LK Advani’s Blog

भारत की स्वतंत्रता के साथ ही पाकिस्तान का जन्म हुआ। विभाजन के अनेक त्रासद परिणाम हुए :लाखों निर्दोष पुरुष, महिलाएं और बच्चे मारे गए तथा करोड़ों बेघर हुए।

इसलिए,स्वतंत्रता प्राप्ति के बाद से ही भारत सरकार की विदेश सम्बन्धी मामलों के संचलन को परखने की महत्वपूर्ण कसौटी इसकी पाकिस्तान नीति बनी हुई है।

और वर्तमान में, नई दिल्ली की पाकिस्तान नीति वास्तव में अस्त-व्यस्त बनी हुई है।

शर्म-अल-शेख में प्रधानमंत्री की भयंकर भूल जिसमें उन्होंने भारत-पाक वार्ता को सीमापार के पाकिस्तानी आतंकवाद से अलग करने की घोषणा की थी, से शुरु होकर हाल ही में Click to Read More

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India’s independence was accompanied by the creation of Pakistan.

Partition had traumatic consequences: the killing of lakhs of innocent men, women and children, and the uprooting of crores.

Since independence, therefore, a vital touchstone for judging Government of India’s handling of external affairs has been its Pakistan Policy.

And presently, New Delhi’s Pakistan Policy is really in a shambles.

Starting with the Prime Minister’s blunder at Sharm-el-Sheikh when he announced delinking the issue of Indo-Pak dialogue from the issue of Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism, to the External Affairs Minister’s recent performance in Pakistan, never before has India’s Pakistan policy been so completely alienated from public opinion as it is today. Even within the Government, Ministers have serious reservations about the policy.

I have personally known Home Secretary G.K. Pillai as a very responsible and competent official and so when at the joint press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan’s External Affairs Minister Qureshi castigated Pillai and bracketed him with terrorist Hafeez Saeed, and I saw our foreign minister quietly swallowing the insult, I was surprised.

My surprise verily became a sense of outrage when a couple of days later, our own minister added injury to the Pakistani insult by publicly admonishing Pillai not for any fault of his but for the Click to Read More

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कुछ वर्ष पूर्व मेरे एक मित्र ने दुनिया के सर्वाधिक मुस्लिम जनसंख्या वाले देश इण्डोनेशिया से लौटने के बाद कच्छ के आदीपुर (गुजरात) में मुझे एक 20 हजार रुपया वहां की करेंसी का नोट दिखाया जिस पर भगवान गणेश मुद्रित थे। मैं आश्चर्यचकित हुआ और प्रभावित भी ।

जब पिछले महीने इण्डोनेशिया की राजधानी जकार्ता से सिंधी समुदाय के कुछ महानुभावों के समूह ने 9,10 तथा 11 जुलाई 2010 को जकार्ता में होने वाले विश्व सिंधी सम्मेलन में आने का न्यौता दिया तो मैंने इसे तुरन्त स्वीकारा । इसका कारण यह था कि मैं इस देश पर भारतीय सभ्यता और विशेष रुप से रामायण और महाभारत जैसे Click to Read More

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Some years back, a friend who had gone to Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, on his return met me at Adipur in Kutch (Gujarat) and showed me a high-denomination (20,000 rupiah) currency note of that country with Lord Ganesh imprinted on it. I was as surprised, as I was impressed.

When last month a group of eminent Sindhi gentlemen came to Delhi from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia and invited me for a World Sindhi Conference scheduled to be held at Jakarta on July 9, 10 and 11, 2010, I readily agreed. One reason was that I had never before been to that country, though I had often heard reports about the impact of Indian civilization and more particularly, the impact of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata on that country. The Ganesh inscribed currency note was only an example.

Accompanied by my wife Kamla, daughter Pratibha, my associate for decades, Deepak Chopra and his wife Veena, I left for Indonesia on July 8 and returned on July 13 with very fond memories of the trip. Indonesia comprises 13,677 islands of which over 6000 are inhabited. Of its total population of 20.28 crores, more than 88 per cent are Muslims, and 10 per cent Christians. Its 2 per cent Hindu population is concentrated mainly in the island of Bali, the famous tourist paradise.

