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By downplaying Ayodhya and forging valuble alliances, L.K. Advani
brought intellectual muscle and power to the BJP
When the deadline for filing nominations to the post of BJP
national president was reached at 3 p.m. on April 14, there was
predictably only one candidate in the fray, nominated repeatedly
by several party bigwigs: Kushabhau Thakre. The elevation of
this 76-year-old general secretary had been decided upon many
months earlier: the election was but a formality. Amid loud
cheering, followed by a bout of extensive garlanding and
felicitations, Thakre was declared elected unopposed by returning
officer and party vice president Jana Krishnamurthy. Thakre will
formally take over at the BJP national convention in Gandhinagar
on May 3, when Lal Krishna Advani steps down.
With Thakre's ascension, and Advani's departure, a crucial phase
in the BJP's history draws to a triumphant close. When Advani
took over in mid-1993, the BJP was primarily a single-issue
party, still basking in the Babri Masjid demolition, It was
shunned as 'untouchable' by all other parties except the Shiv
Sena, and lacked a support base in half the states of the
country. At the end of his nearly five year long tenure the party
is in power at the Centre, with a string of allies of varying
political hues, and substantial vote banks in every state. "There
is no doubt that Advaniji revitalised the party under his
leadership," declared his successor, Kushabhau Thakre.
The importance of being Advani was clearly seen when his term
expired last November, and yet he was asked to continue in
anticipation of the coming general elections. Since it was his
second consecutive two year term as president, and the BJP
constitution debarred him from contesting the same post again,
internal elections were postponed to allow Advani to remain in
charge. It was widely felt in the party that only Advani's
presence at the helm could enable it to achieve its peak
performance in a closely fought and crucial election. As much as
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's charisma, it was Advani's dogged labour
which gave the BJP its crucial breakthrough. "Vajpayee's image
is a major advantage, and brought us many votes," admitted a
senior office-bearer. "But when it comes to organisational nuts
and bolts, there is none to match Advani. He knows the party
much better than Vajpayee does. Nor can Vajpayee undertake the
sort of gruelling tour schedules that Advani can."
And even though Advani is no longer president, he continues to
cast a long shadow over the organisation. "Whether he is
president or not, he will continue to exercise much influence on
the party," agreed K.R. Malkani. It is no secret that Kushabhau
Thakre's ascension proved smooth precisely because it had
Advani's complete backing. All the five general secretaries
during his tenure-Pramod Mahajan, Govindacharya, Sushma Swaraj
and Venkiah Naidu were the other four-were hand-picked Advani
choices, and remain blindly loyal to him. Thakre enjoyed an added
advantage because of his age, and long record of involvement with
the RSS. He joined it in 1938 when he was just 16 and quite
obviously he is acceptable to that outfit as well. "Under a new
president, some changes are bound to take place," said vice-
president Sunder Singh Bhandari. "There will be a new team with
fresh ideas." There will indeed be a new team, since most of the
present central office-bearers have taken up ministerial or
related positions, and the BJP intends to strictly enforce the
'one man, one post' principle. But any major departure from the
direction set by Advani is most unlikely.
What have been Advani's main achievements during his presidential
term? The main achievement, of course, has been that of leading
the party to power at the Centre. Not all the credit accrues to
Advani, of course, as some BJP leaders were quick to point out.
"Leadership is important, but we must not forget that the general
political conditions favoured us," maintained K.R. Malkani. "it
is not just the president's achievement. In the 1984 election,
the BJP got only two seats, but that does not reflect on Vajpayee
alone, just because he was president then. So much depends on the
prevailing political scenario. "Others however sharply
contradicted this view. "Circumstances keep changing," declared
Sunder Singh Bhandari. "But achievement lies in the ability to
make best use of the circumstances, which Advaniji as president
has done. Under his leadership our popularity has increased, our
cadre has increased, our mass base has expanded several fold."
The two major innovations introduced during Advani's tenure,
which ultimately enabled the BJP to rule the country were first,
the deliberate downplaying of Ayodhya and Hindutva, and second,
the forging of a wide array of alliances in states where the BJP
lacked sufficient support on its own. Indeed Advani's tenure
began with a major reverse-the relative failure of the BJP in the
assembly elections held in end-1 993. All the four states where.
BJP governments had been dismissed following the Babri Masjid
demolition went to the. polls: with the Hindu euphoria over the
demolition still lingering, the BJP was widely expected to win
them all. Only in Rajasthan was the party able to win a razor-
thin majority with the help of independents and form the
government. In Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal
Pradesh its hopes were shattered. These setbacks convinced BJP
leaders that the Ayodhya issue had had its day.
