Advani bids goodbye

As the Bharatiya Janata Party kicked off its five-day jamboree to mark its 25th anniversary, the RSS made no effort to hide that it had nurtured the outfit into a full-fledged political party.

BJP President LK Advani, presiding over "the last meeting of this executive, and the last meeting that I shall be presiding over," said goodbye as party president under the shadow of lifesize portraits of former RSS sarsanghchalaks Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar and Guruji Golwalkar. Advani's farewell meeting, though not unanticipated, was poignant for this reason.

This is the first time during a BJP meeting that portraits of former RSS heavyweights have been displayed. According to party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan, this was due to the centenary of Golwalkar being celebrated, but the symbolism of the portrayal was not lost on anyone.

Earlier in the day, at the launch of a book titled 25 Years of the BJP, Sangh apparatchik Madan Dass Devi praised the BJP, but urged it to solve its past problems. "You have the unstinting support of the RSS," he said. This is another first for the organisation which likes to maintain an outward distance from the BJP.

At the function, Advani spiritedly referred to the fact that Golwalkar had said at the founding of the Jan Sangha that the RSS would "only send a representative to the political party, but not want to be associated with it".

By evening, however, Advani's farewell speech started and ended on a sober note, with him listing his May visit to Pakistan as one of the "12 defining events of Indian politics". Unable to distance himself from the visit which might have cost him his job as BJP president, Advani only diplomatically referred to his inauguration of the restoration project of the famed Katasraj temple.

While his supporters might have termed 2005 as annus horribilis, Advani himself appeared sober and philosophical at his last executive as president. "We have collectively learnt an immense lot from our journey during these 25 years. For me, too, it has been a period of great learning, more particularly the year just about to end," he said in his speech.

In the next few days, the executive will discuss a foreign policy and political and economic resolutions. These will be put to vote at the National Council on December28, 29 and 30. While Mahajan insists that Advani will not quit his post at this National Council, Advani may yet want to bow out with a grand gesture. His successor, Raj Nath Singh, is already waiting in the wings.