Old man begone! PM Modi’s humiliation of Advani is unkind, may backfire later

Atal, Advani, Kamal Nishan, Maang Raha Hai Hindustan. Lal Kishanchand Advani, the inspiration behind this slogan from the 90s, will be wondering how ruthless politics can be. Forget Hindustan, today even the Kamal (Lotus) party doesn’t want Advani. Over the past few weeks, Advani was humiliated several times. At the BJP’s conclave past week, the party’s margdarshak (guide) was reduced to a mookdarshak (silent spectator). For the first time in the history of the BJP, the conclave ended without the mandatory Advani sermon. (He had skipped the 2013 meet in Goa). [caption id=“attachment_2187637” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] LK Advani. AP[/caption] Then, on Monday, as the BJP turned 36, Advani was not invited to the celebrations in Delhi. Like Murali Manohar Joshi, one of the founding members of the party, Advani was forced to sulk at home as Amit Shah recounted their glorious contribution to the party’s ‘illustrious history’. In an ironic twist to another popular slogan_, Atal, Advani, Murali Manohar, Bhajapa Ki Ye Teen Dharohar,_ the party’s heritage was consigned to history on a historic day. A party that boasts of shuchita, sanskar and Bharatiyata, committed the distinctly un-Bharatiya sin of locking away the family elder (Premchand’s poignant story Boodhi Kaki immediately comes to mind) while everyone else was celebrating. Since Advani has not spoken in public, or updated his blog, it is difficult to know how he will be feeling, or why he was ignored. “Is this the BJP’s sanskar, is this the Ram Rajya I had planned to establish with my rath yatras?” he may be wondering. Or, will he be commiserating with Shahjahan, who was dethroned, marginalized, humiliated and locked up by his successor? The latest twist in Advani’s parable, frankly, was unexpected. Till a few weeks ago, the BJP looked like a happy, cultured ‘Hum Saath, Saath Hain’ type family with Advani as the respected, satiated, happy patriarch who was paraded by the family for photo-ops at every opportune occasion. In March, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Advani and Joshi made a pretty picture as they stood together in Srinagar, celebrating the first saffron government in a state where its founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee died during his battle with Article 370. In Srinagar, on that winter morning, it seemed apart from the ideological compromise, Modi had struck a workable compromise also with his mentor. But again, there is rumbling in India’s first Parivar. It is difficult to understand why the reigning Moghuls of the BJP will want to treat Advani as Shahjahan. He is knocking on the door of 90s, has lost his voice in the party, his loyal followers have either changed camp or have become silent and the throne and the crown sits safely on the successor’s head. What does Advani have left with him that his successors wish to take away? Why is he being pushed further when there is not even an inch left in Advani’s cramped corner? What does Modi gain by almost egging Advani to speak out against him in public? One of the theories is that Advani has become to Modi and Shah what Prashant Bhushan had become to Arvind Kejriwal: a cantankerous preacher. According to NDTV, the BJP did not let Advani speak at the conclave because “its leaders were wary” of being told by Advani about what is wrong with the party. He was reportedly advised to get his speech vetted by the high-command, a diktat that was unacceptable to the man who once raised the temperature of the entire country with his rousing rhetoric. Perhaps, as Kejriwal has demonstrated with greater crudity and ruthlessness, politicians despise thinkers and talkers who behave like self-anointed moral compasses for a party. When in power, everybody prefers a ‘yes man’, a follower. Carping critics and conscience keepers are unacceptable irritants, avoidable distractions. Unfortunately, Advani is well past that stage where his personality could have undergone metamorphoses. ‘Saugandh Ram Ki Khate Hain, Mandir Wahin Baneyenge,’ Advani had vowed then. Now, his detractors seem to have taken the vow of not letting Advani speak, neither wahin (conclave) nor closer home in Delhi. Advani appears as helpless as the disputed structure the kar sevaks had demolished in Ayodhya. There is very little he can do as kar sevaks (in Indian political lexicon the term implies people who work against somebody) in the BJP demolish his legend. He can’t revolt, he can’t resist, and since he has eaten his own words so many times in the past, he can’t even speak up for fear of not being seriously. Advani has slipped into irrelevance. For his detractors, this can be schadenfreude; a deserved punishment for using brute force for dismantling history. But one can’t help feeling sorry for the old man. Advani is, after all, not just an ordinary founding member of the BJP. But for him and his yatras, the BJP will have perhaps taken decades to grow from a party with just two seats in 1984 to 88 five years later. Advani gave the party its distinct Hindutva edge. His ideology and rhetoric created the climate for the rise of hardliners like Modi, nurtured successors to the throne of ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’ Advani once occupied. Yes, Hindustan rejected Advani. But at least the Kamal could have been a little more grateful to the man who was once its most visible Nishan.