How politics plays out—Modi’s hogging the International limelight on 5th of August, 2020, on the occasion of Bhoomie pujan at Ayodhya, relegates in the process the conspicuous role of Lal Krishna Advani in building up of the movement for Hindu renaissance for liberating Sanctum Sanctorum of Ayodhya.
‘Naseeb mein jiskay jo likha tha, teri mehfii mein kaam aaya, kisi
kay hissay mein jaam? aaya, kisi kay hissay mein pyas aai'( What is
decreed by destiny, materialises in no ambiguous terms; while someone
gets the windfall while others are left to stare in emptiness)
Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi.The conspicuous absence of Lal krishna Advanijee in yesterday’s grand ceremony of Bhoomie Pujan at Ram Lala’s temple in Ayodhya, where the
man who had the unquestioned legitimacy to do the Bhoomie Pujan, was
all the more eloquent, as the irony of destiny became obvious to one
and all: When the man who should have been the cynosure of all eyes, found the bare mention of his name by the speakers, whereas the one who walked along with his chariot, hogged the international limelight as the architect of liberating and rebuilding the Ramjanma Bhoomie at Ayodhya, the birth place of Ram Lala. Indeed the victorious writes the history.
The fact could never have been more eloquent and obvious to me, as it was yesterday when i saw the grand spectacle of national politicians, venerable saints
glistening the ceremony of Bhoomie Pujan at Ayodhya. Narendra Modi, as
the head of the state, was the darling of the cheer leading media, the
talk of the nation, almost from Kashmir to Kanyakumari within India,
and from Time Square to Islamabad, the name of Modi alone reverberated
as the messiah who has liberated Ram Lala from the erstwhile invader
Babur’s clutch. Mohan Bahagwatjee, the Saranghchalak of RSS, had the
good sense of uttering the name of Advanijee in his speech, yet he
too, chose to give the others like Joshijee and Uma Bhartijee a
deliberate miss when it was all the more imperative to mention their
names as the crusaders for liberating Ram Lala from Babur’s clutch.
Suddenly i wondered.that how the truth gets overshadowed in decades,
let alone after the passage of a century or so, when the man i watched
building up the total fervour and enthusiasm around Shri Ram,
especially in the context of Ayodhya Movement, which Dr Swapan
Dasgupta had so embellished with his decorative choice of words as ‘
the socio-politico- religious and nationalistic expression of Bharat
Varsha, has suddenly found himself being evicted from the new
narrative that is sought to be built around one and only person–Narendra Modi. Astonished beyond the words could describe, I saw the cheerleaders everywhere singing the panegyrics for Modi, with a total silence of the real heroes that were instrumental behind liberating the idol of Ram Lala from its medieval invasion. As media was immersed in singing panegyrics for Modijee, my mind suddenly delved deep into the past, with the lively images of India’s then new hero on the horizon in 90’s came vivid to my mind: It was during my sophomoric days that the national movement for liberating Ram Lala’s temple was spearheaded by Advanijee as a mesma of Hindu renaissance which had seized our overwhelming attention. In fact, the Rath Yatra that Advanijee had spearheaded brought the entire nation to its standstill.
Jyoti Basu was ruling West Bengal, and therefore, the Communist government was determined to nip in bud any communal cauldron that may eventually show even the remotest tendency to rear its ugly head. While Advanijee was riding the chariot, traversing the length and breadth of India, the entire nation was tottering on glorious uncertainties that sgnalled unfolding riots that might eventually engulf the polity under its towering inferno. In other words, nation awaited with the
bated breath Advanijee’s rediscovering India with his vision of resurrecting the grand Ram Lala’s temple almost from the ruins, relegating other sundry consideration of putting the nation to a grave jeopardy. Gujarat, even then, when the larger part of India had no familiarity with new Hindutava politics, provided the template for Advanijee to kickstart his campaign of Rath Yatra for awakenign the national consciousness towards Ram lala. Hardly we knew then that one of the foot soldiers who walked along with the chariot, would one day be the nation’s popular Prime Minister and the one riding the chariot would walk into poliitcal oblivion, with the passage of decades. Samastipur, was the town in Bihar, where Laloo Yadav, the then chief minister of Bihar, exhibiting his machoism, arrested Advanijee, along with few of his cohorts. Later, 6th of December, 1992, historic day when Babri mosque was razed to the ground, with shaking Advani, initially panic-stricken by the fallout of the structure of the mosque; later, realising the political dividend that such a destructive action would bring in its wake, began celebrating their success. The aftermath of 6th of December, 1992, was another black saga for India.
