LK Advani’s Blog

‘आऊटलुक’ (3 मई, 2010) पत्रिका के ताजा अंक में एक चौंकाने वाली रिपोर्ट प्रकाशित हुई कि कैसे भारत सरकार नवीनतम फोन टेप तकनीक का प्रयोग करते हुए प्रमुख राजनीतिक नेताओं के टेलीफोन र्वात्तालाप का रिकार्ड तैयार कर रही है। इन नेताओं में बिहार के नीतिश कुमार जैसे मुख्यमंत्रियों, शरद पवार जैसे केंद्रीय मंत्रियों, प्रकाश करात जैसे कम्युनिस्ट नेताओं और कांग्रेस पार्टी के महासचिव दिग्विजय सिंह जैसे पदाधिकारी उल्लेखनीय हैं।

इसने मुझे 25 वर्ष पूर्व हुई एक दिलचस्प मुलाकात का स्मरण करा दिया। 1985 में एक सुबह, एक अजनबी कागजों से भरा ब्रीफकेस लेकर मेरे घर आया। उसने मुझे बताया Click to Read More

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The latest issue of the Outlook (3rd May, 2010) carries a shocking report describing how the Government of India has been making use of the latest phone tapping technology to prepare records of telephonic conversations of prominent political leaders including Chief Ministers like Nitish Kumar, Union Ministers like Sharad Pawar, communist leaders like Prakash Karat, and the Congress party’s own office bearers like its General Secretary, Digvijay Singh.

This reminds me of an interesting encounter I had 25 years back. In 1985, one morning a stranger arrived at my house carrying a brief case full of papers. This brief case, he told me, contained ‘dynamite’ which could blow up this Government. He opened his brief case and out poured some 200 sheets of closely typed records of telephonic conversations of many VIPS.

I scanned these papers. I did not find them as ‘explosive’ as that gentleman seemed to presume. Some of those papers were telephonic conversations which I had had with Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. What surprised me even more was that those transcripts included tape-recorded conversations not only of opposition leaders but also of eminent journalists and some extremely distinguished VVIPs like Gyani Zail Singh.

June 25th, 1985 happened to be the 10th Anniversary of the Emergency. Addressing a press conference on that day Shri Vajpayee not only recalled other excesses of the Click to Read More

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पिछले दिनों हरिद्वार और ऋषिकेश की यात्रा में एक व्यक्ति ने मुझे सर्वाधिक प्रभावित किया और वह थे पूजनीय दलाई लामा।

यह दलाई लामा से मेरी पहली मुलाकात नहीं थी। पहले भी अनेक बार हमारा मिलना हुआ है। जबसे उन्हें अपने हजारों अनुयायियों के साथ तिब्बत छोड़ने को बाध्य होना पड़ा और उन्होंने भारत को अपने देश के रूप में अपनाया तब से अनेक कार्यक्रमों में हम दोनों मिले हैं। हम दोनों के बीच सदैव स्नेह और परस्पर आदरभाव के तार जुड़े रहे हैं।

लेकिन कुंभ में दो दिनों तक उनके साथ जो निकटता हुई उससे मेरे मन में उनके प्रति सम्मान और बढ़ा है। उनकी विनम्रता, उनकी श्रेष्ठता, उनकी Click to Read More

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During my last visit to Haridwar and Rishkesh one person who left a deep impact on me was His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

This was not the first time that I had met the Dalai Lama. I have interacted with him many times earlier. Ever since he, along with thousands of his Tibetan countrymen, have been forced to flee Tibet and adopt India as their own country there have been many functions where we have been together. Between us there has always been bonds of affection and mutual esteem.

But the closer interaction with him that I had with him in the two days at the Kumbh enhanced my respect for him manifold. His humility, his nobility, his positivity – all are very transparent traits. At the function where the Encyclopedia of Hinduism was being released, we were on the dais together where suddenly there was a stir among the huge crowd of a kind that suggested that some celebrity had newly arrived.

And as the new arrival, Swami Ramdev ji, appeared on the podium, he was lustily cheered by the audience. Swami Chidanandji of Parmarth Niketan and the person who had initiated this stupendous task of having such an Encyclopedia prepared accosted Ramdevji and made him sit beside the Dalai Lama. And I was amazed to see the Dalai Lama first greet him as one does normally but without much ado, actually pull his beard quite vigorously.

