In contrast, Advani was the typical apparatchik with the added advantage of being fluent in English and with an element of sophistication, probably because of his convent background. This unusual combination was a godsend for the Hindutva lobby for it enabled Advani to play a role which, say, Vinay Katiyar or Pravin Togadiya or even Rajnath Singh, described as a “provincial” by Jaswant Singh during the latter’s period of estrangement from the BJP, would not have been able to play.

It was when he made way for Vajpayee to be prime minister in 1996 that Advani must have realized the advantages of being a moderate in a plural society. Since then, he has wavered between the two positions. He sharply criticized George Fernandes for his casual reference to assaults on women during the Gujarat riots. That was the moderate Advani. On the other hand, he defended the Bajrang Dal when the latter was implicated in the murders of Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa in 1999. That was the vintage rath yatri of 1990, which was responsible for his title of loh purush or iron man in the saffron brotherhood.

It was when Vajpayee began to fade away from the political scene that Advani seemed to have decided to project his moderation more seriously. The most determined effort was his praise of Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s “secularism” during a visit to Pakistan in 2005. It cost him his job, for the RSS was unwilling to accept such heresy and chose Rajnath Singh for the BJP chief’s post in place of the old charioteer. But, to his credit, Advani hasn’t given up. Not only has he reiterated his views on Jinnah, he even inspired Jaswant Singh to pen a favourable biography of the Quaid-e-Azam, for which the Rajasthani MP from Darjeeling had to pay a price by being thrown out of the BJP for a time.

However, even more than Advani’s controversial take on Jinnah, which can be explained away as an intellectual exercise with no implications for present-day politics, the loh purush’s latest exoneration of the Congress’s first family from the allegations of maintaining Swiss bank accounts may be difficult for the BJP and the Sangh parivar to swallow. The man behind the charges, S. Gurumurthy, a long-time member of the saffron camp, has dismissed Advani’s apology to Sonia Gandhi as “a dignified regret for the personal distress”, which the so-called four-member task force’s report on the family’s foreign accounts has caused.

In an article in the New Indian Express, Gurumurthy has claimed that the “regret” has subsequently been “turned into a political apology”. He is also pleased that Advani’s much-publicized letter to Sonia has drawn attention to the report, which was earlier ignored by the media. It is difficult to say what such hair-splitting will achieve since it will not be possible for the BJP and the parivar to attack the Nehru-Gandhi family on this subject in the near future. Advani’s “regret”, therefore, is not unlike the sorrow – “saddest day of my life” – which he expressed after the Babri masjid demolition, which hasn’t been accepted by the RSS and the VHP.

However, what these episodes suggest is that Advani has become something of a loose cannon, who is capable of major deviations from the party line because of personal convictions and because he believes that his stature justifies them. Vajpayee, too, followed his own inclinations as when he went to Lahore to make peace with Pakistan or called for the settlement of the Kashmir problem not so much within the parameters of the Constitution as of insaniyat (humanity). But he was always seen as someone who was not fully committed to the saffron world-view, which was why he was often called the “right man in the wrong party”.

Advani, on the other hand, was a full-fledged saffronite up to the “saddest day of his life”. But, now, his interpretation of Jinnah and apology to Sonia make him someone about whom the BJP and the parivar will always be wary. Yet, for all his idiosyncrasies, the octogenarian remains the party’s No. 1 leader even though the party and the RSS have eased him out of major positions like that of party president and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. In all probability, he will also be the BJP’s choice to be the prime ministerial candidate in 2014 since Narendra Modi has been unable to overcome the moral taint of the 2002 riots. The BJP, therefore, is being led by a person who can occasionally let off a smoke bomb. (IPA Service)