From Ram to Jinnah is a long journey. But Lal Krishna Advani's pilgrimage took less than a week. The pilgrim was a stereotype exaggerated to demonic proportions by his own back story. They thought I had horns, he said about his image in Pakistan. He was, after all, the iron man-a bit rusty, though-of Hindu nationalism, painted in forbidding saffron. He wanted to break out of the image trap, and the collateral damage was to be as devastating as the irony of the moment. The BJP leader's phantom persona was unmasked at the altar of the very man who caused the Partition. On June 4, 2005, at Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi, he had this epiphany. The inscription he left there would later become the post-script on his resignation letter. Praising Jinnah, he wrote, "His address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, is a classic, forceful espousal of a secular state...."

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IMAGE YATRA: Advani and family before the Mohanta Palace, Jinnah's residence, in Karachi; Advani receives a memento (right)

He then signed the visitor's book with a flourish and asked his speechwriter Sudheendra Kulkarni to fax a copy of what would turn out to be the most defining words he had ever scribbled in his life to Delhi and release to the media. The message landed on party spokesperson Prakash Javdekar's desk. Startled by the leader's revelation, Javdekar contacted his colleagues Sushma Swaraj, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley. They were unanimous. This cannot be published. "But this is what Advaniji wants," spluttered Kulkarni. "Is he planning to contest elections in Pakistan or India?" asked one of them.

CROSS BORDER SECULARISM

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SOLE SUPPORTER: Only Vajpayee (left) stood by Advani

Even after his return from Islamabad, Advani did not feel the need to offer any explanation. The RSS and the VHP lashed out against him. Still no one from the party rushed to his defence. Furious, the party chief summoned General Secretary Sanjay Joshi to his residence and handed him a pre-dated resignation letter. Joshi, apart from being in charge of organisational affairs, is also the RSS' man in the BJP and hence a fitting repository of the missive in more ways than one. Advani wrote, "I have not said or done anything in Pakistan which I need to retract or review." Dateline: Karachi. The city of his biological birth and political rebirth.

For some in the Sangh, it was blackmail at its worst. Twenty-four hours later Advani told the TV cameras that he would not reconsider his resignation despite pleas from his colleagues. "The reason I resigned still stands," he stated. The message was clear but the party chose to ignore it. Instead, it went through the token motions of appeasing their leader's ego. A meeting of the parliamentary board and office-bearers was summoned and a glib resolution was passed. It praised Advani and pointed out that "he has scholarly articulated the debate on nationalism in the past few decades with rationality and logic". But Advani wanted more than lip service. He demanded that the party draft a second resolution categorically supporting his stand on Jinnah. "This would be suicidal," muttered one of the office-bearers walking out of Advani's drawing room. None of the leaders stopped to talk to the waiting media. In fact, most of the party's TV stars slunk out of a side gate. The soundbite brigade had run out of spin.

But so bereft is the party of an alternative leadership that it didn't take long for the vacuum to engulf them. The Gen Next brigade revved up its battle for the top job. Both Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj were serious candidates. However, Naidu claimed seniority having served as party chief earlier. Unable to find consensus, the second-rung leadership capitulated and rushed back to Advani. Throughout the night, at least two drafts of a modified resolution were delivered to Advani's house with Kulkarni acting as the courier boy. Advani threw the first one in the dustbin. He not only wanted support on the Jinnah statement but also wanted the party to appreciate the rest of his Pakistan trip. He felt his diplomatic initiative had been lost in the entire drama. This was a presidential tantrum at its best. However, as news of the bailout was leaked out the RSS too stepped up its pressure against a compromise on Jinnah. The final draft that was handed to Advani the next day still fell short of his expectations.

