Shams Ahsan

The year was 1990. The month, September. And the place Somnath in Gujarat. The Hindu-chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) hardline leader L. K. Advani had embarked on a cross-country journey on a minibus converted into a chariot to build a case for a temple in place of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The "rath yatra" (chariot journey) whipped up an precedented frenzy among hardline Hindus and polarized India to such an extent that the historic Babri mosque was razed to the ground by a group of Hindu zealots which resulted in one of the worst riots in the country claiming some 3,000 lives.



Advani was a shining star in the BJP. He had overshadowed the moderate stalwarts of the party like Atal Behari Vajpayee. The strong support for Advani's brand of hardline politics persuaded his party to allow him to lead the election campaign in 1991 on the issue of what it termed the Ram Janmabhoomi (the birthplace of Rama).



Those were the tumultuous years. Reflecting on the rath yatra, Advani in his autobiography "My Country My Life" calls it "an exhilarating period in my political life."



Today, 23 years after the rath yatra, the BJP is again providing the country with a sense of déjà vu. The appointment of Narendra Modi, called the "Nero of Gujarat" for his role in riots against Muslims, as the chairman of BJP's election campaign committee follows the same trajectory as that of Advani in 1989-90. Modi's popularity graph matches that of Advani's during the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign period. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP's ideological fountainhead, has placed its bets on Modi as it did on Advani in the 1990s. Today, Advani appears to be a moderate when compared with Modi, as Vajpayee was when compared to Advani.



Advani's firebrand politics helped the BJP increase its seats in parliament from 85 in 1989 to 120 in 1991, while Modi's incendiary politics has helped the party win three consecutive elections in his home state of Gujarat.  In 2007, then BJP president Rajnath Singh when announcing Advani as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections, said: "After Atal (Vajpayee) there is only Advani. Advani is the natural choice. It is he who should be PM." Today it was again Rajnath Singh in his second term as BJP president who announced Modi as the most eligible leader to lead the party in the elections.



The BJP is once again preparing to tread the path it took in the 90s under the political ideology of Advani. The difference today is that it has a new face in Modi, and the shade of saffron has become a tad darker. The party has turned to a newer and bolder chapter in its ambitious quest for power.



As I write this, a sulking Advani has resigned from top party positions throwing the BJP into total disarray. It is difficult to predict the direction of this fast-changing political scenario at this point of time: Whether BJP's allies will remain loyal to the party, whether senior BJP leaders will openly come out in support of Advani or whether they too will desert him as a pariah, whether Advani's grievances will be heard and accepted or whether Modi will have the last laugh. Only time will tell. 



Whatever the outcome, it is certainly the political demise of Advani. And in his political demise is a lesson for today's rising sun, Narendra Modi. When the sun starts to set, the shadow grows longer than the body. The sun has set on Advani's political life despite the fact that there are no twilight years in politics, or at least in Indian politics. There is no retirement age for leaders. They are pushed over the cliff of ignominy by their own proteges and by their own supporters. 



Today it is Advani; tomorrow it will be Modi. And tomorrow will not be long in coming.



— The writer can be contacted at [email protected]