LK Advani’s Blog

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

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

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Madhopur is a small town some 12 kilometres away from the army cantonment of Pathankot. Last week, this town witnessed history being made.

A one-lakh strong gathering of people drawn from Punjab, Jammu- Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh congregated here to pay homage to the memory of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji whose magnificent statue was installed here to commemorate his launching of a campaign way back in 1953 for the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir state with India.

The place where the Memorial stands has been named Ekta Sthal. The larger than life-size statue has been carved by famous sculptor Ram Sutar. The decision to construct the Memorial was taken by Sardar Prakash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab. The unveiling of the statue was done by Shri Mohan Rao Bhagwat, R.S.S. Chief. As Shri Badal himself was unwell, Deputy C.M. Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal presided over the grand function, which was attended by BJP President, Shri Nitin Gadkari and many other leaders of our party.

Dr. S.P. Mookerji was a life-long critic of the Congress Party. But, like Dr. Ambedkar, who too was a strong Congress critic, he had been inducted into the first Union Cabinet by Pandit Nehru, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi. After the adoption of the Indian Constitution Click to Read More

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

When in the year 2008, the BJP first raised the issue of Indian money stashed abroad in Swiss Banks, or other tax havens, we were ridiculed by Congress Party spokesmen. Why did you not pursue the matter when NDA was in office for six years, they asked. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh himself described it as an election stunt.

I feel happy therefore that for the first time in the history of the Indian Parliament the President’s Address itself has referred to this matter and told the joint session: “India is an active part of the global efforts to facilitate exchange of tax information and take action against tax evaders.”

In Parliament, both the Prime Minister and Finance Minister have not only conceded the significance of the issue but affirmed that Government is proactively pursuing the issue, and negotiating with twenty countries for exchange of information about Indian nationals who have hoarded their tax- evaded, or ill-earned wealth abroad.

The country, however, will not remain satisfied with just affirmations and announcements. Ever since the BJP has raised this matter two years back, Congress leaders have been pooh-poohing the estimates of Indian wealth abroad made by the BJP Task Force which studied the matter. A senior Congress Minister said these estimates were based on obscure sources on the internet.

The Task Force set up by the BJP comprised Shri S. Gurumurthy (Chartered Accountant and investigative writer, Chennai); Click to Read More

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The first non Congress Government formed in New Delhi was the result of people’s anger against the 1975 emergency. In this government, headed by Shri Morarji Desai, I had my first experience of Government.The Prime Minister asked me whether I had any personal preference in the matter of portfolio. My response was unhesitating : Information and Broadcasting.

Three factors prompted me to make this choice. As a journalist I was familiar with the media. My opinion was that the maximum damage caused to democracy during the emergency was because of curbs imposed on the media and on media men. Thirdly, for long, I had been pleading that the Government stranglehold on Akashwani must be smashed, and autonomy be conferred on it.

As I and B Minister I came across the script of a feature broadcast by the BBC which I found of great interest in the course of my campaigning for electoral reforms. The programme was a serial on the functioning of British Parliament over the centuries. In these papers, I read about a remarkable incident that occurred in eighteenth century Britain.

A member of the House of Commons received a letter from his constituents in which he was asked to vote against certain excise proposals in the Budget. According to the BBC feature, the M.P. sent a stinging reply to his voters as follows :

“Gentlemen, I have received your letter about the excise, and I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all.

“You know, and I Click to Read More

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

When in July 2001, General Musharraf returned from the Agra summit he was very angry with the Indian Government for having invited him and sent him back empty-handed, without even a joint statement containing some goody goody observations about Indo-Pak amity.

In his initial reaction all his vitriol seemed concentrated on me. Later, however, in his memoir, In The Line of Fire, he did not spare even Shri Vajpayee. His acerbic comment was:

“There is the man and there is the moment. When man and moment meet, history is made. Vajpayee failed to grasp the moment, and lost his moment in history”

Taking due note of his remarks, Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee reacted, and put the record straight thus:

“General Musharraf’s reported comment on the failure of our talks at Agra have surprised me. Every one in our government was acutely alive to the fact that there could be no normalcy in Indo-Pak relations until cross border terrorism, which had cost thousands of innocent lives, ended. But during our talks General Musharraf took a stand that the violence that was taking place in Jammu and Kashmir could not be described as ‘terrorism’. He continued to claim that the bloodshed in the state was nothing but the people’s battle for freedom. It was this stand of General Musharraf that India just could not accept. And this was responsible for the failure of the Agra Summit.”

Indeed, my own opinion is that it was Shri Vajpayee’s Click to Read More

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!