Tag: Indian Politics

GANDHINAGAR (TIP):
The United States ended a decade-long boycott on February 13 of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi over deadly religious riots as a top diplomat held talks with the man who could be the next prime minister. Nancy Powell, the US ambassador to India, shook hands with Modi at his official residence in Gujarat where he is the chief minister, before entering closeddoor talks. Powell and her entourage arrived in four official cars at the residence in the state capital Gandhinagar, but she did not speak to waiting reporters.

Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), is accused by rights groups of turning a blind eye to riots that killed up to 2,000 people in Guarajat in 2002. Most of the victims were Muslims. The United States in 2005 revoked a visa for Modi under a domestic law that bars entry by any foreign official seen as responsible for “severe violations of religious freedom”.

Modi has denied any wrongdoing over the 2002 violence and investigations have cleared him of personal blame, although one of his former ministers was jailed for life for instigating the killing of 97 Muslims. Powell’s meeting with Modi puts the US in line with European nations and Australia, which have already restored ties with him. Opinion polls show Modi and his party are on course to topple the ruling Congress party at general elections expected in May.

NEW DELHI (TIP): Congress is concerned that Rahul Gandhi has inserted anti-Sikh riots into the political discourse, shrinking its elbow room to attack Narendra Modi on the issue of anti-Muslim carnage. Rising protests from Sikh groups and the figuring of 1984 riots in news bulletins has put Congress in the firing line of the 1984 riots that was till now confined to individuals like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler.

Even in 2009, the drama over anti- Sikh riots was provoked by the limited issue of Congress giving election tickets to Kumar and Tytler before retracting. If the Sikh riots continue to dominate headlines, they could draw parity between Congress and BJP among opinion-makers and a defensive “secular” party would be hamstrung in raising the ante against Modi on the issue of riots. The key worry is the 1984 issue may now figure in every public interaction Modi makes and it would be difficult to duck the issue.

With each passing day that Congress is having to defend itself, there ruling camp feels it is losing its aggressive edge against Modi. It may be an advantage for the Hindutva strongman who is trying his best to soften his rough edges dating back to anti-Muslim riots and appear a moderate. This has implications for the postelection scenario given that BJP would be needing allies who have “secular” roots. That NCP is already making conciliatory noises in favour of the Gujarat chief minister is an eye-opener.

There is a sense of regret in Congress that Rahul could not tackle the question on riots effectively.While conceding too much ground, without putting Modi on the defensive on Gujarat riots, his ambivalent response prised open the 1984 issue for debate. Instead, he could have simply referred to the apologies issued by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 10 years ago. When cornered, he could have apologized in line with senior Congress leaders and settled the issue for good. Many in the party blame the poor background briefing to Rahul for the fiasco.

Now, there is hope that Rahul would make up for the lapse in the coming TV interviews that are lined up. While leaders are happy that the reluctant leader has finally decided to communicate with the public and interact with the press, they would want him to appear engaged. This when future interactions may not be easy to navigate now that he has bared the chinks in his armour. Amid the post-interview disappointment, a big plus for insiders is that he managed to keep his cool and did not walk out like Modi did with a famous TV anchor. It would have been disastrous PR in the present negative atmosphere.

COPS USE WATER CANNONS ON IRATE SIKH PROTESTORS
Rahul Gandhi’s remark on 1984 anti-Sikh riots triggered massive Sikh protest in the national capital

NEW DELHI (TIP): Over 300 irate Sikh protestors clashed with the police when their agitation over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots turned unruly outside the Congress party’s headquarters in Delhi. The agitators were protesting against the injustice perpetrated on Sikhs in the 1984 riots in Delhi and the slow pace of trial, following Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the in an interview to a television channel.

The irate protestors, which mainly included Delhi Sikh Gurudwara committee and Shiromani Akali Dal party members, demanded an apology from the Gandhi scion who said in the interview that ‘some Congressmen were probably involved in the 1984 riots’. Rahul had said in the interview that the Congress government at the time tried its best “to stop the killing” during the riots. The Sikh protesters demanded that he should reveal the names of party leaders involved in the massacre. The protesters waved black flags and climbed onto the barricades placed outside the Congress headquarters by the cops who found it difficult to defuse the protest.

