Advani
is credited with invigorating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
present-day avatar of the Jan Sangh. He was its general secretary at the
time
of its launch in 1980, and the president in 1986. In 1991 he donned the
mantle of the Leader of Opposition. It was in this capacity that he
created the saffron surge. His journey across the country in the early
1990s atop a motorized chariot christened as "Rath" projected
him as topmost BJP leader. Advani swore by the movement for building of
a temple of Lord Ram in Ayodhya where a mosque already stood. And when
the mosque was demolished in 6 December 1992, Advani was shot into fame
and infamy. He was accused by critics of encouraging communal
polarisation. The event anyhow marked a great leap for the BJP, which
first challenged the Congress and then overshadowed it.
Advani was again elected the president of the BJP in 1993 and was in
1998 made it to the 12th Lok Sabha . He kept himself out of the first
Vajpayee government due to a court case against him. In 1998, when Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, his friend and colleague for 5 decades, became the
Prime Minister, the courts had acquitted him. As expected, Advani got
the number 2 slot of the Home Ministry in the new Government. The 1999
he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in the snap polls and on 13 October
resumed as the Union Cabinet Minister for the Home Affairs. Vajpayee
openly recognised his position in the party by making him the Deputy
Prime Minister of India on 1 July 2002.
Advani is one Indian politician who evokes the most contrasting images:
while millions swear by him, hoping and praying one day he will rule the
country, many think he is a rabid Hindu fundamentalist who pretends not
to be one. Advani is, of course, much more than that. He is a veteran
parliamentarian, a powerful speaker at home both in English and Hindi,
virulently anti-Communist, a book worm, a Hindi movie fan, a family man
and, more important, a loyal soldier of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), an influential Hindu group and the BJP's ideological mentor.
