The reason why he has chosen the present moment to reiterate the familiar saffron line on Nehru’s naivety, Sheikh Abdullah’s ambitions about an independent Kashmir, the folly of Article 370, etc is not clear. Perhaps he wants to queer the pitch for the forthcoming meeting of the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers. Or perhaps he is rehearsing his campaign points as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the next general election. Or perhaps he wants to let the RSS know that his heart remains in the right place despite his occasional attempts to imitate Atal Behari Vajpayee’s moderation.

Whatever the reason, it may be worthwhile considering Advani’s own contribution to Indian politics since he regards the Kashmir problem as Nehru family’s “gift to the nation”. Even if it is conceded that the Indian army should have continued to drive the invaders out of what is today Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or that Nehru should not have mentioned the word, plebiscite, at all, it has to be remembered that the latter’s supposed follies in this respect were more than compensated by his great contribution to the Indian polity – that of strengthening its democracy.

It is the success of Indian democracy which has weakened Pakistan’s claims on Kashmir because a military dictatorship, or a flawed democracy beholden to the military for survival, can never compete on equal terms with a genuine democracy in the eyes of the world. As a result, the fallout from Nehru’s “mistakes” has been eroded over the years and especially now when Pakistan’s descent into terrorism has made it a virtual pariah, which was described as an international migraine by former US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

What these developments show is that Nehru’s pursuit of the democratic principle, which can also explain his call for a plebiscite to determine the views of Kashmiris, has been the ultimate winner. Nor could it have been otherwise because his vision was based on the highest ideal of governance which has been guiding the civilized world. In contrast to this salutary achievement of Nehru’s in moulding India’s present and future in a way which has earned the world’s applause, what has been Advani’s contribution ?

Since the Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra and the subsequent demolition of the Babri masjid mark the most significant period of Advani’s career, it is obvious that his politics of the time underlines the impact he made on the Indian scene. And the central feature of that achievement was the demolition of the mosque. For the first time since the medieval times, a place of worship was directly targeted to boost the political prospects of a party. It goes without saying, therefore, that attacking the shrines of the minorities constitutes Advani’s contribution to Indian politics. It was his description of the Babri masjid as an “ocular provocation” which fuelled the ire of the demolishers among other propaganda ploys.

As is known, it wasn’t only the mosque in Ayodhya which was on the Sangh parivar’s hit list. There were two others in Varanasi and Mathura, which were identified for destruction. In fact, the slogan of the Sanghis at the time was teen nahin, teen hazar, nahin rahegi ek mazar, which threatened to demolish 3,000 mosques and dargahs. It wasn’t only the Muslim shrines which were targeted, the churches, too, were ocular provocations for the saffron brigade, which was why they were burnt in Orissa in 2008. Since then, the realization that these acts of desecration have weakened the BJP politically has made it adopt a more moderate line. But, as the occasional outbursts of someone like Varun Gandhi show, the party’s and the parivar’s anti-minority outlook has remained unchanged.

Considering that this politics of hate is Advani’s bequest to the Indian scene, it seems odd for him to mock Nehru for the Kashmir problem. Even today, by referring to Article 370 and not to Article 371, which confers similar territorial and psychological protection to the north-east, Advani intends to stoke anti-Muslim and anti-Congress sentiments by equating the latter’s so-called minority appeasement in the rest of the country to its exclusivist treatment of Kashmir.

There is little doubt that these twisted arguments helped the BJP a great deal in the 1990s. But their effects have waned since then, not least because its six years in power revealed the party’s cynicism in using religion for political purposes. But if Advani’s latest attack on Nehru and his party’s reiteration at its recent national executive meeting of its determination to build the Ram temple signify a return to the old agenda, the reason perhaps is the slight signs of hope it is perceiving in Anna Hazare’s and Baba Ramdev’s agitations, which have the backing of the RSS. Hence, the aging rath yatri’s last-ditch attempt to rekindle the old flames of communal animosity. (IPA Service)