Water cannons were later used by the cops on the Sikh protesters to quell the agitation. Earlier, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal too had lashed out at the Congress for “protecting” party leaders involved in the 1984 riots. He reportedly said that instead of taking any action against the tainted leaders, Congress has not only been protecting them but they were being rewarded by the party with pivotal posts.

JABALPUR (TIP): The 86-year-old Shankaracharya of Dwarka, Swaroopanand Saraswati, known for his antipathy for Narendra Modi and immediacy with the Gandhi family, leaned across and slapped a reporter before the latter had the time to react after he asked what he thought was an innocuous question: the prospects of Modi becoming PM.

The slap reverberated through the day with the seer’s men smelling a saffron conspiracy. But fawning Congressmen said the journalist should consider himself lucky for being singled out for such unique attention. Swami Swaroopanand himself was frank enough to tell reporters on Thursday that he indeed hit the journalist because, “despite knowing my reservations, the man persistently quizzed me on political issues”.

It’s the prerogative of MPs to choose the PM and he had nothing against Modi, the Shankaracharya said. However, later in the day, there was a volte face by the Shankaracharya’s office, with a spokesperson denying his slapping the reporter and reiterating a saffron conspiracy. Swami Shubuddhanand said, “The journalist was drunk and inched closer to Maharaj-ji while asking questions.

He also tried to nudge him,” he said. Shubuddhanand said there might have been a conspiracy by a former BJP minister to malign the Jagadguru. “This man had sent the reporter to provoke Maharaj-ji,” she said. A BJP MP, not wanting to be named, said, “Swamiji has made his choice clear and his gesture shows how disturbed he is by the rise of Modi.” Madhya Pradesh BJP media cell chief Hitesh Vajpayee said, “The incident is shocking. We’re surprised by his reaction.”

Congressmen played down the fracas. “The Jagadguru is the flagbearer of Hindu religion,” said NK Prajapati of Congress. “One should take his slap as a blessing. It will be a guiding light for the journalist,” he said. Last year in November, Swami Swaroopanand had hit the headlines after he presided over the unveiling ceremony of the Virat Ramayan temple by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who had been decrying Modi’s brand of Hindutva and had the seer at the inauguration of his ambitious “Hindu project”.

The year also marked the rise of controversial Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi as the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for PM in next year’s general elections. The Gujarat chief minister, accused of not doing enough to protect Muslims in the 2002 riots, is a deeply polarising figure in Indian politics. He, however, has always denied these allegations. India’s ruling Congress party claims Mr Modi’s accession to the throne will divide the country on religious lines.

However, Mr Modi’s stature seems to be growing both inside and outside his party largely due to his energetic, nationalist speeches. He strongly attacks the Congress for corruption and promises to resolve the country’s economic problems. The year also marked the outstanding debut of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Common Man’s Party, born out of a strong anti-corruption movement and tapping into popular disenchantment with the major political parties. The party won 28 seats in the Delhi assembly elections and its leader Arvind Kejriwal has become the chief minister of the state. Analysts say the AAP has offered itself as a credible alternative to people fed up with corruption, unresponsive politicians and high inflation.

AHMEDABAD (TIP): In a major relief to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a metropolitan court on December 26 rejected the protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of a former Congress MP, against the clean chit given to him and others by the Special Investigation Team in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra while pronouncing the order in open court told Zakia’s counsel Mihir Desai that her petition has been rejected and they have the liberty to approach a higher court.

Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among 68 people killed in the Gulbarg society massacre here during the post-Godhra riots, had filed a protest petition on April 15, this year objecting to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT’s closure report absolving Modi of complicity in the conspiracy behind the carnage. 74-year-old Zakia, who was present at the court, broke down after the verdict was out and said she will appeal against it in the higher court in a month. “The only hurdle in the acceptance of SIT’s recommendations was the protest petition and the protest petition was rejected, obviously the SIT report has been accepted. So, SIT’s investigation, integrity, impartiality, all have been given a judicial stamp,” R S Jamuar, SIT’s counsel, told reporters after the verdict. After completing its investigation on Zakia’s complaint, the SIT had had filed its closure report on February 8, last year.

