Atal wanted Modi to resign after riots, I didn’t: Advani

For the first time, it’s out in black and white and, that too, written by none other than L K Advani himself.

For the first time, it’s out in black and white and, that too, written by none other than L K Advani himself: In the wake of the massacres in Gujarat in 2002, then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had wanted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to resign but Advani wasn’t in favour of this — and carried the day.

In a section called Some Differences, in his book My Country My Life released on Wednesday, Advani spells out the rift with Vajpayee over the issue.

Claiming that it was “vitriolic propaganda by our ideological adversaries,” that tarnished the image of the BJP and the NDA government after the riots in Gujarat, Advani writes: “This was weighing on Atalji’s mind. He felt that something needed to be done, some affirmative action needed to be taken. Meanwhile, pressure was mounting on him to ask Modi to resign. Although Atalji had not expressed his view explicitly on this matter, I knew that he favoured Modi’s resignation. And he knew that I disfavoured it.

“In the second week of April 2002 (by then the worst massacres had happened), the BJP’s national executive was to meet in Goa. The attention of the media and political circles was focused on how the party was going to discuss Gujarat and what it would decide on Modi’s fate. Atalji asked me to accompany him on his journey from New Delhi to Goa. Sitting along with us in the special aircraft, in the PM’s separate enclosure were Jaswant Singh…Arun Shourie. Early on during the two-hour journey the discussion veered round to Gujarat. There was a long spell of silence as Atalji went into a contemplative mood which was broken by Singh asking him, ‘What do you think, Atalji?’

Atalji replied, kam se kam isteefe ka offer to karte.” (At least, he should have offered to resign).”

Advani then writes that he told Vajpayee: “If Narendra’s quitting is going to improve his situation in Gujarat, I am willing to tell him to offer his resignation. But I do not think that it would help. Also, I am not sure whether the party’s national council or executive would accept the offer.”

On arrival in Goa, Advani claims he called up Modi and asked him to offer to resign. At the BJP executive, Modi explained the situation in the state and said that he was ready to resign. “The moment Modi said that, the meeting hall reverberated with a thunderous response from the hundred-odd members of the party’s top decision-making body — isteefa mat do, isteefa mat do. I then separately ascertained the views of senior leaders of the party on the matter. Each one of them, without exception, said, ‘No, he must not resign…Thus ended the debate inside the party on an issue that had generated deeply divided opinions in Indian society and polity.”

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Advani also records as another example of his differences with Vajpayee their differing views on Ayodhya. “He had some reservations about the BJP getting directly associated with the Ayodhya movement. But being a thorough democrat by conviction and temperament, and always willing to respect the consensus among colleagues, Atalji accepted the collective decision of the party,” he writes.