Whereas India, especially Hindus, celebrated the occasion with full of gaiety and enthusiasm, the areas which were inhabited by significant Muslim population, simmered with the tensions of communal catastrophe. Small wonder the Mumbai riots that followed soon after 6th of December, 1992, violently shook the national conscience, with the chances of spreading of communal riots becomign all the more stark. Such was the magnitude of terror instilled in our mind that our Kali temple in Calcutta then may be attacked by Muslim fundamentalists. I vividly recall one of my fellow friends who was extremely intrepid, saying, ‘ I will wield trident to attack those bullies who may think of desecrating the sacrosanct temple of our Mother Kali’. While military was requisitioned to restore peace in
such muslim populated areas like Metiabruz, our locality in South Calcutta remained insulated from any such eventuality because of exclusive Hindu population. Those who have seen those years can recall the dreaded time that India had passed through when Lal Krishna Advani had sought to rediscover India’s soul–in the garb of rediscovering Ram Lala, at Ayodhya–Advani was subtly but definitively catapulting his own party of two MP’s into the party of governance. And he had marvelously succeeded in his endeavours as the subsequent elections vindicated. It was the Hawala scam that Narsimha Rao had so mischievously planned to get his competitors entrapped. No wonder he had to embroil a credible member of opposition to lend credence to the charges framed
against such leaders like Madhav Rao Scindia.
One of the RSS members had informed me then that Rao could not get Ataljee framed because there was hardly any shred of evidence against him–Ataljee was the cleanest politician in several decades. Advanijee, taking a deep offence at such framing of charges against him, resigned from the Parliament, reaffirming before the nation that he will contest the election only after getting acquited from the charge. No wonder then, Advanijee’s non- contesting in 1996 election, paved the way for Atal Bihari Vajpayee to assume the mantle of leadership of BJP to form the government. However on getting exonerated from all such charges by the Delhi High Court, Advanijee had come to deliver a speech at Netajee
Indoor Stadium where I too had the opportunity to hear his speech.
While Advanijee was exiting, his eyes caught the eyes of mine, and as
I greeted him with folded hands, he reciprocated with a broad smile at
his face. My only seeing Advanijee from close angle ever. But then it
goes to the full credit of him to have irreconcilably reconciled to
work uner Vajpayeejee on the ground of the latter being his senior.
Never ever did Advanijee show any ambition to upstage the then Prime
Minister, notwithstanding the sundry differences between the two.
It was only after Ataljee retired from active politics in 2006, and
Advanijee’s infamous comment on Jinnah at his mausoleum in Karachi
when he dubbed Jinnah as ‘secular’ leader that created a big furore in
India, leading to Advanijee’s fall from grace, especially in the
context of RSS taking a deep offence at his unconventional
remark–Sangh had always held Jinnah as the rabid communal whose anti-
Hindu mindset was the trigger behind creation of Pakistan. It was
widely commented then that Advanijee was reorienting himself in the
garb of secular Vajpayee which resulted in his plausible comment
against the Quaid-e Azam of Pakistan. But then despite initially
losing plot after his infamous remark, Advanijee sprung back in 2009
to be the Prime Ministerial candidte of BJP. Unfortunately, nation
rejected him, for Dr Manmohan Singh was preferred over the man who
reminded India of Ram as its summum bonum. With the advent of Narendra Modijee, a protege of Advanijee, in Delhi Durbar, triggered the latter to be sent into political oblivion. The constitution of a Marg Darshan committee by Narendra Modi, a clever stratagem to remove the seniors from the power corridor, was the
final nail in the coffin of the nonagenarian leader. The curtain thus fell down on the BJP patriarch who, unequivocally, was instrumental behind the exponential rise of BJP at the national level. Was Narendra Modi guilty, as many close loyalists of Advanijee would like to suggest, for blighting the political career of his political mentor, for Advanijee had the full chance that providence had afforded him to
become India’s Prime Minister in 2009. The fact that he had failed to
reach at the pinnacle of the nation’s political post, was the decree
of his destiny that none on the earth can dare defy, let alone alter
it. Hence in this abckdrop, blaming Narendra Modi, the new age choice of BJP youths and the nation in general, was missing tree for the wood. Nonetheless, the conspicuous absence of Lal Krishna Advanijee, in yesterday’s mega Bhoomie Pujan, was someting that was so palpably felt. The man whose dream to see the construction of Ram lala temple is on the threshold of attaining fruition, yet the very architect of ushering in the grand temple was nowhere in sight, indeed was a matter that needed to be grieved. Indeed it was a time for the nation to shed few tears for the man whose pioneering efforts fructified when his protege presided over the function of Bhoomie Pujan on behalf of the nation. Suddenly a song sung by immortal Rafi Sahab–my petition to Hon’ble Prime Minister for conferring Bharat Ratna on Rafi Sahab is still pending for his kind consideration–deluged my mind and my heart as i hummed ruefully: ‘Naseeb mein jiska jo likha tha wo tere mehfil mein kaam aaya, kisi kay hissay mein jaam aaya, kisi kay hissay mein pyas ayai’.
Vivekanand Jha is an author and Públic Intellectual.