It concluded that despite difficulties in obtaining evidence in the case because of the lapse of eight years, whatever material it could gather was not sufficient enough to prosecute those against whom allegations of hatching the conspiracy had been levelled. In her petition, Zakia had demanded rejection of the SIT report and an order by the court to file charge sheet against Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, and others. Zakia had filed a complaint against 63 persons, including Modi, his ministerial colleagues, top police officers and BJP functionaries accusing them of a wider conspiracy in the riots which left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.

Jamuar said the complainant had the option to move the court of the District Judge or the High Court against the order. The apex court had ordered an inquiry into Zakia’s complaint by SIT headed by CBI former Director R K Raghavan. The SIT had submitted its report to the Supreme Court after investigations into the complaint. It had interrogated several people, including Modi, who was quizzed for more than nine hours in March 2010. The Supreme Court, after going through the report, had asked amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran to independently varify the SIT investigations. Ramchandran had also submitted his report to the Supreme court and, according to Zakia, it had sufficient grounds to put Modi and others on trial.

NEW DELHI (TIP): Narendra Modi will remain the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, irrespective of how many seats the party gets in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP president Rajnath Singh said on December 4. “It doesn’t matter how many seats BJP gets, 170 or 120… Narendra Modi will remain our party’s PM candidate,” Rajnath Singh said at a session at Agenda Aajtak 2013. Rajnath Singh brushed away the controversy of snooping on a young woman by Gujarat Police.

Asked who was “saheb”, the Bharatiya Janata Party president said: “In normal conversations, ‘saheb’ is a common word. It could be anybody.” “The Congress’ dirty tricks department is trying to malign our PM candidate,” he said. He also said that party patriarch L K Advani was never angry with Modi’s ascension as the prime ministerial candidate because the party’s structure has always depended on consensus.

AHMEDABAD (TIP): Questioning the timing of bringing the Communal Violence Bill, Narendra Modi on December 5 wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, describing the proposed legislation as “illconceived, poorly drafted and a recipe for disaster”. Terming the bill as an attempt to encroach upon the domain of states, the BJP’s PM candidate sought wider consultations among various stakeholders, such as state governments, political parties, police and security agencies, before making any move on the issue. Modi’s letter comes on the morning of beginning of the winter session of Parliament in which the bill is likely to be taken up.

“Communal Violence Bill is ill-conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe for disaster,” Modi said in his letter. Meanwhile, PM Manmohan Singh when asked about Narendra Modi’s opposition to Communal Bill, said, “It will be our effort to evolve broad-based consensus on all matters of great legislative importance.” The Gujarat chief minister said, “the timing to bring the bill is suspicious owing to political considerations and vote bank politics, rather than genuine concerns”.

Expressing strong concern that the proposed legislation would further divide people on religious and linguistic lines, Modi said, “religious and linguistic identities would become more reinforced and even ordinary incidents of violence would be given a communal colour thus giving the opposite result of what the bill intends to achieve”. He also brought out various “operational issues” in the proposed Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013. “For example, Section 3(f) that defines ‘hostile environment’, is wide-ranging, vague and open to misuse.

Likewise, the definition of communal violence under Section 3 (d) read with Section 4 would raise questions on whether the Centre is introducing the concept of ‘thought crime’ in the context of the Indian criminal jurisprudence,” the letter said.

NEW DELHI (TIP): Gulail, the investigative website which released tapes of purported conversations between Narendra Modi’s aide Amit Shah and suspended Gujarat police officer G L Singhal to allege that the state government had subjected a young woman to illegal surveillance, on Thursday released photographs to seek to establish that the woman had known the Gujarat CM at least since 2005. Gulail uploaded a dozen pictures of Modi’s presence at the first edition of ‘Kutch Sharad Utsav’ in October 2005.

In one of the pictures, Modi is engaged in animated conversation with IAS officer Pradeep Sharma and the woman with her face partially masked. As per the recordings of the purported conversations between Shah and Singhal, the state police mounted an aggressive surveillance on the woman, introduced by the website as Madhuri (not her real name), in 2009 at the instance of “sahib”. She was tracked in gyms, at the airport, in aircraft and even in hospital where her mother was admitted.

“These pictures raise a serious question mark about the credibility of the explanation put forth both by Madhuri’s father Premlal Soni and the BJP that only Premlal was known to Modi and it was he who had requested the CM to ‘take care’ of his daughter in 2009 when the illegal snooping operation was mounted. The pictures show that Modi knew Madhuri for at least five years before his state machinery mounted an illegal round the clock vigil on the young woman in August 2009.

