That Narendra Modi and Lal Krishna Advani are not fond of each other is hardly a secret. Rather like the relationship between Sonia Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao, one felt the other sought to steal the party from what was rightfully theirs. The difference, however, is in the way Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party treats Rao versus how Narendra Modi’s BJP treats Advani. The Congress has underplayed the former prime minister’s achievements – from liberalisation to welfare schemes – while exaggerating his role in the demolition of the Babri masjid. Modi may also have sidelined Advani, but he dutifully greets the 96-year-old on his birthday every year. And his government has just announced a Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honour, for L K Advani.
This differing treatment of their own says a lot about why the Congress loses and why the BJP wins.
I met Advani around 2017 while researching for my book on the 60-year jugalbandi between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. He had by then been relegated to the irrelevance of the margadarshak mandal within his party. Advani had read my first book, a biography of Narasimha Rao. That book began with the story of how the former prime minister’s dead body was disrespected in 2004. Rao’s body was not allowed into the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi. And soon after his cremation in Congress-ruled Hyderabad, the body was left unguarded, allowing stray dogs to pull at the funeral pyre. It was a ghoulish beginning, and it affected Advani greatly. He asked me why the Congress treated its own so badly. He was perhaps reflecting on his own status.
He then said: “We also have differences in our party, But we don’t treat each other like that.”
I realised later that in that sentence, Advani had described the BJP’s greatest strength — its Hindutva Fevicol. Like in any other grouping, many in the sangh parivar dislike each other. But they are trained to avoid washing dirty linen in public. BJP politicians abandon their party much less than legislators from other parties. And no matter what their real feelings are, the rituals of public respect are maintained. As the words “sangh parivar” indicate, it is an organisational structure based on a squabbling but united family.
PM Modi’s decision to confer a Bharat Ratna on Advani is very much part of this Hindutva Fevicol, a show of respect for a family elder who did much to stymie him. Advani might have saved Modi from being sacked as Gujarat chief minister in 2002. But he was also the man who, in 2013, protested Modi being declared the party’s leader for the 2014 national elections. And when the BJP lost state elections in Delhi and Bihar in 2015, Advani became the Bahadur Shah-like figure around which party dissidents gathered to launch a gentle critique “of the way the party is being forced to kowtow to a handful”. Similarly, Vajpayee did much to end Modi’s political career. He tried hard to sack Modi as Gujarat chief minister after the 2002 riots; he also privately blamed Modi for the 2004 electoral loss of his government. No matter, when Vajpayee died in 2018, the Modi government turned the funeral into a national event, with the prime minister accompanying the funeral hearse for six kilometres on foot.
Advani and Vajpayee also rose above their differences – with each other and with Modi. No matter what their private feelings, they never sought to split the party in their image or hurt its electoral prospects to further their self-interest.
These outward trappings of family unity are a product of a certain reading of Hindu history. In the RSS’ telling, Hindus have lost to invaders because they fight with each other, rather than standing united. At shakhas – the daily building block of the RSS – the movement faithful discuss history lessons such as the third battle of Panipat in 1761. In their telling, the Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Abdali was able to win because the local Muslims rallied behind him. The Maratha confederacy, on the other hand, was riven by internal disputes between the Peshwas, Holkars, Gaekwads, and the Scindias. They also received little help from the Jats, Rajputs, and Sikhs. The Hindu side lost because it lacked unity.
There might be factual inaccuracies with such a sweeping narrative but this lesson of history has been turned into an organisational ethic by the RSS and BJP. To break the party would be to repeat the failings of the Hindu past. Stay united no matter what. Not all BJP leaders have adhered to this, such as Shankersinh Vaghela’s rebellion in Gujarat in 1995. But these few exceptions only prove the rule that the sangh parivar splits and breaks up much less than other parties. The couple may squabble, but they rarely divorce.
Modi’s gesture to honour Advani despite their differences is very much part of this Hindutva Fevicol. It shows that Modi – like Advani – has internalised the importance of a public show of party unity. Others can learn from this gesture. Dravidian politics would be very different had Karunanidhi and M G R not divided the movement because of personal egos; the Congress would not be in the condition it is in, had it not gone through episodic splits and desertions. And the INDIA opposition block might have a real chance if it focussed on unity rather than opportunity. Disagree within as much as you like, but present a united face without. It’s why the BJP wins.
The writer is a professor of law & politics. He is the author of ‘Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi’ and ‘Half Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao Transformed India’
PM Modi’s gesture to honour L K Advani despite their differences is very much part of this Hindutva Fevicol
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04.02.2024
That Narendra Modi and Lal Krishna Advani are not fond of each other is hardly a secret. Rather like the relationship between Sonia Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao, one felt the other sought to steal the party from what was rightfully theirs. The difference, however, is in the way Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party treats Rao versus how Narendra Modi’s BJP treats Advani. The Congress has underplayed the former prime minister’s achievements – from liberalisation to welfare schemes – while exaggerating his role in the demolition of the Babri masjid. Modi may also have sidelined Advani, but he dutifully greets the 96-year-old on his birthday every year. And his government has just announced a Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honour, for L K Advani.
This differing treatment of their own says a lot about why the Congress loses and why the BJP wins.
I met Advani around 2017 while researching for my book on the 60-year jugalbandi between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. He had by then been relegated to the irrelevance of the margadarshak mandal within his party. Advani had read my first book, a biography of Narasimha Rao. That book began with the story of how the former prime minister’s dead body was disrespected in 2004. Rao’s body was not allowed into the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi. And soon after his cremation in........
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