LEFT FUMING

"Jinnah was and will be a traitor. A person who glorifies a traitor is a traitor." PRAVEEN TOGADIA VHP GENERAL SECRETARY "Advani should publicly apologise. He has betrayed the Hindus of our country. " ASHOK SINGHAL VHP PRESIDENT "It is the BJP's internal matter. The Sangh has no role in it ... Advani has done good." K.S. SUDERSHAN RSS CHIEF

THE RESIGNING DEITY

Clearly, the entire farce was not so much about Jinnah as about Advani himself. Advani had never felt so isolated within his own party. His residence at Prithviraj Road was deserted. Cavalcades of leaders drove in and asked him to reconsider, but very few lingered. His courtiers were missing when he needed them the most. The few who defended him were the ones he had done no favours to-leaders like Yashoraje Scindia and Sahib Singh Verma. Where were his protégés when the master's nationalist credentials were questioned in the most uncharitable language by the Sangh? VHP General Secretary Praveen Togadia called him Lal Mohammad Advani and a traitor. The personal and vicious nature of the attack hurt Advani's family, particularly as they pointed out that Advani had not actually called Jinnah "secular". Advani too told his friends that he had quoted Jinnah's speech only to remind the current establishment that their founder had envisaged a secular state. "I could not directly attack Musharraf as he was my host," he explained. "But there is a difference between policy and protocol," objected a party official. The subtlety is also lost on the RSS and VHP.

VICIOUS CIRCLE

ARUN JAITLEY Advani's one-time protege and soundbite strategist had no spin to offer in support of his chief's makeover. No, not even off the record. M.A. NAQVI His route to Advani is via M. Venkaiah Naidu. A soundbite artist, but even his love for the limelight did not propel him to defend Advani. M. VENKAIAH NAIDU For 48 hours Advani kept pressing the remote control. But Venkaiah failed to materialise on the television screen. SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI Advani's speechwriter is the only loyalist who has remained faithful. Maybe because he was part of the crisis.

In an interview to India Today, Togadia said, "Advani rode the Ram Rath to become the leader of Opposition and now he wants to get prime ministership sitting on Jinnah's shoulders." Added RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav: "This is against the basic ideology of the RSS. We have been of the view that Jinnah was responsible for the division and partition of the country." Another RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat told BJP general secretaries that Advani needed to clarify or resign.

While Advani was still across the border, his general secretaries met at Naidu's house and gave vent to their anger. "When there is a choice between ideology and idol, the idol should be sacrificed. Never the ideology," said one. Scared that it might have to answer uncomfortable questions, the party suspended its daily official briefings and resorted to off-the-record sessions. It took 48 hours for Naidu, the leader's most embarrassing political creation, to come before the cameras and that too not so much to defend Advani as to slam the VHP.

"It is not just that Advaniji decided to go in for an image makeover. What hurts is that he never took any of us into confidence about this," explains a party official. Advani had no pre-trip discussions on his scripted strategy. There was also no one from the party in his entourage except Kulkarni, a lightweight. As leader of Opposition, Sonia Gandhi always took a credible member of the Congress, usually the party's mea expert Natwar Singh, along with her on her official trips abroad to advise her. Was Advani aspiring to be larger than the organisation he had built?

WHY ADVANI DID IT The Parivar is puzzled by Advani's J-Turn. It is not just what he said but also where he said it. And he didn't take anyone from the party into confidence before making such an explosive statement.

GOING HINDULITE: The BJP, growing from two seats in 1984 to 182 in 1999, had peaked. Moving from hardline Hindutva to Hindulite to come to power in 1998 it needed to reposition itself. Advani felt that given the groundswell for peace, anti-Pakistan rhetoric had played itself out and it was time to be seen as a moderate right wing party. But all its efforts to wash off Gujarat in E-2004 failed. FANCYING TOP JOB: Since Vajpayee has almost retired from active politics, there is a space for a moderate right-winger with mass appeal and Advani is desperate to occupy that slot. The problem is that such an instant makeover of a man who built his political career on hardcore Hindu nationalism carries little conviction. But he seems convinced that this is his moment to be No 1. DIVERSIONARY TACTIC: After becoming BJP president in October 2004, Advani has been clueless on how to fill the ideological vacuum and quell infighting. By shifting the focus to Jinnah and secularism he has diverted attention from his own lacklustre performance as party chief and the mess the BJP is in. But he has only succeeded in deepening the ideological divide in the Sangh Parivar.

