R Jagannathan
Lal Krishna Advani is irrelevant to the BJP’s future. He is yesterday’s man. This may sound harsh given that he was the one who built the BJP’s base during the Ayodhya movement in the late eighties and nineties. But, as always, the relevance of leaders changes with the times. The Advani of Rath Yatra fame rode the crest of the Hindutva wave. That wave died in the 1990s. But Advani was still relevant as No 2 to Vajpayee – playing bad cop to Vajpayee’s good cop. During the NDA regime, Advani was the link between the government and the RSS. His best chance of becoming PM went when Vajpayee lost in 2004. This was amply demonstrated in 2009, when Manmohan Singh and the Congress showed him up even though he was projected as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. During the campaign, Advani sounded like a stuck record, calling Manmohan the weakest PM ever. He was surely right, but he called the PM weak just when Manmohan Singh had demonstrated some spine over the nuclear bill, which was popular in urban India. With one reference to Advani’s role in the Kandahar Indian Airlines hijack, Singh put him in his place. During UPA-2, Advani continued to make a fuss about black money, but when it came to debating the issue is parliament, Pranab Mukherjee scored over him. Today, the focus of every party is development and delivery of governance. Narendra Modi is the development icon of the party. Advani would still have been relevant if his presence could have galvanised the party cadre. But even here, Modi is the man who can get the adrenalin flowing for the faithful. At a time when UPA is floundering but still looks modern by projecting Rahul Gandhi as youth leader, the last thing the BJP can afford is to offer a fuddy-duddy alternative. It needs someone aggressive, combative, and drive. Wisdom lies in Advani realising that his day is over.read less read more
Akshaya Mishra
LK Advani has lost none of his lustre as a politician. He is still the tallest leader in the BJP and he commands respect across the political spectrum. If the NDA comes anywhere close to forming the government in 2014, he would be better placed than someone like Narendra Modi to find allies to form the government. Moreover, the party would require his experience and political reach to handle crises. And who can forget that he is the man who built the party during the Ayodhya movement and after. He was the visionary who had the humility to project Vajpayee as the Prime Minister even though the party grew along with his Rath Yatra. In a post-election scenario, Advani could make all the difference between the BJP finding allies to form a government and sitting alone in the opposition.read less read more
