LK Advani: Modi’s Muscular Nationalism Didn’t Need ‘Props’

Does LK Advani being denied Gandhinangar ticket spell doom for the BJP stalwart?

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(Photo: Erum Gour / The Quint)

A familiar face will be missing from the front row benches when the 17th Lok Sabha assembles after the April-May general election: Lal Krishna Advani. For the first time in five decades, the 91-year-old BJP veteran has been denied a ticket to Parliament by the very party he co-founded with late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The curtain has finally rung down on the life and times of a leader who arguably reshaped the political landscape with Hindutva as his spearhead, and steered the BJP’s great leap forward as a national force. 

Modi Buried ‘Vajpayee-Advani’ BJP With No Regard for the Past

The end to Advani’s eventful public life has been abrupt and rather unceremonious. Till the BJP released its first list of candidates for the upcoming elections, it was widely assumed that he would contest for the seventh time from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. In fact, the party’s Parliamentary Board had decided at its first poll meeting that seniors like Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi would have the privilege of choice. It was left to them to determine whether they were game for another electoral battle.

Both senior leaders kept quiet and their silence was taken to be an answer in the affirmative. Consequently, it came as a rude shock to find that Amit Shah had replaced Advani as the BJP nominee from Gandhinagar, while Joshi’s name did not figure in the first list.

It seems that the poll calculus has changed post-Pulwama. Modi’s nationalism-infused muscular narrative needed no props, especially not an ageing veteran with little brand recognition for a new generation of voters.

The time had come to officially bury the Vajpayee-Advani BJP and Modi did so with ruthless disregard for the past.

Advani Spoke 365 Words in Parliament Under Modi Rule Despite 92% Attendance

It is ironic that while PM Modi put Vajpayee on a pedestal despite the late prime minister’s obvious disapproval of his handling of the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat, he was merciless with Advani, his mentor and protector through the dark days of the riots.

First, Modi successfully snatched away the Hindutva brand from Advani and cast himself as the ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’ while communal fires raged in Gujarat.

And when Modi began his long march to Delhi in 2013, he slowly, but surely, cut the ground away from under his mentor’s feet to become the first choice of both the RSS and BJP for PM in 2014.

Advani was left nursing his wounds with just a handful of loyalists. Even they have deserted him over the past five years as Modi established his grip over a party that Advani had built.

The last few years have been cruel to the nonagenarian leader. Once known as a firebrand who kept the Parliament on its toes with skillful interventions and spirited speeches, Lal Krishna Advani is now a pale shadow of his former self.

An enterprising reporter for a national weekly tracked Advani’s record from 2014 onward, and found that he spoke a mere 365 words in five years despite a 92 percent attendance record.

Modi’s Mentor Advani Was Unprepared for the Former’s Ascendance

Yes, Lal Krishna Advani came to Parliament almost every day and sat through the discussions. But he hardly opened his mouth to speak. In fact, records apparently show that Advani hasn’t spoken in the Lok Sabha since 19 December 2014! This is the same man who participated in 42 debates in the previous Lok Sabha when Manmohan Singh was prime minister, and spoke 35,926 words.

Modi’s ascendance as prime minister of the first BJP majority government should have been a matter of pride for Advani.

After all, apart from whipping up a storm of support for the Hindutva narrative with a well-executed ‘rath yatra’ through north India, Advani assiduously built up the party organisation, nurtured talent wherever he spotted it, and mentored young leaders like Modi to take over from him and Vajpayee when the time came.

Yet, when it happened, Lal Krishna Advani seemed unprepared for Modi’s takeover. Somehow, he never came to terms with the fact that he had failed to become prime minister, despite his acknowledged contribution to the BJP’s growth. When the time came for the party to assume leadership of a coalition government, it was Vajpayee who was pulled out of retirement to hold the edifice together, with his skills for consensus-building and outreach across the political spectrum.

Advani Failed to Read the Writing on the Wall

When the BJP came to power with a full majority, Modi was in the chair while Advani watched from the sidelines. Perhaps he should have realised then that his time was over. When Vajpayee lost the 2004 election, he called it a day and went into retirement. Advani hung on in hope.

Advani’s denouement came when the BJP slumped to defeat in the 2009 election which he led as his party’s prime ministerial candidate. The writing was on the wall but he failed to read it.

It is unfortunate that a man who contributed so much to the BJP’s growth as a national force has had to exit his political life on a humiliating note. He could have voluntarily stepped back and announced that he would not contest the 2019 polls.

But even as he ebbed from the BJP’s collective memory, Advani seemed loathe to let go despite being consigned to the Margdarshak Mandal, a defunct body which hasn’t met even once since its formation.

The denial of a ticket to contest the upcoming election is an inglorious end to an illustrious career. Surely, Advani must realise that he has only himself to blame.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for them.)