The cross-border secularist claims that he was swept away by the emotion of the moment. When asked to lay the foundation stone for the restoration of Hindu temples at Katas Raj, he said, "I was truly overwhelmed by the warmth and affection of the people." Strange, coming from a man who is not "impulsive" or "emotional" in his actions. Advani recently told his aides that there have been three phases in the BJP. "The first phase began with the Shah Bano case, from 1985 to 1996. The second was when we were in power, from 1996 to 2004. Now begins the third phase."

PARTY HAS THREE A's; NEEDS THREE I's

The first phase was the time for hardline Hindutva and the rath yatra, while the second ushered in an era of coalition politics and compromise. In the third phase the party is floundering to define itself. It was the three A's that brought the party to power: Atal, Advani and Agenda. What the crisis-ridden party now needs is three I's: India, Individual and Identity. It needs a leader who has the vision to give the party a brand new identity and bring it back to power.

The party has failed as an Opposition party, and Advani as its leader has been unable to enthuse the ranks. His strategy involved abstention rather than opposition. During the budget session the main Opposition party decided to boycott Parliament. Landmark bills such as the Right to Information and the SEZ (special economic zones) bills were passed without the Opposition's participation. The charioteer was steering the party back into wilderness. Advani's rath yatra in 1990 had spurred a movement that ended with the demolition of the Babri masjid and gave India its moment of shame and the party a slogan of mobilisation. His Bharat Uday yatra in 2004 chugged along, complaining of air-conditioning failures rather than heralding ideological victories.

SAFFRON SEESAW

ON PARTITION THEN 1990: "The Partition was a mistake. It benefited neither country. We should visualise a new confederation of Pakistan and India." NOW 2005: "The Partition cannot be undone. The creation of India and Pakistan as two separate nations is an unalterable reality of history." ON AYODHYA THEN 1997: "The mosque was an ocular demonstration against the Hindus. Now that the provocation is not there it is not a matter of regret." NOW 2005: "The demolition was the saddest day of my life. I am not saying this for the first time. No, I said this soon after the incident." ON PAKISTAN THEN 2002: "We know that a war of a different kind has been inflicted on us for 20 years in which the enemy gets sustenance in Pakistan." NOW 2005: "Fiza badli hui hai, bahut badli hui hai (The atmosphere has definitely changed. It has changed a lot)."

Even at the organisational level, Advani is no longer perceived as the strict disciplinarian he was in the '90s. The party is plagued with infighting. Last month, Advani had to retract one of his own decisions merely because he could not enforce discipline within the party. He had initially announced that the Jaitley-Mahajan duo would be in joint charge of Assam during the state elections. But both refused to work with the other. Advani beat a tactical retreat and sent Jaitley to Tamil Nadu instead. At the state level, the BJP chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are facing periodical threats to their posts from within. This was unheard of during Advani's earlier stints as BJP chief. Indeed many now believe that the turn of events in the last week complete the "Congressification" of what was once a cadre-based party with a difference.

That the BJP is going through a crisis of ideology is something that was rammed home by the Indian voter in the previous elections. The Hindutva wave peaked in 1999 when the BJP reached an all-time high of 182 seats. In 2004, the party tally dipped for the first time since its inception, notching only 138 seats. Since then the party is itching for issues that will click. Its efforts to woo the voter with the tiranga yatra, the Savarkar agitation or even the campaign against tainted ministers have failed. An ideological opportunist, Advani has realised that Ram and Ayodhya have done their bit for the BJP. It is now time to find a new God with a new dateline. And due to some perverse logic, he felt that this could be found across the border. Across the Line of Control the hawk fluttered his wings and flirted with the doves. In Lahore he said the masjid demolition "was the saddest day of my life". NCP leader Sharad Pawar wondered, "Why is he secular only in Pakistan and not in India?"