It also confirms that part of the affidavit filed by Sharma in the Supreme Court in which he had alleged that Madhuri had visited Modi when he came to inaugurate the ‘Sharad Utsav’ in October 2005. Sharma served as the collector of Kutch district between 2003 and 2005,” the website said in a statement. The website has refrained from attesting to the veracity of the conversations. Sharma had in May 2011 told the Supreme Court in an affidavit he had introduced Madhuri to Modi when he visited Kutch to inaugurate the hill garden project. Later, Modi and Madhuri started exchanging emails and text messages, Sharma said in his filing.

Sharma has alleged that one of the key reasons why he fell out of favour with Modi, and was later subjected to harassment, was because he was aware of Modi’s proximity to the woman. Sharma moved the Supreme Court last week demanding a CBI inquiry into the illegal surveillance. Sharma has in his application claimed that he was victimised because of his “knowledge of the intimacy shared by Shri Narendra Modi with a young lady architect, aged 27 years, from Bangalore, but originally from Bhuj in Gujarat, who was introduced to Shri Modi by the applicant himself in the year 2004”. “The said tapes/transcripts reveal a strong bias and prejudice of the state of Gujarat against the applicant herein and the state’s intent to somehow implicate the applicant herein in criminal offences,” the application has said.

KONDAGAON/KANKER (TIP): BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on November 7 virtually came face-to-face in the poll campaign in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region where they clashed over the Maoist attacks that had wiped out the entire state Congress leadership and over governance. While Sonia tore into the state government citing lack of development, Modi retaliated by alleging that the Congress was “misleading” the country on issues such as development, inflation and employment generation. “In the past five years, we have given a lot of funds for development. But the pace of work on development of roads has been very slow… Apart from fighting the government here, our government has come out with a Land Acquisition Act, Food Security Act and various development schemes. But the basic difference between the Congress and the BJP is: they only talk big and don’t do any work,” she said. In the first direct attack on Sonia in recent times, Modi said she should speak up on coal and 2G spectrum scams and alleged that the Congress was “misleading” the country on issues such as development, inflation and employment generation. Addressing an election rally in Kanker soon after Sonia’s public meeting in Kondagaon, he took a dig at her for saying the Congress believed in “doing work silently rather than speaking” and said the coal block allocation and 2G spectrum scams were prime examples of that.

Sonia in her speech alleged that poverty was on the rise in Chhattisgarh while Modi rebutted the charge saying the people had prevented “looters” (Congress) from coming to power by voting for the BJP. “If the Congress had come to power, one could imagine what would have happened,” he said. Both leaders were on a whirlwind tour of the Maoistdominated tribal areas of Bastar whose 18 seats go to the polls on November 11. In the morning security, forces defused two IEDs weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the district. Sonia targeted the Raman Singh government on the handling of the security situation. “You all know the security situation in the state. I want to ask all of you here, what kind of government is this? Innocents are being killed in Maoist violence.” “This year itself, Congress leaders have sacrificed their lives in Maoist attacks and we are all very sad about it. We are feeling their loss in a big way today. The CM was forced to admit to his government’s failure. But, I want to ask you what is the use of shedding crocodile tears,” she said. Sonia hoped that the people of Chhattisgarh would not fall prey to false promises and assurances.

NEW DELHI (TIP): The assemblage on one platform of leaders from parties other than the Congress and the BJP is no precursor to another third front experiment. It’s at best an anti-BJP, non-Congress ideological bulwark against the ‘divisive idea’ that’s Narendra Modi. The participants at the conference knew that wherever possible, pre-poll alliances were an essential prerequisite to block the BJP’s prime ministerial nominee. A split secular vote in UP and Bihar was what Modi desired to garner the numbers he needs for a shot at power in Delhi. The optimism might prove to be misplaced. But it’s believed that in either of these states — accounting for 120 seats in the Lok Sabha — the Muslim vote would substantially gravitate towards an alliance that includes the Congress. UP is a doubtful case. But regardless of its composition, a pre-election pact is inevitable in Bihar. The Congress indeed is cowering under massive anti-incumbency in many parts of the country. But its catalyst value cannot be ignored even in West Bengal where, again, the party is a big player that can help its senior partner strike big.

