ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Advani goes in for a moderate look

George Iype in New Delhi

As Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee steps into a politically uncertain New Year, a quiet transformation seems to be taking place in Lal Kishenchand Advani, the second most powerful man in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government: the home minister is becoming less of a hawk and more of a moderate.

Many in the BJP and the Sangh Parivar admit that the compulsions of coalition politics in the past nine months have considerably changed the home minister, once a hardline Hindutva advocate. He is now perceived to be as accommodative and liberal as Vajpayee.

Which naturally leads to the question: why is Advani, who loved to cast himself in the role of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the iron man of India, now attempting to package himself as a moderate? Why is he diluting his assiduously built hard-liner mien for a Vajpayee-esque softie image?

When he took charge as home minister in April, political observers predicted that it would be Advani who would take the crucial Cabinet decisions and who would promote the Sangh Parivar's worldview of post-Independence history through a BJP government at the Centre.

True to style, the home minister then began with a punch, particularly on Kashmir, advocating "hot pursuit policy" in the troubled Indian border state.

"Advani wanted to cultivate the image of Sardar Patel as home minister," says one of his supporters. Thus, often he went public, stating that the course of Indian history would have taken a different route, if Patel had become prime minister instead of Jawaharlal Nehru.

In the altered political context of 1998, his supporters felt Advani's strategy lay in his own ambition: that the course of Indian politics and history could still take a vastly different turn, if he becomes prime minister.

The home minister's efforts to cast himself in the role of Patel also had to be viewed in a historical context. As BJP's tallest leader then, Advani began his controversial rath yatra from the Somnath temple which was reclaimed as a Hindu shrine by Sardar Patel after he took over as independent India's first home minister.

Privately, Nehru and Patel differed on many issues, but did not display any hostility in public. Many felt the subtle political message Advani wanted others to understand was similar: that he is Patel and Vajpayee is Nehru.

In June and July, unsubstantiated stories about the "deep differences" between Vajpayee and Advani began to trickle down. Reports said it was Advani who was calling the shots in the government and that though Advani was home minister he acted like the deputy prime minister.

Both Vajpayee and Advani vehemently denied it and the prime minister even went to the extent of stating that he consults his home minister on every important decision of the government.

Advani himself stated that the BJP sought votes in the name of Vajpayee and it was he who proposed Vajpayee for prime ministership. He also ridiculed reports of a rift between him and Vajpayee, terming them as a vicious rumour floated by the political opponents of the BJP.

Insiders in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh who tried unsuccessfully to remote-control the Vajpayee coalition government then stated that if left to the Sangh Parivar leadership, Advani would be the obvious choice as country's prime minister.

"Vajpayee was selected as prime minister because of his larger acceptability in a coalition government. We always felt that Advani should be the prime minister the day the BJP is able to rule the country alone," says an RSS leader.

But the RSS leader says, "Lately we feel Advani has changed, changed a lot."

Many in the RSS and the BJP feel that personally Advani has transformed in the past nine months, and that his thrust on Hindutva and Swadeshi ideologies, which the Sangh Parivar wanted a BJP government to pursue, has drifted dramatically.

Sample some of the home minister's statements in the past two months:

**Advani favoured the Pakistani cricket team's tour to India while Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray vociferously opposed it.

** He opposed the mandatory singing of Vande Mataram in the schools of Uttar Pradesh. He even termed the Saraswati Vandana controversy as "needless."

**He has been tough on the Shiv Sena-sponsored attacks on cinema halls screening Deepa Mehta's controversial film Fire.

**When activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal nearly precipitated a crisis over the Sufi shrine in Chikmagalur in Karnataka last month, Advani said: "Nothing should be done to disturb the secular character of this religious shrine which is part of our rich secular heritage."

**When the debate between the BJP's Swadeshi lobby and the Vajpayee government hotted up over the opening up of the insurance sector to foreign participation, Advani kept quiet. The RSS leadership was aghast that Advani did not utter a word while Human Resources Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi opposed the Insurance Regulatory Bill in the Cabinet meeting.

**Advani also kept mum when BJP president Kushabhau Thakre nearly disowned the Vajpayee government's insurance policy.

**"We cannot rule if the minorities are insecure," Advani told Parliament last week. Advani now keeps meeting delegations from Christian and Muslim communities, assuring them of the BJP government's protection and security.

Last week, the new-look Advani forced Bal Thackeray to wonder out loud that he did not know which Advani was speaking out these days.

But Advani's supporters in the BJP insist that their leader has not changed. "The imperatives of coalition politics have taught him a few lessons. Therefore, he is now mastering the authority to control multi-party, multi-ideology cabinets," says a BJP leader close to Advani.

"Advani is a strategist with a vision. Therefore, there is nothing surprising if others feel that he is not as outspoken on issues that concern the party as he used to be before," he added.

He pointed out that the first lesson Advani learnt in the coalition experiment was during the fiasco over President K R Narayanan returning the Cabinet's recommendation to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Bihar in September. The decision to propose President's rule in Bihar was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Advani when Vajpayee was away on a foreign tour.

It is also said that often, some allies of the BJP chose to stay away from Cabinet meetings whenever Advani chaired them. "By not attending these Cabinet meetings, the regional allies perhaps sent a message to Advani -- that he is not as acceptable to them as Vajpayee is," says a member of Parliament from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

According to him, the prime minister has not entrusted Advani even once with the task of pacifying the coalition's dissident allies like the AIADMK, the Akali Dal and the Trinamul Congress. "Many allies of the BJP might not like to deal with Advani because they see him as a hard-liner in the BJP," the AIADMK leader said.

He believes that this may be one reason why Advani has decided to change. "If any BJP leader has ambitions to become prime minister, then it is better to be like Vajpayee rather than continue like Advani," he feels.

According to a BJP functionary, though it is true that Advani hard-sold the Hindutva agenda for many years now, "India is in for coalitions at the Centre". "Advani knows that his Hindutva image cannot make him India's prime minister," he said.

While many believe Advani's attempts to recast himself might help him become acceptable among Muslims and liberal Hindus, how the Sangh Parivar leadership would treat the "new-look Advani" is what many BJP leaders and political observers are looking forward to.

Tell us what you think of this report