The a Bomb ; the Leader of Hindu Nationalism Reinvents Himself with a Little Help From the Founder of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan-and Divides the House of Saffron
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Summary
For so long, he was the long-distance traveller in mythology, struggling to bring back his displaced god to the right side of the nation. He was the charioteer who revived the ancient grief of the Hindu, and the most effective mobiliser in the politics of resentment. He was the nationalist with an argument, never scared to name the enemy, imaginary and real, within and without. When India had its first right-wing party in power, it was a triumphant moment for the force that he was. The promised land was ephemeral, the journey would continue, and the man himself would become a pathetic parody of his old self. So he changed course, took the history route and chose the unlikeliest of destinations to redefine himself-and to unravel his own legend. In Karachi, as the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party rhapsodised over the secular credentials of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, he was striking at the very fundamentals of his party.
It was a sight the BJP-or the Sangh Parivar-couldn't comprehend: hardcore Hindutva's commander-in-chief desperately seeking Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the author of two-nation theory, to make himself softer. A brain-dead party still wallowing in defeatism may have rallied behind the leader after the initial shock, but L.K. Advani has declared war on the party he was supposed to reconstruct from the wreckage of Elections 2004.See the full content of this document
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The a Bomb ; the Leader of Hindu Nationalism Reinvents Himself with a Little Help From the Founder of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan-and Divides the House of Saffron
Advani has turned his own private crisis into an existential struggle of the party. For, the most persistent yatri of Indian politics has consistently failed to reach his desired destination. He was the proverbial No. 2, struggling in private in the overwhelming...
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