Testament of an Unrepentant Nationalist ; the Autobiography of One of India';S Most Misunderstood Politicians Is a Massive Attempt in Self-Vindication. Its Publication Coincides with His Last Chance to Become Prime Minister.

India Today › April 28, 2008

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Summary

Lal Krishna Advani is trapped inside an image. In the art works of professional demonologists, it is an image incompatible with the drawing room aesthetics of left-liberal India.

So, many variations of Advani continue to dominate and divide Indian politics. The nationalist who borrows his rhetorical wares from the black markets of mythology to win his argument with the present. The aggrieved Hindu who never stops returning to the imaginary sites of cultural vandalism.

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Testament of an Unrepentant Nationalist ; the Autobiography of One of India';S Most Misunderstood Politicians Is a Massive Attempt in Self-Vindication. Its Publication Coincides with His Last Chance to Become Prime Minister.

The divisive mobiliser on the right whose lasting legacy is as a catalyst to the demolition of India's secular edifice. The man who has sought the true meaning of genuine secularism, as against pseudo- secularism, at the mausoleum of the founder of an Islamic Republic. The hawk who pretends to have a heart. Post-Ayodhya, Advani has never been painted in pastels.

This project in demonisation by the self-righteous majority has not bothered him. That is what he says when you meet him at 30 Prithviraj Road, his official residence.

Well, as he walks into the drawing room, which is a pictorial celebration of his family values, you can't miss, in spite of that avuncular affability, the confidence of a man who has already won the argument.

And he looks relieved: at last he has become the narrator of his life story. Perhaps, he has been waiting for this moment: Advani redeemed by himself. My Country, My Life (Rupa & Co., 980pp, Rs 595) is the memoirs of a political leader whose life runs parallel to the spasmodic evolution of independent India. It is the testament of one of India's most misunderstood politicians and the one who could be the next prime minister.

His first encounter with the idea of the nation happened when he, at 14, walked from a tennis ground to an RSS shakha in Karachi. A matriculate from the city's St Patrick's High School for Boys, he enjoyed books, movies and cricket. And for this English speaking, middle-class boy whose second language was Latin, enlisting as a swayamsevak was not a cultural rebellion.

He joined the RSS on June 20, 1942. From that day till now, for 65 long years, I have remained a devoted, committed and proud swayamsevak of the Sangh.

And it was Karachi that set the ...

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