Slogans are coined to infuse a positive frame of mind to the political worker and also to convey to the electorate what the priorities are if they are elected. Slogans must be catchy as " ROTI KAPTA AUR MAKHAN" of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or GARIB BI HATAO of Indira Gandhi. India shining as a slogan was catchy but the reality was different. Even Advani felt that the slogan did NDA in. GUJRAT ASMITA is another slogan which reverberated in Gujarat which carried Modi to a record making 4th time as CM. 

I have a great admiration for Advani for his honesty. Infact he has toiled his way to this level in politics. He had been magnimous to leave way for his more charismatic colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee settling to play second fiddle. Advani was instrumental in making BJP a force to reckon with. His Ram Mandir movement and Somnath Ayodhya Yatra translated in to votes in a big way even though it did some communal polarisation. Probably Advani never expected his Ram sevaks to pull down the mosque which even Rao never expected. That started the downslide of Advani with most of his friends leaving him in the lurch. Vajpayee came unscathed in this. But Advani carried on because he felt he did no wrong in pulling down a mosque which was built on Ram temple that existed before Babur. Later on Advani wanted to show his opponents that he is tough and in the mould of Sardar Patel his chosen Guru. Unfortunately for him, Kandahar Hijack resulting in trading of militants happened,. Advani was instrumental in blocking a largely onesided accord with Musharaff at Agra summit. He was crucified for that. The Parliament attack case weakened his case further. He became a laughing stock to be called a Loh Purush. 

A leader has to inspire confidence in his followers. But unfortunately for Advani, even Vajpayee did not share his view that it is his legitimate right to be PM after Vajpayee because later promoted Pramod Mahajan to be the Laxman to Advani. If the Legendary Ram had Mahajan as his Laxman he would never have got his Sita back. Such was Mahajans popularity and charms that Advani had no chance whatsoever to be in the limelight. Age was also against him. Providence thought otherwise,. Pravin Mahajan pumped bullets in to Pramod on some silly personal feud. Again there were claimants to the post of Laxman. Jaitely was up in arms on a silly complaint, Rajnath thought he brought winning days back to BJP. Uma Bharathi had to be thrown out. 

Advani requires a lot of courage to be appealing to people. He should depart from empty rhetoric. Brining black money from tax havens is a great idea but it will appeal only to educated urban masses. To touch the chord of ordinary Aam Adhmi, he should find some more appealing issue. His ghost writer Sudheendra Kulkarni can not help him for he is for urban elites. Advani should talk about issues concerning the common man and should form a think tank consisting of eminent men like Sharad Joshi, Mahendra Singh tikait and the like to address agrarian issues, farmers suicides etc.  rural housing could be another issue where Advani can find ways of providing housing to common man. 

If Advani fails this time, it will be no second chance. It could be even more difficult than selling Refrigerator to an Eskimo.

I wish Advani makes it this time for the simple reason that this man is simple, honest and straight forward., He should inspire people on these lines