Like in Bihar, where it has to choose between Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s RJD, the Congress in Bengal can play the Left against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool that remained unrepresented at the meeting. Nitish foretold the scenario by commenting that leaders posing for cameras should remain together to the extent possible: “I’m saying that because we know one or two will disappear.” A trifle confounding at first glance, the presence on the stage of some former NDA allies and at least one UPA member, the NCP of Sharad Pawar, was actually a no-brainer. Rather than sowing the kernel of a third formation that boomeranged to the Congress’s benefit in 2009, the leaders’ immediate objective was to firewall Modi’s high voltage offensive with a flip-side political narrative — the basis for which was laid by Nitish in Rajgir. If Modi remains short of the 200- plus he needs to become PM, some of BJP’s ex-allies may return to the NDA fold. The possibility of a compromise candidate could, in fact, open vast post-election opportunities for the saffron outfit. But the first invite for forming the government — if decisions of past Presidents are any guide — will go to the largest pre-poll formation. The 2014 polls, therefore, will be as much about alliances as about Modi’s candidature that disqualifies his party from making friends and winning over rivals.

NEW DELHI (TIP): BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s claim that UPA had forgotten Sardar Patel till this year is far off the mark. The government’s publicity arm, directorate of advertising and visual publicity (DAVP), has spent Rs 8.5 crore in advertisements to commemorate Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary over the last four years. Ironically, the shoe may be on the other foot.

In its tenure — between 1999 and 2004 — the NDA government did not issue advertisements for Patel for two years in a row (2001 and 2002). “On earlier birth anniversaries of Sardar Patel, no advertisements were seen. Today, newspapers across the country have advertisements on Sardar Saheb … this is the Gujarat effect,” Modi said on Thursday speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of 182-metre tall “Statue of Unity” of Patel at Kevadia in Gujarat.

However, DAVP records show that UPA spent Rs 30 lakh in 2009-10, Rs 4.10 crore (2010-11), Rs 2.7 crore (2011- 12) and Rs 1.4 crore (2012-13). When asked about Modi’s allegations, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said, “It is evident that the newly-anointed prime ministerial candidate of the BJP doesn’t allow fact to come in the way of myth-making.”

UPA missed issuing an advertisement in 2008, which Tewari said could be due to the severe economic recession that year. However, the amount spent on Patel by the UPA is much lower than the amount spent every year on the Nehru-Gandhi family’s birth and death anniversaries. DAVP spent about Rs 33 crore on birth and death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Rs 21 crore for former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Rs 14.5 crore for Indira Gandhi and Rs 9.38 crore for Jawaharlal Nehru in print advertisements.

When asked about the difference in ad spends Tewari said, “This should not be looked at from the prism of advertising spends because the cost can depend on various factors like the size of the advertisements or costs that year. The real point of inflection is consistency of effort which shows our commitment as opposed to those who pay lip-service and are trying to appropriate the legacy of a leader without even reading it.”

MODI AIMS AT HISTORY AND GANDHIS WITH WORLD’S TALLEST STATUE

NEW DELHI (TIP): Narendra Modi launched the construction of the world’s tallest statue on October 31, a $338 million project in honour of one of the country’s founding fathers, that he is using to undermine the ruling Nehru- Gandhi political family. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s deputy and his interior minister, but often at odds with him, is to be built on a river island in Gujarat, the home state of both Patel and Modi.

It will be built in four years and will be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. “The world will be forced to look at India when this statue stands tall,” said Modi, who rules Gujarat as chief minister and is the leading opposition candidate for prime minister in general elections due by next May.

His main rival in the election is the ruling Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, Nehru’s greatgrandson. Thursday marked the 138th birth anniversary of Patel, and Modi said earlier this week: “Every Indian regrets Sardar Patel did not become the first prime minister. Had he been the first prime minister, the country’s fate and face would have been completely different.”

The comments, and the project, are seen as a not-so-subtle bid by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appropriate an independenceera hero associated with Congress, a party largely run by the Nehru-Gandhi family. Members of the family have ruled India for more than half the 66 years since it became an independent nation.

