expect Vasundhara Raje to put in her papers even when the majority of the MLAs want her to continue. They summon BS Yeddyruppa to Delhi and seek an explanation for not being able to deliver the promised numbers, even when Karnataka performed fairly well. Poor BC Khanduri had to go too, even when his state of Uttarakhand is worth only 5 seats at the best, which eventually didn’t make a difference, but was a whitewash nevertheless. And Advani, the man who built the strong cadre based party, is silent…stoically silent. The devil and The Deep Sea Let’s give it to Advani; he knew his time is up post the 2009 debacle. He wanted to exit gracefully, but was prevented from doing so, with the argument that the party needs him and that he cannot shy away from the responsibility of rebuilding the party. It’s another matter whether he wanted to quit at the first place. Although, Jaswant ‘Santa Claus’ Singh has criticised this too, by saying that Advani should not have hung to power after the defeat as the voters had in unequivocal terms rejected the ‘Advani for PM’ cry. But what Jaswant doesn’t realise or more probably doesn’t want to acknowledge is that post Vajpayee, Advani is still the only anchor of the Lotus. He alone has the all prevailing command over the rank and file of the party, a point that has been proven a number of times. Advani was disgraced once earlier too post his famous visit to Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum, but then understanding that there’s no alternative, he was welcomed back to the supreme chair. Advani is no Jaswant; he understands this reality and has been using this weakness in the party as his USP after the end of Vajpayee era. Others know it too; the coterie that manages the party from television studios is using it to their advantage. They also realise that Advani is looking for something far more important before he fades away into the dusk. He wants to cement his legacy. A legacy to equal if not overshadow of all others who created the anti-Congress space in Indian politics. The RSS also knows this secret. That’s why, although they are openly calling for a change in leadership in the party, but they don’t want to push things. Advani needs a little bit more time to exit with his held high and they know it. So as the first step, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has made it clear that the Sangh won’t directly meddle in the party’s affairs. Secondly, he is meeting all the stakeholders separately. The interesting things about this series of meetings is that party president Rajnath Singh, who is up on the chopping block along with Advani, went alone to meet the RSS boss, while the challengers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar went as group. Not to forget the ever hopeful Murli Manohar Joshi, who also made a beeline to the RSS office lest he is forgotten when the spoils are distributed. Is it just a coincidence that all those who are high on the promotability list are moving together as a group? Reports now say that a ‘succession plan’ has been drawn up, according to which Arun Jaitely will take up the post of party president and Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu as the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively. Advani has also now met Bhagwat ‘separately’, ostensibly for the final seal of approval to the plan. Everything seems right with this plan. Rajnath is out, the ‘media planners’ get more airtime and Advani gets to say a proper good bye. But what about the basic question? Who should take responsibility for the electoral defeat? Were Rajnath and Advani the only people responsible or is it just the state level leaders who are to be blamed? Yes, Advani cannot expect a better deal at this juncture. He will get a legacy, but what about ‘his’ party. Will it be able to survive without a mass leader, a crowd puller? What about his belief in fairness and equality? Why is he willing to give the party’s reins to non-unanimous choices? It is as if, Advani in his quest for a place in the hall of fame and to save himself from a disgraceful exit is willing to let the party tumble down into an abyss. He should at least concede the media’s chant for the need for a credible Opposition and leave behind a party that can warm the benches in a befitting way, because the press, anyways, is uncomfortable with the idea of BJP rule. But he is silent…stoically silent! “There`s no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I`ll never see it.” George W Bush.