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The Rediff Profile/ L K Advani

The Pivot within the Sangh Parivar

Advani, in fact, is today playing the role of the pivot within the Sangh Parivar. His role is described by party veterans as a "conduit between the cadre and the government who has the special ability to carry different sections with him". But, continuing with his present strategy will see a more deft Advani at work as he will have found the right balance between pro-liberalisationwallahs like Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan on the one hand and hardliners like S Gurumurthy and the RSS leadership on the other.

In this government, the spotlight is clearly on Advani. After having guided the BJP from its miserly share of two Lok Sabha seats in 1986 when he assumed charge as party president, he today is considered to be the real power in Delhi. "Performance could be the best insulator," for the government, says a BJP source and that obviously would be upper-most on Advani's mind. If the government fails on that count, it could only slip and thereby give its detractors another chance at governance.

But if the government can log some points on the performance scale and simultaneously manage to keep its coalition together it is sure to gain further. Having entrusted the party to trusted aides, Advani is now focused on first learning governance -- by being a keen listener during briefings by officials -- and later performing. He knows that this is one chance that the BJP cannot afford to botch up.

Advani himself will be the first to deny this. But if there was any justice in the world he should have been the one to head this government. Quite apart from the toll that it has taken on his family like and his health, Advani has felt hurt, pain and bruises to bring the BJP where it is today. By contrast, Vajpayee's role has been much more laid-back, relaxed.

Even in the two-year period when Murli Manohar Joshi presided over the party, it was Advani who had to remain more active both on account of being the leader of the Opposition and countering the attempts of Joshi to dismantle the organisational set-up established by Advani. It was only after the defeats in UP, MP and Himachal Pradesh in the 1993 assembly poll and the subsequent hawala scandal that Advani vacated the centrestage for Vajpayee purely as a tactical move.

This decision was taken in full consultation of the Sangh Parivar which felt that it was only with Vajpayee at the helm of affairs that the BJP stood a chance of drawing other parties to its fold. It was only after this that it was decided to project Vajpayee as the prime ministerial candidate.

So what does the future hold for Advani? BJP sources are frank in admitting that till the coalition era continues and Vajpayee's health does not fail him, Advani will continue to remain the shadow numero uno. Things will change only after the two-party system takes root, with the BJP as the principal pole. The uncharitable would read meanings in Advani's suggestion that India should consider moving towards a Presidential from of government. He has been saying this for a long time. But it is true, never as India's home minister.

Exactly 65 summers ago, accompanying his mother Gangabehn to Mussoorie the five-year-old Lal would strut down the Mall and tell every one that he was the "collector of Mussoorie". Today, he occupies room number 104 in North Block, not as a collector, but possibly as a collector of all collectors.

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

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