Advani as mentor: Will the new BJP leadership even care about him?
Advani, along with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and another senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi, has been made a mentor and members of the Margdarshak Mandal, a new body.
Advani's ouster complete
The systematic ouster of Advani in the BJP is complete now. The octogenarian leader, who had led the BJP to reach great heights in the late 1980s and 1990s, is almost on the brink of extinction now. The status of a mentor is nothing extraordinary for as an 86-year-old and seniormost leader in the party, Advani naturally stands a mentor to look upto for the younger generation but one suspects offering him such a position after dropping him from the parliamentary board is an effort to sideline him permanently by the new BJP leadership.
Advani
knew
this
was
coming
Advani perhaps knew what was coming in the era of the new leadership in the party and that's why tried his best to stop Narendra Modi, once his political protege, from becoming the party's main face. But the failed attempt and the subsequent rise of Modi in the ranks of the BJP and also his anointment as the party's prime ministerial candidate meant that the days of Advani were virtually over and that he had to remain content with the status of India's 'former future prime minister'.
Advani's journey from Kamandal Politics to Margdarshak Mandal is a memorable one
During
his
days
of
fall,
even
loyalists
like
Sushma
Swaraj
and
Anantha
Kumar
could
not
ignore
the
pressing
reality
evolving
in
the
BJP's
internal
politics
and
toed
the
new
line.
For
Advani,
who
had
drawn
the
ire
of
the
RSS
for
eulogising
Mohammad
Ali
Jinnah
to
show
his
softer
side
in
a
bid
to
project
himself
as
a
PM
material,
it
was
virtually
the
beginning
of
the
end.
A
mentor's
role
is
nothing
more
than
a
consolation
for
an
ambitious
politician
like
Advani
For an ambitious person like Advani, the role of a mentor which he had refused to play when the RSS tried to press it upon him, is nothing more than an insignificant consolation prize. It would reflect poorly on him if he refuses to don the mantle of the mentor now but the fact that his position has been relegated in the party would also haunt him till he stays a member of the BJP.
Advani's Marg: Is it relevant any more in the BJP?
The former deputy prime minister of the country, who was also termed as the Iron Man after Sardar Ballavbhai Patel during his stint as the home minister, has covered a memorable journey from the Mandal to Margdarshak Mandal days. But does Advani has any relevance if his very 'Kamandal' political ideology loses significance, as it is today? What Marg is he going to show to a new leadership which bagged an unprecedented mandate in the April-May election this year? Under the leadership of Modi and Amit Shah, the BJP's progress has been along a new route and moreover, with the RSS's influence in the saffron party unlikely to fade, the acceptability of Advani even as a mentor wouldn't be an easy affair.
Will Advani prefer to quit now?