When baton  was passed to the next generation, the old monk was supposed to be present and hand over it to the Amul baby.  With Modi chosen as NDA’s prime ministerial candidate , everyone around tries to appease him; ‘Thalaivar, Thalaivar’ – leaving the founder, mentor and guardian of the party, Advani in grief.  Advani is not as vociferous as Modi is; neither so popular and media friendly. From being ‘Chanakya’ to ‘greedy Buddha’ as coined by media and some party workers, his active presence in BJP is dubious. But he can’t continue to act as MMS.

Behind all this smoke, nobody bothered to find out the reasons. Blaming each other, who says what, can Modi do this-that; Media once again failed to count the reasons.  

Corruption 

Vajpayee & Advani, both together have stood firmly against corruption. What Gujarat chapter did to Vajpayee, Advani was equally disturbed with the BJP’s Karnataka chapter. When there is a huge cry against corruption, he wanted to promote BJP as a solution for India against corruption. With Modi as campaign chief, Yedurappa is set to enter the wing. How can we expect Modi government to pass Janlokpal Bill?

Modi has continuously been promoted as a decisive leader but what about his divisiveness? He doesn’t want to clear the smoke. When asked by Karan Thapar, he leaves the interview in the midst, saying, ‘Dostana bani rahe’. Being a political leader, he must be aware of that one should never practice ‘Dostana’ with journalists.

Recent UP Riots show; BJP will continue to promote the divisive politics for the sake of votes. Modi is fueling the same once done by Advani. Advani knows the outcomes of Babri demolition, he wasn’t held guilty by SC but has continuously been accused of that. He wanted BJP to learn from the mistakes by showing the change within the party which couldn’t happen. Amit Shah, despite all the accusations is continuously being promoted and saved. Though it’s clear, who is saving whom.

Proxy Leadership

After seeing nine yrs of proxy power, we want to see someone who stands by what he says. Lk Advani resignation later simply brought the #feku face of Modi when he claimed that he has talked to Advani over phone and got his blessings. There are indeed many instances.

Vajpayee's shoes too big! Never before in India has power been redefined by one leader in such a short time. In the universe of Vajpayee, it is never absolute, as it was in the days of the Dynasty. India's most popular politician, a position that is not subordinated to the mystique of the Family, handles power with a kind of sagely detachment.He uses renunciation as a means of reaffirmation. He withdraws only to make his indispensability an awesome reality to the enemies within, only to return with another confounding couplet. He is larger than the political size of his party. He is in it and above it, keeping his moral system beyond the grasp of realpolitik, even beyond the demands of his own party. He has changed the grammar of leadership...
 - S. Prasannarajan, Author of The Great Unifier

Misrepresentation of facts

You can’t play with the facts for a long time after all ‘Sach kab tak dubaa reh sakta hai’. Lalu Prasad, being RM played the most and we all know what he got in the result. When asked about half of Gujarati children under five were stunted, or too short for their age, Modi responded it by saying, "Gujarat is also a middle-class state. The middle-class is more beauty conscious than health conscious. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they'll have a fight. She'll tell her mother, "I won't drink milk. I'll get fat." No need to mention the recent cheap Puppy’s comment. Forget the recent report submitted by Rajan which might be politically motivated but from 'Frontline' to other scholarly journal 'A New Research in the Economic and Political weakly' says it otherwise (based on their own surveys). It writes, "Gujarat has always had one of the country’s strongest economies and there is limited evidence to suggest that Mr. Modi did much to add to its outperformance."

When Bhagat Singh refused to run away from the incident there was a mission ahead. When Atal-Advani joined Bhartiya Jan Sangh, there was a mission to fulfil the dreams of Shyama Prasad Mukharjee, “Ek desh mein do Vidhan, do Pradhan aur Do Nishan nahi challenge”, to let the tricolor flag across the country including Kashmir. Not all know it happened only after Shyama Prasad Mukherjee refused to accept the permit system and Nehru’s decision that no one, including the President of India could enter into Kashmir without the permission of Kashmir's Prime Minister. Atalji recalled the death of Dr. Mukherjee as a result of Nehru’s conspiracy.
 

What’s the mission this time? Corruption free India? How can Modi led BJP supposed to pass Janlokpal Bill when they couldn’t do the same in Karnataka? There are a no. of questions that remain unanswered even if Modi becomes PM.  The concerns will remain unsolved, will Arun Jethli, Shourie, Sushma Swaraj, Ram Jethmalani (he will return for sure), MM Joshi will carry the same accountability as they did in Vajpayee’s period? After all he is not the Ajatshatru, a word often used for Atalji.

Why Sushma could have been a better choice?

After watching our deaf PM unspoken and stand less for the past ten years, we wanted someone who is a good orator, can bring regional parties under one flag in the wake of nationalism and not cash. After all when Vajpayee lost by a solitary vote there was no cash-for-votes scandal to ensure the governance. “Vajpayee’s period will be remembered as the time when consensus based coalition politics came to be practised with sincerity for the first time in independent India. This became possible because the coalition was led by a charismatic personality who had a pan-Indian appeal of his own and enjoyed wide acceptability in the political establishment cutting across party barriers.” PM’s aide wrote in India Today. He remembered, “In May 2003, Karl Inderfurth, a key aide to President Bill Clinton, wrote an edit page article in The Hindu, saying, "Leaders of India and Pakistan are certain to win the Nobel Peace Prize if they succeed in implementing their new resolve to live in harmony." When I showed this article to Atalji, he said, in a somewhat dismissive tone, "Kya main yeh sab Nobel Peace Prize jeetne ke liye kar raha hoon? Bilkul nahin (Am I doing all this to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Not at all)." What he meant was that lasting peace between India and Pakistan was a reward bigger than anything else.”

I have never heard a good interview of Modi, a good speech of Modi, everywhere he tries to mahimamandit himself which Atalji never did. In the words of Vajpayee, “Sarkaarein aayengi jayengi, lekin siddhant jinda rehna chahiye.”

Sushma Swaraj could have been the second lady PM of India after Indira Gandhi. She has spoken on all the issues in parliament and outside – be it, violence against women, corruption and all. Moreover she was acceptable to all – Nitish Kumar, Advani camp to RSS. She did a commendable job as Delhi’s CM. Further, and importantly she is an undisputed leader, could have gathered more parties under NDA’s flag, a winning combination.

With Modi as PM: A Good Sign

    The good thing within BJP that it remained workers’ party unlike Congress where Sitaram Kesri was manhandled and kicked out from a meeting due to his opposition to Sonia Gandhi. It took the decision what the majority wanted and not what the party’s patron wanted. Let’s hope Modi will bring the change what people expect from him.  

Article originally appeared at: Facing the Music of Modism