LK Advani

A BRILLIANT BOOK ON PAKISTAN

In the past three decades I have attended numerous book release functions. In my preamble to the comments I have been making on the book to be launched I have often remarked that during the nineteen months of the infamous Emergency (1975-77) which I spent mainly in the Bangalore Central Jail, and briefly in the Rohtak Jail, the one word that used to bring great cheer to all the political prisoners behind bars was the word ‘release’. So, since my own release on 18^thJanuary, 1977 – arrest was on 26^th June 1975 – whenever I have been approached by an author with the request to ‘release’ his book, I have rarely disappointed him.

1924 : WHEN MAHATMA BECAME CONGRESS PRESIDENT

Last week I was invited by the Ramakrishna Mission, Belgaum, to come to Belgaum and formally inaugurate a large auditorium they had put up quite close to the place where Swami Vivekananda had stayed during his first tour of South India.

For this function, all trustees of the Ramakrishna Mission Trust from all over the country, including the Mission Head Quarters at Vellur Math, Calcutta, had come.

My visit to Belgaum was literally an interaction with history. Just visiting the place where Swami Vivekananda had stayed for nine

INDIA’S NAME SULLIED BY CORRUPTION : GUJARAT A CONTRAST

On Republic Day every year, after witnessing the Parade at the Rajpath I have been having a mini flag-hoisting ritual at my residence also. The participants are mainly the security personnel on duty at my place. This year my daughter Pratibha had for them a screening of her one hour documentary “Vande Mataram”.

To the media persons present I said, Republic Day is a day when every Indian should feel a sense of pride that he belongs to a great country that is respected the world over.

TRICOLOUR-BEARERS ABUSED AND ASSAULTED

Exactly one hundred years back, in 1911, King George V and Queen Mary, came to India and at a Darbar held in Delhi on December 12 announced that the Partition of Bengal was annulled, and that the capital of British India was being shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

This year also marks the 150^th anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s birth.

LET NOT THE STATE SURRENDER TO SEPARATISTS 

The BJP’s Youth Wing has undertaken a Tiranga Yatra from Kolkatta to Srinagar to hoist the Tricolour at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, on Republic Day. The yatra started from Kolkatta on January 12, and after travelling through seven states passed through Delhi on January 20. 

 

At 5 .00 P.M. that evening at a function at the Vithal Bhai Patel Bhavan grounds, New Delhi  I formally handed over to Anurag Thakur, M.P., and President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, a Tricolour Flag to be hoisted in Srinagar.

INDIAN WEALTH ABROAD : S.C. PULLS UP GO

By all evaluations the Man Mohan Singh Government is passing through the worst crisis of its six and a half year tenure. The spectrum scam, the Commonwealth games scam and the Defence land scam of Mumbai have come all together in a manner as to make the common man feel that many in the government today are not just making money on the sly, but they are brazenly looting the country.

More worrisome is the fact that this is a crisis not only for Government but also for the country. The present level of corruption and inflation undermines the nation’s collective self-confidence.

LET THERE BE A FILM ON THE EMERGENCY

During India’s freedom struggle against British Rule, in the year 1930 two major events occurred. One was Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March; the other was the Chittagong Armoury raid.

Gandhiji commenced his Dandi March for the ‘Salt satyagraha’ on March 12 from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Along with 78 Ashramites he walked a distance of 390 kms. to reach Dandi on the West Coast where on April 6 morning he defied the law to make salt from the sea. The British Government arrested him thereafter.

