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| L.K. Advani |
Sitabdiara, Oct. 10: One JP protégé will possibly remember how he once halted L.K. Advani in his tracks. Another will flag off his next mission.
The launch of the BJP veteran’s jan chetana yatra (people’s awareness journey) against corruption from this village, the birthplace of Jayaprakash Narayan or JP, has by coincidence or design brought to the fore ironies Advani himself is unlikely to miss. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will send him off on his yatra. Lalu Prasad, who represents the area in the Lok Sabha and had stopped Advani 20 years ago as chief minister, will have to cringe and bear it.
Some in the place where Lok Nayak, as JP is reverentially called, was born see Advani’s rathtyara, his sixth, as a “revenge” against the once-mighty Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) boss who had got the BJP leader arrested his first such odyssey from Somnath to Ayodhya in October 1990. The action had made Lalu Prasad an “ icon” of secular forces. Since then, he has been the most vocal of Advani’s detractors.
But tomorrow will not be easy on Lalu Prasad. First, he will have to watch Advani embark on another yatra from the home of his mentor — it was at JP’s behest the Bihar leader got the Janata Party ticket from Saran (then Chhapra) and became an MP for the first time in 1977.
More galling for Lalu Prasad will be the sight of his friend-turned-rival Nitish, another JP protégé, do the honours for the roadshow. The flag-off, though, has been organised at the airport ground in Chhapra, 30km from here, as roads in JP’s birthplace are not good enough for Advani’s cavalcade.
Muslims in Sitabdiara — now part of the RJD chief’s Saran constituency — were among those who had rooted for Lalu Prasad when he arrested Advani in 1990.
Not anymore, it seems. Many of the 50 estimated Muslim families in the riverine settlement are part of those building the dais for Advani and Nitish. Some believe that could be because the flurry around the yatra has helped ignite the spark of development, almost literally.
“All of us are enthusiastic about the visit of Nitish Kumar and L.K. Advani. The village will see an electric bulb light up for the first time with Nitish Kumar inaugurating it (a power connection to the area) tomorrow,” said Manipratap Singh, a resident who idolises JP.
