After a lot of speculations Lal Krishna Advani, a founder member of the far right wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and patriarch had eventually resigned from all the main posts in the party owing to the elevation of his one-time protégé, Narendra Modi as election campaign committee chief. He later took back his resignation.
It is not important whether L.K. Advani resigns or remains in the BJP as it is the party’s internal matter but his letter addressed to the party president, Rajnath Singh is of interest because in it Advani accedes, “most of our leaders are now concerned only with their personal agendas.”
Indeed, this fight is not for justice or the people’s welfare or even for the country’s development but one of ego and power struggle. In fact it is the case of the pot calling the kettle black regardless of whether it is Advani, Modi or Rajnath Singh who are essentially communal and corrupt sharing the same fundamentalist agenda which has drastically changed the secular and democratic fiber of the country. They have been booked for a number of cases over the years and the judicial verdicts have proven that they are not men of integrity.
If Modi is made the chief election campaigner, I don’t think there will be much change in the country’s political scenario. He did very poorly in the recent Karnataka assembly elections leaving the BJP very humiliated. Modi enjoys the most support in Gujarat, where he is considered a local and a national leader (despite his terrible legacy of the 2002 Godhra riots, for which he has actively denied responsibility) by those who do not care for Advani and other party stalwarts.
It is also worth mentioning here that this is the same Advani who was projected as a hero at the time of the Babri Masjid demolition, and now he is completely ignored by both the public and extremist BJP leaders. —
Zakaria Sultan, Riyadh
Rift in the BJP