October 3 accused the BJP of double standards after its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said toilets had to be a greater priority than temples in India. Addressing college students on Wednesday, the Gujarat chief minister rued that many Indians still do not have access to basic sanitation. “My image is that of Hindutva but I’ll tell you my real thinking. I have said in my state: pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya (toilets first, temples later),” Modi said. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said this was another example of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s double standards. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had drawn flak from the BJP in April when he said that toilets are more important than temples. “No matter how many temples we go to, we are not going to get salvation. We need to give priority to toilets and cleanliness,” Jairam Ramesh had said. The BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy had said then that such comments would “destroy the fine fabric of religion and faith”. Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists had even protested outside the minister’s residence.

NEW DELHI (TIP): It was the moment the BJP and its political mentor RSS had been waiting for to silence adversaries and sceptics. The show of strength at Bhopal finally saw party patriarch LK Advani and PM candidate Narendra Modi coming together publicly, giving the party the wow moment it had been looking for ever since the tumultuous Goa conclave. This was the first time Modi and Advani shared the dais since the Gujarat Chief Minister’s declaration as the party’s PM candidate.While the presence of senior leaders such as Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti presented to the BJP its picture perfect moment, the rally also put a lid over speculations of acrimony between Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his Gujarat counterpart over the top post. Organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, founding member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’ also marked the culmination of Chouhan’s ‘Jan Ashirwad Yatra’ that covered majority of the 230 Assembly constituencies in the election-bound state. All leaders extolled Modi and Chouhan, who in turn praised each other. Advani made a special mention of Modi, addressing him as Narendra bhai. “The man who the party has chosen as PM candidate, Narendra Bhai, is also here,” he said to the cheering crowd. Advani also presented bouquets to both Modi and Chouhan.

AHMEDABAD (TIP): In most photographs taken of L K Advani and Narendra Modi in the 1980s, the Gujarat chief minister is seen respectfully walking one step behind his mentor. In those days, Modi was an obedient RSS pracharak on loan to the BJP. When he was appointed chief minister in 2001, Modi took his first tentative steps out of Advani’s shadow and walked alongside him. Today, the ‘shishya’ has stolen a march ahead of his guru to the extent that Advani may now have to walk in Modi’s shadow. Flashback to 1975. At the height of the Emergency, when the RSS was opposing Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial ways, top Jan Sangh leader L K Advani first met Modi, a go-getter pracharak with exceptional organizational skills.

For the next 30 years, the two would be inseparable, watching each other’s back within and outside the party. Modi displayed his political acumen by orchestrating the BJP’s first-ever victory in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in 1987. From choice of candidates to booth management, he oversaw it all, rising further in Advani’s eyes. As a result, when Modi suggested that Advani contest Lok Sabha elections from Gandhinagar instead of Delhi, the mentor readily agreed. Advani’s presence energized BJP’s grassroots workers, but also led to the sidelining of the other power centre of the BJP in Gujarat – Shankersinh Vaghela. Modi, along with Pramod Mahajan, was also involved in planning the Gujarat leg of Advani’s historydefining rathyatra from Somnath in 1990, which led to a saffron upsurge across the country and catapulted the BJP into a national force. The party gained the maximum in the political upheaval and came to power in Gujarat with two-thirds majority for the first time in 1995.

Keshubhai Patel was made chief minister, but Advani ensured that his man – Modi – was appointed general secretary in charge of organization. Six years later, in October 2001, Advani helped Modi become chief minister for the first time. The kingmaker had become king for the first time without winning a single election. When Modi was accused of mishandling the 2002 post-Godhra riots and clamour for his ouster grew, Advani, then Union home minister, stood by Modi like a rock. During BJP’s national executive in Goa in 2002, Vajpayee was keen to remove Modi but Advani, working along with young leaders, helped save Modi’s job. The Modi-Advani partnership ended in 2005 when Advani came under attack from the Sangh for praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah during a trip to Pakistan. Modi chose to remain quiet. The chasm had grown considerably by 2009 when many in the party felt the Gujarat CM would make a better PM candidate. But the last straw was Modi’s decision to prioritize his Sadbhavana fast at a time when Advani was planning to launch a nationwide yatra against UPA corruption. Instead of kicking off the yatra from Porbandar, Gandhi’s birthplace in Gujarat, Advani decided to roll it out from Sitab Diara in Bihar, a state ruled by Modi’s arch rival Nitish Kumar.