Shri L K Advani is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Prime Ministerial Candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the 2009 General Elections. Through the years Advaniji had served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the longest period since its inception in 1980. Capping a parliamentary career of nearly three decades, Advaniji was, first, the Home Minister and, later, the Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999-2004). Advaniji is widely regarded as an individual of great intellectual ability, strong principles, and unwavering support for the idea of a strong and prosperous India. As confirmed by Atalji, Advaniji has 'never compromised on his core belief in nationalism, and yet has displayed flexibility in political responses whenever it was demanded by the situation'. Advaniji was born on 8 Nov 1927 and grew up in pre-partitioned Sindh. As a student in St. Patrick's School, Karachi, his patriotic ideals inspired him to join the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) at the mere age of fourteen. He has dedicated his life to the service of the nation ever since.  Advaniji’s celebration of India's independence from the British in 1947 was sadly short lived as he became one of the millions to be torn from his homeland amidst the terror and bloodshed of the tragedy of India's partition. These events, however, did not turn him bitter or cynical but instead spurred him on in his desire to create a more secular India. With this goal in mind he journeyed to Rajasthan to continue his work as an RSS Pracharak. Through the latter half of the 1980s and the 1990s, Advaniji focused on the singular task of building the BJP into a national political force. The results of his efforts were underscored by the 1989 General Election. The Party bounced back from its 1984 tally of 2 to achieve an impressive 86 seats. The Party position moved up to 121 seats in 1992 and 161 in 1996; making the 1996 elections a watershed in Indian democracy. For the first time since independence, the Congress was dethroned from its preeminent position, and the BJP became the single largest party in the Lok Sabha. An emotional individual with strong family ties, Advaniji has said that 'nature dangles happiness and meaning before us all, insisting only that we choose between them, but I have had the good fortune of experiencing both, and in abundance'. Today, Advaniji asks the people of India to make the right choice, in choosing a leader who has lived through the mistakes of India's past, and looks forward to ensuring that India becomes more united, stronger and stands taller with its Tomorrow brighter than its Today.

About Advaniji : A Timeline November 8, 1927 - Shri L.K Advani was born in Karachi, in present day Pakistan, to parents Kishenchand and Gyanidevi Advani. 1936-1942 - Studied at St.Patricks school, Karachi, standing first in every class until matriculation. 1942 - Joined the RSS as a Swayamsevak. 1942 - Joined Dayaram Gidumal National College, Hyderabad, during the Quit India movement. 1944 - Held a job as a teacher in Model High School, Karachi. 12 September, 1947 - Left from Sindh to Delhi by propeller aircraft during Paritition. 1947-1951 - Organised RSS work in Alwar, Bharatpur, Kota, Bundi and Jhalawar as RSS Secretary in the Karachi branch. Early 1957- Shifted to Delhi to assist Shri.Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 1958-63 - Held the position of Secretary of the Delhi State Jana Sangh. 1960-1967 - Joined the Organiser , a political journal of the Jana Sangh as assistant editor. Feb 25, 1965 - Married Smt. Kamla Advani, with whom he has two children, Pratibha and Jayant. April 1970 - Entered the Rajya Sabha. Dec 1972 - Was elected President of Bharatiya Jana Sangh. 26 June 1975 - Was Arrested in Bangalore during Emergency period and taken to Banaglore Central Jail along with other BJS members. March 1977 to July 1979 - Held the position of Union minister for Information and Broadcasting .May 1986- Became Party President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 1980-86 - Held the position of General Secretary of the BJP. May 1986 - Was announced as party President of the BJP. 3 March 1988 - Was re-elected party president of the BJP. 1988 - Held the position of Home minister in the BJP Government. 1990 - Began the Ram Rath Yatha from Somnath to Ayodhya. 1997 - Began the Swarna Jayanti Rath Yathra to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence. Oct 13 1999 - May 13 2004- Held the position of Deputy Prime minister. Shri.L.K.Advani is currently the Leader of the opposition and the Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 General elections. EMERGENCY OF 1975 AKIN TO NAZI RULE The 172-page book published by the Congress Party with the title “Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation” carries just two short paragraphs to tell the country what happened during the emergency of 1975-77. The two paragraphs are as follows: “The period of the emergency saw the suspension of normal political procedures and fundamental rights, arrests of the leaders of the Grand Alliance, and enforcement of press censorship and strict discipline. Extreme communal and leftist organizations were banned.  More than one lakh people were arrested over the 19 months of the Emergency. Powers of the judiciary were reduced drastically.  Unlimited state and party power was concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister.

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