Promptly Advani decided to move away from Ayodhya. Although lip
service to the building of a Ram temple at Ayodhya continued to
be paid, the BJP attached less and less emphasis to it.
"Advaniji has often said that a national party cannot run on the
demand for a temple," revealed a senior journalist close to him,
"He also believes that every election has its own crucial issue,
and the same issue cannot be milked in election after election."
A mellow, eclectic, all-embracing version of Hindutva was
thenceforth offered. "Advaniji has done an excellent job in
countering the false propaganda against us," stated Kushabhau
Thakre. "By cogently putting across our ideology, through every
platform available to him, he could correct the wrong impression
our opponents had given about us. Intellectually he could meet
every argument of our opponents."
BJP leaders felt that consistently soft peddling Hindutva for the
last few years had not only added to their votes but also made
alliances possible with parties which did not share their
ideology in this respect at all.
The decision to embark on wide ranging alliances was certainly
not Advani's alone. But he played a crucial role in its actual
implementation. "It was at the conclave at Virar in Mumbai, soon
after the 1996 polls, that we took a collective decision to
strive for alliances in those states where we were still a
marginal force," said Kushabhau Thakre. "The 1996 elections
revealed two things, said the senior journalist. "One, that the
BJP had no friends. Most parties considered us political
untouchables. Two, that we had no pan-Indian representation. In
the east and the south (barring Karnataka), in all the regions
touching the Bay of Bengal rim, we had no base at all. That had
to be remedied by forging alliances."
Advani's chief contribution, insiders maintained, lay in
smoothening the many small hitches which arose while cementing
these alliances, sometimes even incurring the wrath of the BJP
units in several states, by sacrificing a seat or two to the
alliance partners' candidates, always keeping the party's larger
interest in mind. "As junior partners in most of these states, we
were prepared to fawn and flatter," admitted an office-bearer.
"We did not stand on ego, as the Congress might have done."
Two other Advani innovations mentioned by BJP leaders were an
attempt to generate funds from within the party, and an emphasis
on youth. "It was Advaniji who initiated the scheme of party
members contributing Rs 1000, Rs 5000 or Rs 10,000 every year
against signed receipts, to reduce the party's dependence on
private contributions from outside," revealed Kushabhau Thakre.
"It is a unique scheme among political parties and the fund
raised covers almost all our recurring costs." So too never have
relatively young people on the right side of 50!-enjoyed as much
power in the BJP as they did under Advani; not only the four
general secretaries, but also leaders like Narendra Modi and
Ananth Kumar.
Yet excessive reliance on' 'Young' leaders has misfired too,
notably in Gujarat, which is easily the biggest blot on Advani's
presidential record, apart from the early electoral defeats. The
party lost a state where it had won a two thirds majority in the
1995 assembly election. Admitted a BJP leader: "We have made up
for our failure by winning Gujarat again, but it was certainly a
failure. Advani failed to read Vaghela correctly, did not
realise the extent to which Vaghela could go." Or for that matter
the intensity Of resentment Narendra Modi's brash style had
generated. "I think it taught Advaniji the dangers of delegating
too much," opined the BJP leader.
Advani's personal style of functioning as president drew
considerable praise as well. "He is indefatigable, never seems to
get tired," marvelled Malkani. "He is almost as old as I am, yet
the routine he maintains would leave me a wreck. And he retains
his freshness at the end of the day as well." Nowhere was this
better demonstrated than during his numerous rath yatras,
particularly the last Swarn Jayanti Yatra undertaken at the
height of summer. Did these yatras really serve any purpose?
"They got our workers geared up," maintained Thakre. "People in
the villages still remember them." "As Advani himself has said,
he is like a schoolboy who studies even when examinations are far
away," said a senior BJP leader. "It all helps when exams finally
arrive. His yatras are part of this homework, which invariably
help when the election arrives!
"He is very businesslike in his dealings," revealed Malkani. "Not
for him the endless durbars with cronies which many politicians
still enjoy. He maintains a strict schedule. And yet, his
contacts with party workers and others, all over the country, are
phenomenal!" "Advani is very much a team leader," added Bhandari.
"Throughout his tenure he has made an effort to strengthen the
different forums within the party, and ensure that decisions are
taken collectively. He is totally against ad hocism. Even when
an idea originates from him he insists it should be discussed in
the appropriate party forum before it is accepted."
Even the much talked about rift with Atal Bihari Vajpayee
insisted many BJP leaders, was not as major as it was made out to
be. "They have their differences on issues. Which top leaders do
not?" asked a BJP source. "But to impute jealousy to Advani, to
believe that he resents Vajpayee as Prime Minister, is to misread
the man completely."
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