LK Advani’s Blog

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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Hearty kudos to R.K. Mehra, his son Kapish Mehra and Rupa Publications for having published their 11-volume set of Encyclopedia of Hinduism, which Indrajit Hazra, the reviewer of these volumes has described in the Hindustan Times as “a startlingly good treasure trunk for any one interested in the history of ideas to dip into.”

Hazra quotes R.K. Mehra telling him that he considers the Encyclopedia to be “the most important publication of his career.”  The H.T. has displayed the review prominently under the bold heading: “Hinduism is an Intellectual System, not a Religion”.

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Two days back the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh released a commemorative postage stamp in honour of Puran Chandra Gupta, founder of Dainik Jagaran, a leading Hindi daily of the country. The occasion: January 2, 2012 was the late journalist’s birth centenary.

Asserting that freedom of the press was a must for the growth of Indian democracy, the P.M. asked media organizations to devise a mechanism to promote objectivity and curb sensationalism. “In my opinion”, Dr. Manmohan Singh said, “there is a general consensus in our country that no outside control should be imposed on the media”

The Prime Minister also launched on the occasion a biography of Puran Chandra Click to Read More

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It was in the last quarter of 2011 that I undertook my Jan Chetna Yatra. I discontinued for a while, therefore, blogging. In this first quarter of the year 2012, I am resuming my blogs. It would be in place to recall that my shifting from Rajasthan, where I spent my first post-partition decade, to Delhi took place after the Second General Election of 1957.

It was in this election that Shri Vajpayee had been first elected to the Lok Sabha.

Party General Secretary and our chief Party ideologue, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya wanted me to set up the party’s parliamentary office and assist the small group of MPs the party had.  Since then I have been closely associated with the party’s Click to Read More

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At the valedictory session of the BJP National Executive in New Delhi last weekend, I referred to the Prime Minister’s comment about the opposition becoming impatient to see the UPA Government’s ouster in order to have an early poll. I said that in the country today, not only in the media, but also among the people, opinion is unanimous that the UPA. Government is in an unenviable mess. This fact is also widely recognised that the mess is of the Congress’s own making. I described the UPA Government as being ‘in a suicidal mode.’

I can never forget the six-seven months period just before the formation of the BJP in April, 1980.  Before that we were part of the Janata Party. At that time I had said publicly about my own party that we are in a suicidal mood.

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In August 2005, the Rashtrapati set up the second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Shri Veerappa Moily “to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system.”

The Fourth Report of the Commission is titled “Ethics in Governance”. The Preface of this report carries this quotation of Mahatma Gandhi at the top:

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

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This week’s papers have been full of reports about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi picked up from the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

The 94-page CRS report titled India: Domestic Issues, Strategic Dynamics, and U.S. Relations has observed, “Perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and impressive development is found in Gujarat, where controversial Chief Minister Narendra Modi has streamlined economic processes, removing red tape and curtailing corruption in ways that have made the state a key driver of national economic growth”.

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Swami Chidananda Saraswati of Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, is one of those spiritual leaders whom I hold in high esteem. His ashram on the banks of the Ganga is truly a haven of peace, tranquility and divinity. I have gone there with my family several times. The evening Ganga Aarti on the ghat, when Swamiji chants mantras and sings bhajans along with children from his gurukul, has always been an ennobling experience for me. It has also has become a major attraction for pilgrims coming to Hardwar and Rishikesh.

I am always amazed by the passion and perseverance with which Swamiji pursues new ideas that can be useful in addressing entrenched problems facing India. Yesterday, when he visited our home, he explained to me his two newest and inter-related initiatives: Mission Solar to make India, ‘Solar India’; and Mission Ganga to restore the Holy Ganga to its pristine purity. Click to Read More

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Last week Kolkatta observed the 110^th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji.

Addressing a packed auditorium of invitees to the Kolkatta University Institute, General S.K. Sinha, former Governor, Jammu and Kashmir State, recalled how shortly after independence India had to confront a very difficult situation in the State. In October 1947, Pakistan organized a clandestine invasion of the State by a force composed of Pathan tribesmen, ex-servicemen and soldiers ‘on leave’.

This precipitated the First Indo-Pak war after the two Click to Read More

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In the annals of the Indian Parliament, no Bill has had a more chequered history than the Lokpal Bill.

The term Lokpal is the Indian version of Ombudsman, which is a Swedish term meaning “the grievance man.” Ombudsman is thus an official appointed to investigate complaints against the administration.

In 1966 the then Rastrapati Dr. Radhakrishnan set up the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Morarji Bhai Desai it was this A.R.C. that recommended enacting a law for the establishment of a Lokpal.

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