Click to Read More

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‘प्रतिबध्द’ विशेषण सामान्यतया सकारात्मक भाव में गिना जाता है। लेकिन मुझे स्मरण आता है साठ के दशक का अंतिम और सत्तर के दशक की शुरुआत की राजनीतिक चर्चाएं जब अचानक इस विशेषण का उस अर्थ में उपयोग में लिया जाने लगा जैसा पहले कभी नहीं हुआ था।

प्रतिबध्द प्रेस, प्रतिबध्द नौकरशाही और प्रतिबध्द न्यायपालिका जैसे इन विशेषणों को सुनकर सभी लोकतंत्रप्रेमियों को चिंता होने लगती थी।

विशेषकर यह तीनों विशेषण परेशानी में डालने वाले थे। वस्तुत, ऐसा माना जाता है कि प्रतिबध्द न्यायपालिका की अवधारणा का पालन करते हुए ही 1973 में प्रधानमंत्री श्रीमती गांधी ने तीन Click to Read More

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The epithet ‘committed’ is ordinarily regarded a positive attribute. But I recall political discourse of the late sixties and the early seventies when suddenly this adjective began being used in a manner as never before.

One started hearing phrases like committed press, committed bureaucracy and committed judiciary – phrases that sounded very worrisome to all lovers of democracy.

The last of these three phrases was particularly upsetting. Indeed, it was believed that it was in pursuance of this concept of a committed judiciary, that Prime Minister Smt. Gandhi in 1973 superseded three senior judges, Justice K.S. Hegde, Justice J.M. Shelat, and Justice A.N. Grover and appointed Justice A.N. Ray, junior to all these three, as Chief Justice of India.

It was this event that brought me in close touch with Justice K.S. Hegde, and his family, a relationship that has lasted all these decades, since then. But it is only recently while looking back at the dark days of the Emergency that I discovered that this supersession of judges had a lot to do with the election petition against Mrs. Gandhi, and particularly with Justice Hegde personally.

Every one now knows that it was the Allahabad High Court verdict in that case which triggered the Emergency. Bishan Tandon’s PMO DIARY is an authentic and revealing account of all that went on in the Prime Minister’s Office in those days. The book quotes Law Minister Click to Read More

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पिछले दिनों मैं अपनी पत्नी कमला और पुत्री प्रतिभा के साथ रामेश्वरम की यात्रा पर गया. चारों धामों में से रामेश्वरम ही बचा था जहां मैं नहीं जा पाया था। दक्षिण में स्थित इस धाम की दिलचस्प यात्रा के बाद मैंने शुक्रवार का दिन आराम से टेलिविज़न पर दो बिंवलडन सेमी-फाइनल मैच देखकर बिताया।

दोनों ही मैच - टॉमस बेरडा (चेक) बनाम नॉवक डाइओकोविक (सर्ब) और राफेल नाडल (स्पेन) बनाम एण्डी मुरी (यू.के.) के बीच दिलचस्प खेल थे और अच्छे ढंग से खेले गए थे।

सबसे ज्यादा मुझे पसंद आयी स्पेनियार्ड की अपने ब्रिटिश प्रतिस्पर्धी के बारे में मैच के बाद की गई टिप्पणी। उन्होंने मुरी की Click to Read More

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After an engrossing trip down south along with Kamla, my wife and Pratibha, my daughter to visit the only one of the four Dhams which I have not visited, namely, Rameshwaram, I spent a relaxed Friday watching on television the two Wimbledon semi-finals.

Both the matches, Tomas Berdych (Czech) vs. Novak Dyokovic (Serb) and Rafael Nadal (Spain) vs. Andy Murray (U.K.), were absorbing games, and well contested.

What I particularly liked was the Spaniard’s very warm comments about his British adversary in his post-match remarks. He lauded Murray not only as a player but also as a person. The warmth was evident even when after the game was over, the two formally hugged each other over the net.

This brought to mind a remark one often hears in our country about sports and politics.

In India, it is said, in sports there is too much politics, whereas unfortunately in politics there is very little sportsmanship.

I recall the last week of the Budget Session which ended on May 7. I was in my room in Parliament House when I got a call from Sushmaji. She said to me: “Basudev Acharya and Gurudas Das Gupta, the two Lok Sabha leaders of the CPI(M) and CPI are here, and wish that you also join us for a brief discussion”.

The moment I reached Sushmaji’s office, Gurudas Das Gupta’s opening remark was: “Advaniji, today we have for the first time entered ‘forbidden territory’! I Click to Read More

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