LK Advani’s Blog

Barack Obama was elected President of United States in November 2008. The Presidential Elections in the USA take place every four years. The next election is thus due in November 2012. The law lays down even the exact date of polls, when it says that the election shall be held “on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November”. With this phraseology of the law, the earliest possible date is November 2, and the latest November 8.

In November 2012, the first Monday falls on the 5th. So the election date in USA shall be November 6, 2012.

Can anything be said in the same way about the British elections? Ordinarily, No ! But if the new coalition that has just assumed office has its way, YES ! The next General Election in UK will take place on May 7, 2015. The new Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has already made this declaration.

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Some months back, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had hosted a luncheon in honour of the Japanese Prime Minister. I remember that on the sidelines, I had an informal chat that day with Dr. Manmohan Singh and Shri Pranab Mukherjee. I found both of them receptive to a proposal I have been advocating for quite some time: fixed term legislatures and simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. The upshot would be: no uncertainty about the date of the five-yearly Lok Sabha and Click to Read More

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For me and my daughter Pratibha, last week will remain absolutely unforgettable. On two consecutive days we visited two hallowed sites that we had been longing to see for quite some time.

The first was Gangotri, the origin of the holy Ganga. The Gangotri glacier starts from Gomukh, 19 kms. uphill from Gangotri. When at Gangotri , we stepped into the Ganga close to the site where a yagna was being performed and for which I had been invited to offer the poornahuti we naturally found the glacier water ice-cold.

A Ghat at Gangotri

The second was Kedarnath, one of the country’s twelve Jyotirlings. The foremost among these Dwadash Jyotirlings is Somnath, in Gujarat. In the political transformation of India’s single dominant party polity into a bipolar polity the BJP’s Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra has had a significant role.

The State of Uttarakhand is littered with pilgrim spots. No wonder it is popularly known as Devabhoomi. Gangotri and Kedarnath are reckoned as two of the four Dhams in the state Click to Read More

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In my blog dated 3rd May, I had written about the Swarna Jayanti Samaroh of Gujarat. In this I had pointed out how Narendra Bhai Modi had proved a unique Chief Minister who had converted a prashasanik programme into a People’s Programme and made every citizen feel a proud participant in the sankalp to make Gujarat a model state in every sense of the word.

Generally speaking, by now, people have widely come to acknowledge that in terms of honest governance and development of Gujarat, Narendra Bhai’s achievements are beyond dispute. What is often questioned is how harmonious are inter-communal relations in the state, and specifically speaking, how happy and contented the Muslims are in the State.

In 2006 Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh appointed a high power committee headed by Justice Shri Rajinder Sachar to make a detailed study of the economic, social and educational conditions of Muslims in the country.

The Sachar Committee after completing the task assigned to it, submitted a detailed Report of over 400 pages. Given below are some very pertinent facts based on the statistics provided by the Sachar Report which look into various parameters like education, employment and income of the Muslim population living in rural and urban areas of the country through elaborate tables. Here Click to Read More

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A fortnight back the Outlook of New Delhi carried a startling story of how a Union Minister, a Chief Minister, a Congress General Secretary and the principal leader of the CPI(M) had been subjected to phone-tapping and how their conversations had been tape-recorded.

The report caused an uproar in the Parliament. Government did not deny the story. All that it said was: the surveillance was “not authorized.” Government did not even say that they would find out who had undertaken this exercise without authority, and haul up the ‘culprits’. Obviously, no one other than Government itself had done it !

It is significant that Government did not deny the Outlook story relating to Union Minister Sharad Pawar, in which it was said that Pawar’s conversation with Lalit Modi was used to pressurise Pawar to call for Modi’s resignation !

My blog on the Outlook story bore the caption “Is the Emergency back?” Some friends felt that mine was an exaggerated reaction. I am convinced that the real test of a ruling party’s commitment to democracy comes only when adherence to democratic norms poses a danger to its continuance in office.

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In his excellent book on the Watergate episode, The Fall of Richard Nixon, Theodore H. White has made this very perceptive observation :

“The true crime of Richard Nixon was that he broke the Click to Read More

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The Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad is a huge stadium. In fact, with a capacity of 54000 seats, it is the largest stadium in Gujarat. I had last visited this place for the oath taking ceremony of Shri Narendra Modi and his Cabinet in December 2007 after the BJP’s spectacular victory in the State Assembly elections.

So, on May 1 this year, the Golden Jubilee anniversary of the formation of Gujarat in 1960, I was astounded to hear when I reached this stadium, the venue fixed for Swarnim Gujarat Celebrations, that the stadium was not only jam packed but that there were as many people outside the gates wanting entry as there were inside.

The Times of India, Ahmedabad, in its main story on page one reported:

“For a generation that has grown up knowing their home-state of Gujarat only as a business-driven dry state on the west coast of the country, Saturday’s Swarnim show was an eye-opener. In brilliantly synchronized multimedia show that began with fireworks, the story of Gujarat from pre-historic era, through the era of Siddhraj Jaisingh, Sultan Ahmed Shah, the landing of Parsis at Sanjan and the separation of Bombay state to become a separate entity in 1960, was narrated before a jam- packed crowd at Sardar Patel stadium here.

Outside a huge crowd, including bureaucrats, politicians and other VVIPs, struggled to be part of the celebration and got 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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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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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.”

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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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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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Last week a special preview of 11-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism being published by Rupa & Co. in association with the India Heritage Research Foundation, was held in Delhi. Three volumes of the set were put up on display at the Vivekananda Foundation Auditorium at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The Programme was a panel discussion on “Hinduism in the Contemporary World’’.

I was one among the 400 strong audience who listened with rapt attention to the enlightening and elevating discussion that lasted for over two hours. The distinguished panelists included Swami Atma Priyananda, Vice-chancellor Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Vishwavidyalaya, Dr. Kapil Kapoor, Editor in Chief, Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Dr. Kavita Sharma, Director, India International Centre, Dr. Lokesh Chandra, renowned scholar and author, and Sadhvi Bhagwati, Secretary India Heritage Research Foundation.

In a way, the tenor and content of that evening’s discussion reminded me of several such debates I had heard as a boy in my teens, still a student in Karachi.

Born in 1927, I spent the first twenty years of my life under British rule. My fondness for books started even while I was in school. A book much talked about those days was Mother India by Katherine Mayo. If an Indian read the book, he would either start feeling ashamed of his own country, culture and religion, or he would start hating the British colonialists who had created a climate in the country Click to Read More

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