3-day fast rocks 30-year bond-Narendra Modi owes his political existence to Advani , who promoted him all along and solidly stood by hisprotege25/9/11

3-day fast rocks 30-year bond

Ajay Umat & Harit MehtaAjay Umat & Harit Mehta, TNN | Sep 25, 2011, 07.00AM IST


It was during the dark days of Emergency of 1975 that a dynamic 25-year-old RSS pracharak came in contact with LK Advani , then a top leader of Jan Sangh . Lalji , as LK Advani is known in his close circles , instantly recognized the organizing skills of this go-getter , who would later emerge as one of BJP's tallest and the most controversial leaders . Narendra Modi owes his political existence to Advani , who promoted him all along and solidly stood by his protege in every single crisis he faced .

The relationship flourished as Modi continued to impress Advani time and again . The defining moment Modi's career came when he masterminded BJP's thumping victory in the Ahmedabad civic body elections in 1987 - it was for the first time the party tasted power in Gujarat's No. 1 city .

An old timer recalls how Modi left a group of top leaders spellbound when he bared the gameplan for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls . Some of them gave a detailed account of Modi's presentation to Advani .

In 1991, it was Modi who suggested to Advani that he should contest for Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar , having lost the last elections from New Delhi in 1984. Gandhinagar was until then represented by Modi's peerturned-foe Shankersinh Vaghela . It was a masterstroke as BJP cadres got charged up in the state and Vaghela was relegated to the fringes . The relationship grew with Advani frequently visiting Gujarat after becoming an MP from the state .

The clincher was yet to come . This was the time when the Babri movement was gaining momentum . Advani shared with Modi the idea of reviving Somnath temple as an epitome of Islamic oppression over Hindus and a symbol of Muslim invasions . The idea soon took form of a rathyatra , which changed Indian politics in an irreversible way . Modi was chosen as Advani's 'sarthi' , who minutely planned his mentor's rathyatra in Gujarat .

BJP gained enormously , especially in Gujarat . The party , which dumped Chimanbhai Patel-led Janata Dal , stormed to power with two-thirds majority in 1995. While Keshubhai Patel nudged Vaghela out of the CM's race , Advani added a third angle - Modi was made the party's general secretary in charge of organization .

It was with Advani's blessings that Modi emerged as a 'super CM' even as he ran the government from the back seat . Complaints against Modi were stonewalled by Advani till Vaghela's dramatic 'Khajuraho revolt ' which led to the fall of Keshubhai government in 1996. All anti-Modi forces within BJP identified the 'super CM' as the source of all trouble . It was almost decided that Modi be sent to BJP's Assam unit . T he mentor saved the day for his shishya and minimized the damage by negotiating a Punjab-H aryana-H i m a c h a l P r a d e s h posting for M o d i , w h o used the opportunity to develop a pan-I ndia network . Vaghela's Rashtriya Janata Dal was crushed in 1998 as Keshubhai was sworn in as CM for the second term - a period ridden with droughts , Kandla cyclone and a Kutch quake which shook the foundation of his government . The last straw was BJP's defeat in five successive assembly by-elections including Sabarmati , which fell in Advani's parliamentary constituency . When dissidence grew against Keshubhai , Advani pitch-forked his shishya to the CM's chair . Modi landed in Gandhinagar out of the blue in October 2001. Till then , Modi had not contested a single election and had no administrative experience . But, Advani's lobbying got him the top job much to the chagrin of senior party leadership . When the riots took place in early 2002, Lalji continued to back his man when many senior partymen , including the then prime minister AB Vajpayee and Gujarat governor Sundar Singh Bhandari , wanted to show Modi the door . As union home minister , Advani vehemently defended Modi and police action in the parliament .

The first cracks in the threedecade-old relationship surfaced in 2005 when Modi maintained a stoic silence during Jinnah controversy when Advani was under severe attack from the RSS . Tension grew further when during mid-way of the campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, Modi began projecting himself as a proxy PM candidate , as few expected Manmohan Singh to come back to power . Next , came a series of public meetings in Gujarat when crowds , after having heard Modi with rapt attention , would leave en masse just when Advani rose as the last speaker .

Matters came to a head in the first week of September . Advani discussed his proposed anti-corruption yatra with Modi in detail , including the possible locations to flag it off. Advani had suggested that the yatra should begin on October 2 from the Mahatma's birthplace , Porbandar . As he was waiting for Modi's word , the ageing mentor was taken by surprise when he heard about Modi's Sadbhavana Mission . Advani took this in his stride as he was heard praising Modi at the 3-day Sadbhavana fast , where the Gujarat CM projected himself as a statesman acceptable to everybody . Once the fast was over , Modi conveyed to Advani that he should start his yatra from Bihar . Plus, the RSS advised Advani to stay out of the PM race .

The guru has now hit back by ending a 20-year streak of being at Somnath , to commemorate the launch of his first rathyatra . Modi, who had planned a big rally on the same day , came to know from the newspapers that Advani had also refused to attend the Somnath trust meeting , of which both are members , on September 30. The bigger shock came when Advani decided to extend an invitation to the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar , another PM candidate who dislikes Modi, to flag off his rathyatra on October 11.

Apart from a breakdown in a 30-year-old relationship , it is also a game-plan in power-play for year 2014 which has gone awry for Modi.