Pakistan is just Act One in this cross-border theatre of the absurd. This is not a man whose ambition is limited to leading an Opposition party. In April 1985, when party leader Jana Krishnamurty asked Advani to take over as BJP chief for the first time, he had been startled. Records Krishnamurty in a September 1997 issue of party magazine BJP Today: "He was not only surprised but even shocked at my request. He asked me whether I was serious and said, 'Jana, I can at best be No. 2 in the party but never a No. 1'." While Advani may have been the BJP president for five terms since then, it is only in 2004 that he finally became No. 1 in the party. And now, when his moment has come, he is almost desperate in his eagerness to seize it. He saw Pakistan as his tryst with destiny. Unfortunately, it may not be the BJP's. But clearly, Advani believes he is the party and his agenda is fit for the party.

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FRIENDS TURNED FOES: The RSS asked Advani (left) to clarify his remarks or quit. Advani opted for battle.	WELL ALIGNED: NDA allies, George Fernandes (second from right) and Nitish Kumar (right), defended Advani

After all the fuss is not about what was said about Jinnah, but about who said it and where. As far as Advani is concerned his performance has found applause in the right quarters: the NDA allies and the Parivar be damned. As a BJP strategist points out, "When the BJP was in power, they were rushing off to Ayodhya every month and had to be cajoled by Vajpayee and Advani. But during the last year, ever since the BJP lost power, have they made even a single trip to Ayodhya? Have they abandoned the old bogey?"

It is not the legendary organisation man who is at work. It is a leader softened by power, and he lives in the afterglow of power, more comfortable in social circuits rather than in battlefields. This is not the revival script expected from the great redeemer. The party that Advani is reluctant to lead is a party that is let down by Advani himself. His struggle to reinvent himself has only deepened the existential struggle of a BJP lost in an ideological wasteland.

-with Uday Mahurkar

GUJARAT

Opposition to the Leader For L.K. Advani it was perhaps the darkest moment. Hours after he landed in India, a crowd of VHP and BJP workers gathered at the Ghatlodia municipality that falls under Advani's Gandhinagar constituency. It was midnight. They were carrying tar in jerry cans to blacken the walls and railings along a road that had been inaugurated by Advani just a fortnight ago. When a senior BJP leader remonstrated them, a worker retorted, "Do you support that Pakistani? We will blacken everything that's associated with Advani." A similar incident took place at Uvarsad, another village in Gandhinagar, where some villagers clamoured that they wanted the cancellation of a power plant that was to be inaugurated by the BJP leader. A panchayat leader was belligerent: "We would welcome a blackout in our village rather than get 24-hour power at the hands of a turncoat."   PICTURE SPEAK ROUSING RAGE: Protests against Advani in Gandhinagar in Gujarat Gujarat must be Advani's political karmabhoomi but it is also the land of VHP firebrand Praveen Togadia. When he was not spewing venom against the leader of the Opposition, Togadia was on the phone giving instructions on how to hold demonstrations against him. At a shakha in Ahmedabad, some RSS workers wondered aloud why their leaders were giving a long rope to Advani. Meanwhile, BJP leaders tried to do some damage control. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi swung into action, asking party workers to wipe the anti-Advani slogans that had been painted on the walls even as some die-hard Modi supporters were heard saying that the party president had done irreparable damage to BJP's hardline ideology. On the ground, people read several meanings into Advani's controversial statements on Jinnah. For some, the BJP leader had resorted to a calculated political move aimed at becoming the prime minister. A secular stance would be well in order for that. Says Rajeshbhai Shah, a businessman: "Advani and A.B. Vajpayee lost the Lok Sabha polls because they diluted the Hindutva ideology. Now they are acting like the gambler who raises his stakes with every round of defeat." If the man on the street has figured out the reasons for NDA's debacles, then why can't Advani, wonder many BJP workers. Advani might have called for an ideological debate but in Gujarat not many want to join hands with him. They have already passed their judgement even as they wonder if this is the same man who rode the rath on September 26, 1990, from Somnath to Ayodhya, to revive the Hindu pride. -Uday Mahurkar

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