New Delhi, June 19: L.K. Advani today tilted at "one-man shows", "arrogance" and "authoritarianism", deepening the consternation within the BJP and making many leaders wonder whether he was further undermining the position of his acolyte and embattled foreign minister Sushma Swaraj in the Narendra Modi government.
Advani, whose comments on the Emergency had triggered speculation whether he was taking potshots at the Prime Minister in the middle of the Lalit Modi scandal, was more direct in a television interview today.
"Arrogance breeds authoritarianism. I have always been against this one-man shows in political parties," Advani told Aaj Tak in a throwback to similar insinuations levelled by another figure sidelined in the BJP, Arun Shourie. The former editor had alleged that the party was in the grip of the triumvirate of Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley.
But a section of BJP leaders feels that Advani's manoeuvres, far from shoring up Sushma's defences, might work against her because Narendra Modi never countenanced the veteran's gambits.
These sources equated the Prime Minister's "working style" with that of P.V. Narasimha Rao and said Modi always chose his "moment" to ease out those he found politically "inconvenient".
Today, asked whether action would be taken against Sushma and Vasundhara, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said: "The question is imaginary."
But a source said: "The Sushma-Vasundhara (Raje) narrative is not over. The BJP may be defending the ladies and giving an impression that they are safe, but that does not necessarily reflect the Prime Minister's mind."
The BJP's defence of Sushma earlier and of Vasundhara today was in form but implied nothing substantive. Modi's view is that the party and the government are distinct entities and that the decisions would be taken by the government with "inputs" from the BJP, the source said.
The sources said they would wait for post-Yoga Day developments before jumping into any conclusions on how the Prime Minister would tackle the Lalit Modi situation.
Picking up from where he had left off, Advani issued a nuanced reminder to Modi, whose cheerleaders had projected a view that the BJP was Modi and Modi was the BJP after the 2014 general election.
Advani said today's leaders should be "modest" like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party's first Prime Minister. "Vajpayee was a tall leader with a successful record but I never heard someone at that time saying 'Vajpayee is India and India is Vajpayee'," Advani said.
But Advani took care to clarify that his sense of foreboding about a recurrence of the Emergency was not meant to target "any individual".
That the first signs of inclement weather for the Prime Minister have emboldened Advani, who has been lying low, to bait Modi was evident when he initially gave an appointment to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today.
Kejriwal, who had endorsed Advani's observations on the possibility of another Emergency, had sought an appointment ostensibly to discuss the grant of full statehood to Delhi.
Hours before Kejriwal's arrival, Advani called it off, citing "personal" reasons. "His brother-in-law was dropping in to spend time with him. He will probably meet Kejriwal next week," an aide said.
Signs had emerged from the BJP's higher echelons that such a tete-a-tete would not be welcome. "How come the secular forces are embracing him with glee when he needles Modiji? Is it because they suddenly see him as the BJP's most liberal face? There is something amiss and Advaniji should be on his guard," a BJP leader said.
Some sources felt that Sushma's travails in the wake of the Lalit scandal may have prodded Advani "into action" but those who claimed to be in touch with the veteran said there was "no communication" between the mentor and his protégé. "As far as we know, that is," a source added.
The sources said Advani could not sway the course of events in the BJP any more but conceded that his "well-timed" forays had some nuisance value because the media lapped up his open-ended pronouncements and interpreted them the way they wanted. "Of course, such comments will embarrass the BJP; we will have to live with that," a source said.
