Old is Gold, it is said. And
indeed, Eastern civilizations abound in tales of the wise, who were invariably old,
venerable figures. It is not without reason that the longest chapter in the Mahabharata
is Shanti Parva, containing discourse of the Kuru Elder, Bhishma. In an era,
where wisdom meant tales, both experiential and heard, having weathered numerous
summers and having enjoyed countless springs was the surest way to assemble
knowledge.
Even today, the oldest of the intellectuals,
if still mentally agile, can astound the young with depth of their knowledge.
Yet, time is a tireless enemy
which creeps upon one and sundry. While ageing and signs of entropy are seldom
a pleasant sight, the pain becomes more pronounced when time impacts people who
were instrumental in creating history.
Whichever side of the divide one
is, one will be hard pressed not to pause and wonder on what has made the
architect of the modern Hindutva movement in India a pale shadow of what he
was. For a man who could do no wrong, be it strongly articulating the Hindu
angst, making the BJP the party for power, grooming the strongest Gen-next
leadership in the nineties, supporting liberalization, renouncing electoral
politics when stained or giving up the claim to Prime Ministership, the tables
seem to have turned so much so that his once killer political instincts seem to
have got seriously blunted.
The last decade and a half have
not been kind to Shri Advani. For a man who was seen as a successor to Sardar
Patel, his stint as the Home Minister will always be overshadowed by the
colossal mismanagement of Kandhar hijacking. His only real shot at Prime
Ministership in 2004 got mired in the thoughtless India Shining campaign and
his intellectually dishonest declaration of Jinnah as secular robbed him of the
moral high ground he possessed. If the admirer still hoped that the genius of Shri
Advani would ensure his rebirth, he was disappointed again when the sham of
Notes for Vote hit the Nation. This was not all. The Nation had to be a party
to the spectacle of Shri Advani being made the butt of joke for his dumbbell lifting,
karate chop acts in 2009 General elections followed by the unseemly scene of
the diminishing RSS trying to order a reluctant Advani off the public sphere.
Now, Advaniji seems intent on
making a spectacle of the BJP yet again by forcing the reluctant party to
contest the lost Presidential elections.
It is not difficult to empathize
with those who don’t desire a contest. For an election which is already lost,
what is to be gained by diminishing one’s stature even more? If the BJP were so
serious about contesting, why did they have to wait to finalize a candidate for
so long? If Kalam was the intended choice, why could the BJP not convince even
Jayalalitha to support him? We are now left with the spectacle of the party
going mall-shopping for candidates with the ageing Advani trying to push
support for Sangma. For the apologists, that the BJP is not willing to give the
UPA a walkover is reason valid enough to contest and a public display of its
willingness to fight the UPA is certain to boost BJP’s standing among the
general public.
But seriously, what will the BJP
gain by contesting a no-gamer? If it for symbolic value of supporting a tribal,
a Christian for the President’s post, the media and Mr Advani will do good to
themselves to remember that the first such candidate was put up by the BJP
itself in 1992, in form of Mr George Gilbert Swell, against Shankar Dayal
Sharma. While we don’t know if that sagacious act led to any accretion of BJP’s
support base amongst the Christian community, what we certainly know is that
the same GG Swell denounced the BJP on the floor of the house in 1996 and voted
against the confidence vote on the thirteen day Vajpayee Government. This was
barely 10 days post his affirming his and 6 fellow MPs support to Vajpayee, but
that is another story.
Even though the outcome of the
Presidential Elections of 2007 was even more pre-determined, the NDA still had
valid grounds to contest the polls. Not only did the Sonia Gandhi led UPA
commit an atrocity on the Nation in form of the current incumbent’s
candidature, the BJP had a towering personality, as its presidential candidate.
Further, even though the NDA did not expand (Shiv Sena actually walked away),
it did manage to gain votes of the AIADMK, Panther’s Party, INLD, AGP and AGP(P)
in those polls.
Here, even before the polls, the
Shiv Sena has yet again walked away and it is likely that the JD(U) and Akali
Dal will follow suit. If the motive is to gain affection of either Mamata, Jaya
or Naveen, why does it have to be at the cost of long standing allies, the only
ones from the 1996 Government days?
Even if the BJP had a good
candidate, would it still be a reason enough to oppose Pranab Mukherjee?
Granted that Mr Mukherjee’s stint as the Finance Minister has not been great,
granted that his image is even more Teflon coated than Mr Jaitley’s in the
sense that there has not been even the slightest hint of criticism of his role
and even granted that as Finance Minister, he cannot absolve himself of
responsibility regarding numerous scams which have plagued the UPA regimes.
Still, Mr Mukherjee deserves to be the President of the country, if for nothing
else, for bringing back a semblance of gravity to the post.
It is after twenty five years
that the country has the opportunity of having as its Head, a political personality,
who is neither a lightweight, nor a political has-been or a symbolic
appointment. The winner of the 1987 polls, R Venkatraman was in active politics
when he became the President and had been the home and defence minister of the
country. His successor, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was leading a semi retired life
in form of gubernatorial postings before he became the Vice President. Following
him was KR Narayanan, a political lightweight who became President on account
of being at the right place at the right time. While Dr APJ Abul Kalam enjoyed
phenomenal popularity as the President, he was not a political person when nominated
and his glory days with DRDO were far behind him. Regarding his successor, the
lesser said the better. Though, to be fair to her, Ms Patil has conducted
herself much more admirably that the outrightly biased KR Narayanan.
Compared to his 4 predecessors,
Pranab Mukherjee, with almost half a century of political life behind him, is
much better placed to don the role of the President of this country. If Mr
Mukherjee is to be opposed merely for the reason that Ms Sonia Gandhi displayed
ill grace in not even consulting with the NDA leaders before announcing his
candidature, well, that is a fig leaf of a reason and only serves to even more
belittle the dignity of the post.
But why, why does Mr Advani, (alongwith
Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Anant Kumar) persist in pushing for a contest? While
for Anant Kumar, it could be a mode of repaying his debt to Advaniji for
standing by him in his intrigues against Yedyurappa, for Ms Swaraj, it could
either be a genuine respect for the patriarch or a baser way of getting back at
Mr Arun Jaitley. What we need not speculate is the reason behind Advaniji’s
persistence. Who else, but the Trojan who has destroyed Advani and in the
process damaged the BJP beyond recognition? Yes, the architect of the India
Shining campaign, of the secular Jinnah fiasco, of the Notes for Vote sham, is
at it once again. And he will not rest till his mission, i.e., decimation of the
BJP is achieved.
Even for the most noble purpose
of vanquishing the enemy, it is difficult for any person to cohabit with it, to
claim to think of its good, to denounce one’s old attachments and be careful
enough not to utter what one holds dear in life. It is one thing to say that
one should mingle with the enemy to defeat if and another to practice. But, it
is men like Sudheendra Kulkarni who can warm our hearts enough to still believe
that men can still be committed to their ideology strongly enough and do what was
hitherto considered impossible. One can only salute the bitter pills Kulkarni
has swallowed and still swallows as he proclaims himself a BJP man. One cannot
even imagine the torment his soul is under as he hides his Marxist identity and
wears a saffron mask. O Kulkarni, you are a Trojan if there was one.
