Manish Tewari in his tweet has expressed in unabashed glee in the war out in the open between LK Advani by far the tallest leader after Atalji and a chest thumping Narendra Modi who clamours to don the role of the tallest leader in BJP bypassing all others including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley leaders of opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively. He has called the fight between Advaniji and Modiji, Rajnathji and Sushmaji, Sushmaji and Jaitleyji, as a civil war amongst the parivar. Some time ago, I had expressed my desire that Advani should take the lead in any attempt to force Modi’s leadership in to BJP for he could at the most polarize votes initially and people later on communal lines as it has happened in Mahatma’s Gujarat. The charisma of Modi worked in Gujarat- make no mistake not for his so called development agenda as businessmen would want us to believe but because people believe that he has shown Muslims their place. People may call this an affront on Gujarat asmita but it is true. Not since the days of Veer Savarkar, hardcore hindutva has taken such ugly turn.

Advani has taken the fight against Modi risking his own alienation from the top brass of Sangh Parivar at  Nagpur who disowned him for his admiration of a secular Jinnah. Advani was the poster boy of Hindutva in yesteryears and was singularly responsible for bringing the party within striking distance of forming a coalition government after disastrous drubbing in 1984 on the back of a large scale sympathy wave. He was gracious enough to coronate Atal Behari Vajpayee waiting for his turn to come. Suddenly he finds a machismo riding on a horse blocking his way to 7 RCR.  Thankless RSS bosses want Advani to acknowledge Modi’s so called popularity and leave aside. Advani has understood that the Party will be finished the moment Modi is declared leader. He is today waging a lone battle against a man whom Atalji castigated for having failed in his Raj Dharma and wanted him out. That was vetoed by Nagpur leaders of RSS who will learn the bitter way that they too will be silenced once they catapult Modi to the chair of PM if that were to happen despite large scale opposition from within NDA.

Advani’s patting on the back for Shivraj Singh Chouhan is not to outsmart Modi who has been crying from the roof top aided by friendly media and Industry captains that he only talks development agenda. The original vikas purush of  BJP is bed ridden and the Loh Purush will brook no delay in cutting short the marketing techniques that seek to put Modi ahead of others. Both Shivraj and Raman singh are about to repeat the hat trick of victories as did Modi but both these leaders have done a commendable job- much better than Modi and they needed to be applauded. Hats of to Advani for ripping the Modi mask at the appropriate time.