Advani: Man behind the BJP machine

People who made a difference in 2003

In his stint as the Deputy Prime Minister, perhaps the most gratifying moment for LK Advani came this year when the US administration declared Pakistan-based Indian fugitive Dawood Ibrahim an "international terrorist".

Advani derives pleasure not from the fact that Dawood's days are numbered after the US launches a manhunt against him, but that his position on Pakistan stands vindicated.

Right from the Agra summit to his own US visit, Advani kept on reciting that handing over of Dawood by Pakistan would be a measure of Islamabad's sincerity in seeking a cordial and a good neighbourly relations with India.

Some his detractors were even critical of Advani for harping on the issue of the "list of 20" to the point of obsession. But Advani knew that the mere mention of Dawood would expose Pakistan's most vulnerable spot.

"He personifies terrorism in India," Advani would say when asked about his insistence on this individual.

It may appear to be a contradiction that on the one hand, Advani was party, in the Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS), to clearing a slew of peace initiatives with Pakistan this year; and on the other, he was seemingly inflexible on the "list of 20".

He apparently agreed that it was all right to establish a Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road link and allow ferries to run from Mumbai to Karachi, but the summit-level talks must be resumed only after dismantling the terror infrastructure by Pakistan.

Even though the government launched a peace offensive, there was no change in its stated position""summit-level talks be preceded by the rolling back of anti-India policies by Pakistan.

On the internal security front, it was a successful year for Advani. The trouble in the Northeastern states was largely contained on account of peace negotiations with Naga insurgents and Bodo militants. And this was the precise reason for Advani to claim credit for surrender of arms by Bodo rebels this year.

Though Assam faced a spate of violence arising out of the Assami-Bihari conflict, Advani drew immense satisfaction from the military operations launched against Ulfa, KLO and other Bhutan-based insurgent groups operating in Assam by the Royal Bhutan Army.

In political terms too, Advani appears to have succeeded in re-organising the BJP's organisational structure in his own manner by installing M Venkaiah Naidu as the party president.

Naidu, considered to be a hard-core Advani-man, caused embarrassing moment for Advani when he raised the vikas purus versus lauh purus controversy.

But Naidu subsequently mended his fence with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and consolidated his position as the party president by scoring victories not only in Gujarat but also in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In these three states, Advani's shadow loomed large in the formation of the state governments. The view that Advani who calls himself an "organisation man" will hold the key to future political strategy of the BJP is re-inforced in the parliamentary party meeting where the Prime Minister had left the decision about the timing of polls on Advani and his "blue-eyed" Naidu.