LK Advani’s Blog

A recent addition to my personal library is a glossy, picture book titled – “100 CITIES OF THE WORLD : A journey through the most fascinating cities around the globe.”

As I glanced through the Contents listing the hundred, Continent-wise, I was struck by the fact that India’s capital, Delhi, was not included in this list. The two Indian cities mentioned in the Asian tally of twenty two were Kolkata and Mumbai.

For Indian readers, a more interesting addition to my library this week is a thought Click to Read More

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The most shocking news of this week has been the front page story carried by New Delhi’s Indian Express last Wednesday (April 4). This news story had a 6-column banner headline: THE JANUARY NIGHT RAISINA HILL WAS SPOOKED. The sub-heading reads: Two Army Units moved towards Delhi without notifying Government.

If one reads the April 4 report thoroughly, and the several follow-up stories published on April 5, one would have to concede that the reports are extremely alarming and, as BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad has commented, reveal “Government-Army ties at an all time low”. The Indian Express story this week does highlight how deep is the trust deficit pervading the Click to Read More

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Kudos for Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner, for scrapping this year’s Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand State.

This is the first time in the history of Indian elections in any state that the polling to the Rajya Sabha in that state has been halted midway by the Election Commission itself, even before the votes have been fully counted.

The inputs that made the Commission take this decision were as follows :

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Way back in 1930 Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the cover of American news magazine TIME dated March 31^st. The caption read: ‘Saint Gandhi.’

In 1947, the year which saw the Britishers quit India and the country suffer the traumatic events that accompanied partition, the January 27 issue of the same magazine bore on its cover a picture of Sardar Patel with the caption ‘India’s Vallabhabhai Patel.’

This year, this U.S. periodical reputed to be the world’s largest circulated news weekly carried on the cover of its issue dated March 26- Gujarat’s Narendra Bhai Modi. The caption given to the cover is: Modi Means Business.

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It was in 1970 that I was elected to Parliament for the first time. I have been in Parliament since then except for 2 years (1996-98). I did not contest the 1996 elections because of my declaration that until the false hawala allegation against me is struck down by an appropriate court of law, I will not go back to Parliament. 

In 1970, as an M.P., I was allotted a flat in Pandara Park. I lived in that flat until in 2002 when as Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister I was persuaded by my security staff to shift to 30, Prithviraj Road where I have been living for 10 years now.

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Not many persons I know have their Birth Anniversary on February 29, a date that comes only once in four years. But one prominent person I have known who belongs to this category is Shri Morarji Bhai Desai, former Prime Minister of India. This year, 2012, is a Leap Year. Morarji Bhai’s great grandson, Madhukeshwar Desai invited me for a function at Valsad, about one hundred kms. from Surat. It is here that Morarji Bhai’s ancestral home still stands, and where his family had some other properties also, which have been donated to social organizations.

India became independent in August, 1947. On the midnight of August 14/15, Pandit Nehru was sworn in as Prime Minister. The country suffered a military humiliation at China’s hands in 1962.  Pandit Nehru could not bear the shock of China’s betrayal, and passed away in 1964. 

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In the unenviable record of the UPA Government, more and more events are taking place which are totally unprecedented in these 65 years of independence. It started with the series of stinking scams and the consequential back-breaking inflation for the aam admi, issues that have dominated several parliament sessions in recent years.

Never in any earlier central regime were cabinet ministers first removed from Government on charges of corruption, and later, after being indicted by courts, actually incarcerated   in the Tihar Jail, Delhi.

In my last blog which had highlighted how the U.P. elections were being shamelessly communalised by the Congress Party, I had listed three Click to Read More

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In the history of Indian elections, three events have occurred last week which are totally without precedent.

Firstly, the Election Commission, following a complaint made to it on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has publicly censured the Union Minister of Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid, for violating the Model Code of Conduct.

Secondly, the Law Minister has reacted defiantly to the Election Commission’s order.  The Commission has noted:

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In their coverage of news, most dailies with multiple editions are becoming regional newspapers. The Hindu of Chennai is one paper about which my impression is that important developments in any region of the country are seldom missed.  Its coverage is thus truly nation-wide.

I remember when before independence, I first saw this paper, it seemed to me a unique daily, whose page- one carried no news, only advertisements.  Banner headlines used to be taboo even on inside pages.

A colleague Click to Read More

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Last week I was in Chennai along with Narendra Modi to participate in Tamil magazine Tughlak’s anniversary function. And what a function it was! Few other journals can draw such large crowds. If Tughlak is a household name in Chennai, Cho Ramaswami also is a name well known and well respected among intellectuals all over the country.

In Cho, we find perfect harmony between Tamil pride and unflinching Indian nationalism. 

Tughlak was launched more than four decades back on Pongal Day. So this year’s 14^th January was Tughlak’s 42^nd Click to Read More

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