Atal Bihari Vajpayee: Ball back in Advani’s court

Gwalior, July 17: It was the “thervin” (thirteenth-day after death) ceremony of his favourite brother-in-law, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee seemed to be grieving as much for L.K. Advani.

A sombre note crept into the former Prime Minister’s voice as he was asked to comment on the fate of his long-time friend and colleague.

It has become untenable for Advani to continue to hold two posts ? those of BJP president and leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha ? Vajpayee said. But he quickly added that if the matter were left with him, he would have liked Advani to keep both jobs.

“I would have liked to see him in both posts,” Vajpayee said, his tone of resignation making it quite clear that the BJP chief in reality did not have that choice.

Vajpayee said it was for Advani to decide which post he wants to hold. “The BJP follows the one-man-one-post norm and there are no two views about it,” the former Prime Minister said. He mentioned that Advani himself had been opposed to one person holding two offices.

“It (Advani holding two posts) was an arrangement and can be changed. It will be changed... it is up to Advani to decide which post he wants to hold,” Vajpayee said.

Vajpayee was in Gwalior today in connection with the 13th-day ceremony of the late Trigun Prasad Mishra, husband of the BJP leader’s sister and father of Anup Mishra, a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government.

State BJP leaders viewed Vajpayee’s remarks as the signal for Advani’s exit. There is near unanimity among the BJP rank and file here that if Advani is forced to step down from one of the offices he holds, he would not be able to hold on to the other for long.

Some state BJP leaders dubbed the development as “Congressikaran (Congressisation)” and equated the fate of Advani with deposed Congress presidents P.V. Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri.

The former Prime Minister carefully parried the question whether the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had asked Advani to resign. He said that in his understanding, Advani had neither praised Jinnah nor said anything controversial about the Babri demolition.

“The misunderstanding over his remarks is baseless,” Vajpayee said, adding that Advani had never tried to justify the Partition, either.

Advani’s comments that the 1947 Partition could not be undone had drawn criticism from the Sangh, which believes in the concept of “Akhand Bharat” (greater India).