Advani relents, Modi stays, BJP relieved
In the last few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party lurched from hope to despair and back to hope again. Miffed over various issues in the wake of the elevation of Mr Narendra Modi to a national role, veteran leader lK Advani resigned from all party posts and retracted only after being persuaded by senior leaders of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The party must be hoping that all is well which ends well — and that may well be the case, much to the disappointment of the Congress and other forces which must have hoped the crisis would lead to the disintegration of the BJP and bolster their chances in the coming lok Sabha election.
Mr Advani is too important a leader to be cast aside even as the BJP is seeking to infuse new energy in its rank and file through the appointment of the Gujarat Chief Minister as the Election Campaign Committee chairman and the party's virtual face in the electoral battle ahead. More than what Mr Advani can contribute to the electoral prospects of the party — and he still has the charisma to do so — what is important is that he is needed as the moral guiding force of the BJP and the glue that binds the party internally as well as to its allies. But, it would be a case of not seeing the writing on the wall if we are to believe that Mr Advani can remain placated with assurances. Now that he has withdrawn his resignation, it is for the senior leaders of the party to ensure that the issues which he has raised are suitably addressed. BJP president Rajnath Singh has given his word that he will without fail and delay tackle those matters.
Mr Advani is right in pointing out that the party must rise above individuals, promote its core ideology and follow the path that Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Deendayal Upadhyay had laid down. If there have been digressions from these areas, senior BJP leaders must take corrective steps. At the same time, the party has to confront the ground situation that the BJP needs a dynamic leadership, fresh blood, new ideas and an aggressive campaign to oust the Congress-led coalition from power. Many within the party and a vast majority of the party cadre fervently believe that Mr Modi can provide the leadership to take the party ahead.
It cannot be that Mr Advani is opposed to the rising stock of the Gujarat Chief Minister within the party and has made it a prestige issue to cut the latter to size. After all, he has virtually shaped Mr Modi's political career and backed him on occasions when the Gujarat Chief Minister ran into rough weather. At the same time, Mr Modi has responded appropriately by giving the veteran politician a parliamentary constituency in his home State, from where Mr Advani has been winning with very comfortable margins. It would do neither any good to be seen as antagonistic to each other at a time when the BJP has the best chance in nine years to displace the Congress-led UPA from power. On his part, Mr Advani has apparently told senior party leaders that he had nothing personally against Mr Modi's elevation as the Election Campaign Committee chief, but that he was only concerned over what he believed was the dangerous dilution of the ideals on which the party is founded. Be that as it may, both Mr Advani and Mr Modi must now work in tandem.