Behind Advani walk, Vajpayee shadow

At 6 A, Krishna Menon Marg last evening, Vajpayee played a key role in charting out Advani’s response to the RSS challenge, along with senior leaders Jaswant Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu.

Vajpayee advised Advani to speak to RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan, which the BJP chief did—for the first time since the Jinnah remarks. Then, despite Advani’s reservations about going to the RSS headquarters here, Vajpayee persuaded him to visit the Jhandewalan complex and speak to Sangh leaders. Vajpayee also told Advani that while he should appear flexible, he should not resign at this stage. Advani is believed to have told Sudarshan that the party has decided that he should continue. He also informed the Sangh chief that he had not deviated from the RSS ideology.

For now though, Advani may make the right noises at the party’s national executive meet in Chennai about his commitment to Hindutva. But things are too far gone between him and the RSS for any patch-up to take place.

Says a Sangh leader, ‘‘As far as the Sangh is concerned, L K Advani is finished. Why bother about him? But while he is there, he has to do things the way the Sangh wants or it will not be us but people within the BJP who will be baying for his blood.”

For Advani, too, the breaking point has arrived. Before friends, he has already decried the ‘‘Kremlinisation’’ of the BJP, referring to the way the Communist Party was controlled in Russia at one time.