BLUNT BUTCHER
JAMMU: Lal Krishan Advani is supposedly the Margdarshak for BJP, which is donning the Delhi throne and partnering the Rajgadhi (seat of power) in Jammu and Kashmir. A few years back, the strong Jammu bastion of the BJP in north India, was dancing on the tunes of a man known as Lohpurash or iron-man for his grit; for his commitment to nation and for his determination to lead the party to pinnacles of its political odyssey. He was being seen as Sardar Patel. He was the most sought after leader for the small timers of the Jammu BJP who have grown up larger than life size.
Is it this larger-than-life-size-cutout of BJP that has reduced the towering man of the party to shambles? He is not being spared even during the moment of his personal grief.
Mrs Kamala Advani, the wife of BJP patriarch and Margdarshak is no more. The entire Sangh brass led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is showing solidarity with the former Deputy Chief Minister. Put in the words of Modi, the departed soul has been an inspiration and motivation for Karyakartas of the BJP over the years. The Prime Minister says, that Kamala Advani had quite often been inspiring the Sangh cadres. Obviously, the Karykartas would have been from Jammu as well. Given the claims of present-day ministers and legislators of the saffron party, they are deeply rooted with the leadership, Advaniji included.
Therefore, is this the way of ‘ungrateful’ Jammu Karyakartas to indulge in merrymaking at the lavish party, comprising multi-course Kashmri Wazwan, hosted at Wazart Road Residence of the Chief Minister? Mehboob Mufti has thrown a party to her party legislators and those of coalition partner BJP and other political parties. A beeline of the BJP ministers and legislators could be seen outside the CM Residence, ironically at a time when Lal Krishan Advani was getting condolences from cross section of Indian society.
Even as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and former Chief Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah condoled the demise of Kamala Advani and expressed solidarity with Lal Krishan Advani, none of the BJP ministers or legislators spoke a word till the penning of this piece. Drunk by power so profusely, they forgot their Margdarshak, who was grieving in the political wilderness enforced by his own party.
BJP has a trait of chronic betrayal. It betrayed Shyama Prasad Mukherjee when the newly appointed BJP ministers, during the first spell of PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir, boarded twin-flag cars with their heads straightened with pride, notwithstanding the fact that the founder of Jana Sangh, now the BJP, had laid his life against ‘Do Nishan, Do Vidhan and Do Pradhan’. They swore by the two constitutions and became partners with a party which primarily believes in restoring the pre-1952 grandeur of Jammu and Kashmir with its chief political executive known as Prime Minister.
If the power-hungry BJP can compromise with its fundamentals in the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir, why should one wonder if its leaders keep saying ‘cheers-up’ at a lavish party rather than expressing solidarity with grieving Margdarshak.It is a reflection of duplicity in the BJP ranks, which has left them exposed.
The BJP flock also forgot the miseries and agonies of students’ canecharged brutally by the police force of their own government just because they chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and unfurled tricolor. They did not felt shame in rejoicing at a party while fractured, injured and battered students were not getting even idiomatic first-aid, least to speak of healing touch, at a place which is supposed to be jewel in the crown of India. The young students of this great nation were beaten red and blue and the senior most BJP minister in the state was dismissing it as a mild lathicharge. The same man, leading his ministerial colleagues, felt elated bouquets to the Chief Minister for the honour bestowed upon them to have been rehabilitated again. This is trauma of Indian nation. This is irony of the BJP. And, the patriarch of the party should have no grouse if the flock is merrymaking while the elderly leader of the party is grieving.
