L.K. Advani is in a huff. He has resigned from three important BJP fora. Can the party go back on its elder statesman? The stalwart’s isolation from the gathering in Goa was a bad augury for the BJP. What prompted his absence from the gathering? He has attacked the party’s current functioning and direction in which it is going. He has slammed the supersession of idealism by personal agendas. It was a decision taken a day after Narendra Modi’s election in Goa as chairman of the party’s election campaign committee. Modi’s promotion has obviously antagonized Advani. L.K. Advani is a father figure of the party and his rath yatra added a new dimension to the party’s strategy. He criticized the party’s pseudo- secularism and cultural nationalism in the 1990s. He should explain why Modi’s ascent should be galling to him. Otherwise he will be letting his party down. His long career will also receive a jolt. One wonders if he still wants to hold the reins of the party machinery. The core issue is Modi’s role in the Gujarat violence of 2002. It may be recalled that Advani fought for Modi on that occasion insisting on his continuance as chief minister of Gujarat. He did this at another conclave in Goa 11 years ago. It is not clear how Modi’s elevation has aggravated the BJP’s problems in Advani’s eyes.
The BJP should decide that its infighting kept under wraps should come to an end. Modi’s rise has stressed the importance of greater transparency about the goings-on in the party if it has to succeed in the 2014 parliamentary elections. All are looking at L.K. Advani for a clarification of his stand.