Swami Ramdevji laughed out aloud and said to me: Click to Read More

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राजधानी नई दिल्ली से एक नया साप्ताहिक शुरू हुआ है। इसके सम्पादक एम.जे. अकबर और चेयरमैन राम जेठमलानी हैं। साप्ताहिक का नाम है ‘द संडे गार्जियन’ (The Sunday Guardian).

इस पत्रिका के पिछले संस्करण (4 अप्रैल, 2010) में जेठमलानी का एक दिलचस्प लेख प्रकाशित हुआ है। लेख का शीर्षक उकसाने वाला लगता है: ”हिन्दुत्व भाजपा की सम्पत्ति नहीं है” (Hindutva is not property of BJP)। मेरी पार्टी के कुछ सहयोगी इस पर आपत्ति करते हुए मान सकते हैं कि यह आलोचनात्मक है। जबकि ऐसा नहीं है, यह प्रशंसात्मक है।

वस्तुत: इसमें जोर दिया गया है कि भारतीय सेकुलरिज्म की जड़ें हिन्दुत्व में हैं। जेठमलानी ने सर्वोच्च न्यायालय Click to Read More

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A new weekly has been launched in the capital. The Editor is M. J. Akbar; the Chairman is Ram Jethmalani; the name of the paper is The Sunday Guardian.

The last issue of this journal (April 4, 2010) carries an interesting article by Jethmalani. The title of this article sounds provocative : “Hindutva is not property of BJP”. Some of my party colleagues may take umbrage, and presume the article is critical. It is not. It is complimentary.

Indeed, the stress is on Indian Secularism having its roots in Hindutva. Jethmalani had very ably argued Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi’s case in the Supreme Court, and secured Justice Verma’s landmark judgement on Hindutva in which the Court declared : “Hindutva is a way of life or state of mind and cannot be understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism”. In his article the learned lawyer observes: “It is a pity that the BJP has not been able to explain to people that Hindutva and Indian secularism are practically synonyms.”

***

In the late eighties while I was president of BJP, I recall a phone call from a Canadian Television Team which had come to New Delhi. I was told that this TV Team was producing a television serial titled “The Rise and Fall of Democracies around the Globe”.

The TV anchor who spoke to me said: “We are greatly impressed by the manner in which India has sustained democracy for four decades, and the Click to Read More

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आज भारतीय जनता पार्टी का स्थापना दिवस है। आज पार्टी पूरे 30 वर्ष की हो गई।

सन् 1980 में 6 अप्रैल को जब श्री वाजपेयी ने पार्टी की स्थापना की तो वह ‘ईस्टर संडे’ था। दो दिन पूर्व ‘गुड फ्रायडे’ मनाया गया था। 4 अप्रैल को जनता पार्टी ने एक प्रस्ताव पारित कर उन सभी को निष्कासित करने का निर्णय लिया था जो राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ से जुड़े हुए थे। इसका आशय था कि जनता पार्टी की सदस्यता राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ की सदस्यता के साथ नहीं चल पाएगी। इसे ‘दोहरी सदस्यता’ कहा गया। व्यवहारिक रूप से इसका अर्थ था पार्टी से जनसंघ के उन सभी सदस्यों का निष्कासन, जो कांग्रेस (ओ), समाजवादी Click to Read More

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Today is BJP’s sthapana divas (Foundation Day). The party is exactly thirty years old today.

In 1980, when the party was launched by Shri Vajpayee, April 6 was Easter Sunday. Two days earlier was Good Friday. It was on April 4 that the Janata Party had passed its resolution expelling from its fold all those who were associated with the RSS. It was contended that membership of the Janata Party could not co-exist with membership of the RSS. This was ‘dual membership’. In practical terms, this meant expelling all Jana Sangh members from the party which had been formed out of the fusion of Congress (O), Samajwadi Party, Lok Dal and Jana Sangh.

This year Easter Sunday fell on April 4. I happened to be at the Kumbh in Haridwar on the day, as also on the preceding day. On both days April 3 and 4, Swami Chidanandaji, revered head of the Paramarth Niketan had organized excellent functions to add two such dimensions to this year’s Kumbh as would make the 2010 Kumbh unique and unforgettable.

On April 3, an 11-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism, produced by the India Heritage Research Foundation and published by Rupa and Co. was released by the Dalai Lama in Haridwar.

And on April 4, on the banks of the Ganga in Rishkesh, thousands of sadhus, sants, scholars, leaders led by Shri Dalai Lama along with their followers pledged to make the Ganga pollution free.

At the Haridwar conclave where the Encyclopedia of Click to Read More

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