Lal Krishna Advani was such a face of the politics of independent India who changed the course of politics, he made the Congress centric politics of 1970-1980s BJP centric by the 90s and 2000s. Till the 1980s, the Left was far ahead in the politics of Left and Right in India. After 80, the Advani factor comes to the fore and the difference begins.
Due to the economic reforms in the late 90s, the Left started weakening. On the other hand, despite the slogan of Swadeshi, nationalism continued to grow stronger. And this strength was achieved only due to the leadership of Advani.
Advani continued to follow Party First policies throughout his life.
It seems impossible for any party to find a more dedicated worker than Advani. Despite the Ram wave created by him in 1992, he accepted Atal Bihari Vajpayee as his leader. In 2014, when Advani was active in politics, the party put forward Narendra Modi, who was the CM of Gujarat at that time, and Advani accepted the party's decision. Whereas many leaders of Advani's era even went to the extent of revolting against this decision of the party. But Advani not only accepted every decision of the party but also kept it in mind.
The black money issue on which Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 was Advani's issue in 2009, although he did not get success.
Jain had left MP after Hawala scandal
On one hand, politicians struggle to save power and position till the last moment. At the same time, this is the same Advani who had distanced himself from parliamentary politics just because of the allegations. In the 90s, when Lal Krishna Advani's politics was at its peak, a diary came out. Which is known as 'Jain Hawala Scandal'. The names of some big leaders and officials were there in it. A journalist filed a petition in the Supreme Court regarding this matter.
Lal Krishna Advani's name was also in this diary. When news of this reached Advani, he immediately resigned as MP. Not only this, he clearly said that he will not take part in electoral politics until he comes clean. Advani worked hard for BJP in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, but did not contest the elections.
If Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government is formed for 13 days, Advani should not even be a part of that government. Murli Manohar Joshi took oath as number 2. After a few days, Advani got a clean chit from the court. After being cleared from the court, Advani returned to parliamentary politics.
Ideology+Implementation
The specialty of Advani's politics was that he worked hard to put his ideas on the ground. When the Mandal Commission report was implemented by Vishwanath Pratap Singh's government, it was seen as a big threat to BJP's politics of monolithic Hindutva. Before that, there was no such acceptance of BJP's Hindutva politics.
Advani accepted the challenge and gave birth to the discourse of Mandal versus Kamandal. In later days, he traveled long distances to gain public support for this. With time his politics gained greater acceptance.
ban on simi
While being the Home Minister of the country for almost 5 years, Lal Krishna Advani's clear stand regarding ideology is reflected in his decisions. Just as some time ago, PFI was accused of carrying out many incidents in many states of the country. Similar incidents took place against SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India) in the year 2000. Advani had banned SIMI while he was the Home Minister. Many opposition parties were against the ban on SIMI, but Advani not only banned the organization but also took action against its members across the country.
Joint session of Parliament was called for POTA law
The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) was passed by the Parliament of India in 2002. The objective of POTA was to strengthen anti-terrorism operations. Lal Krishna Advani was the Home Minister during the attack on the country's Parliament on 13 December 2001. After this incident, the need for a strong law against terrorism was felt. However, the opposition parties were angry about the draft of this law.
The BJP government did not have the necessary numbers in the Rajya Sabha. The government had called a joint session of Parliament and got the bill passed.
When the party asked, he apologized
Lal Krishna Advani always kept the party above all. After losing the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, Advani went to Pakistan in 2005, where he reached Jinnah's tomb. Advani glorified Jinnah in Pakistan. For the first time, strong opposition to Lal Krishna Advani's move was seen within the BJP itself. RSS leaders also gave a sharp reaction. After returning to India, when he got the news of opposition in the party, he apologized. Ended the dispute.
You may be ideologically opposed to Advani. But as an organizer, a party worker, a sacrificed man, you can respect Advani. Even after such a long political career, Advani, who remained away from familyism, considered the party as his family.
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Sachin Jha Shekhar is working in NDTV.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author.
