Artcle was originally published at : ItsNotYellow
NDA Chief and one of the founding members of the BJP, L.K.Advani’s resignation in the wake of the elevation of Narendra Modi – the controversial Chief Minister of Gujarat has left many in a state of comatose. Its ironical that the man who led the BJP from 3 seats to 180 seats in the Lok Sabha wasn’t even consulted while the appointment of Narendra Modi took place. What one is witnessing is the struggle for power where the Bhishma Pitamah of BJP, Advani is up against people whom he had himself inducted in the main working committee of BJP .
Prior to this in 2000, when the BJP was elected to power, Advani who was the main architect behind the victory had voluntarily stepped aside and made way for Atal Bihari Vajpayee sensing that he would be a uniting factor in the alliance and would be more widely accepted even by the minorities across the nation. Ten Years after being out of power, as BJP braces for the next general elections, Advani stands lonely as a worried man who feels that giving Modi the baton would be against the well being of the party. In his publicly released resignation letter, he clearly mentions that recently he has been unable to reconcile either by the functioning of the party and even in the direction in which it is heading. He further added that most leaders of the current lot are busy pursuing their individual ambitions rather than giving priority to the organisation. It's ironical to see that while the major BJP cadres are tom-toming for Modi, they have forgotten the man who rose BJP to the national scene .
Mr. Advani’s resignation from all party posts was a bolt from the blue for both the BJP and the RSS. Modi’s growing proximity to the RSS has also helped him win over the Sangh’s consent for leading the coalition for the polls who had instructed Rajnath Singh to promote him with or without Advani. Advani’s resignation was umbrage against the elevation of Mr. Modi and his ilk that the norms of respect, statesmanship cannot be wished away. His statement was a straight message to all the leaders of the Modi camp that BJP cannot be the party where the individual is bigger than the party. The BJP leaders are now finding it difficult to hide the shame of the whole resignation saga. A party proud of its processes of consultation and consensus finds its reputation at stake.
Given the crisis, the top BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley are tempted to think that Mr. Modi supplies the right dose of adrenalin to the young voters of the country who have been rooting for him as the man ‘who will liberate them from corruption and miseries’. The recent victory in the Gujarat by poll election where BJP won over 6 seats that were previously occupied by Congress has only strengthened the chorus for ‘NaMo for PM !’ . They however fail to consider the Godhra riots and the fact that Child nutrition and health-care in Gujarat have been much below than the national average and also the fact that Gujarat has been a rich state historically as well. Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha, Yashwant Singh who represent the older cadre of leaders who still consider Advani as their supreme leader fear that Mr. Modi might completely fragment the party in crisis instead of being a galvanic force propelling a stronger BJP into the future. Many coalition partners like the Sharad Yadav – Nitish led Janta Dal United are unhappy with the NDA after this development. They all fear that Modi is too right wing and that by going with him, they will face the ire of the minority voters in places like Bihar and Jharkhand where they exist in significant proportion. Coalitions demand consensus, adjustments, the fine art of political management and statesmanship where you need to walk on the thin rope suspended in air and have to be meticulously calculated. Mr. Modi depicts the figure of a man who many even within BJP believe has risen above his party. It remains to be seen whether BJP is able to make the maximum and field itself comfortably in what is presumably the election where people will fight against Corruption. It appears so strange that Modi was one of the main volunteers of Advani’s rath Yatra in the 90s and twenty years after that was the man who stopped his Rath in BJP … maybe that’s why Politics is deemed Ironical many a times .
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