A day after Vinay Katiyar’s remarks against Sonia Gandhi sparked a controversy, Deputy PM L.K. Advani sought to turn the issue on its head, by saying: ‘‘personal attacks should be avoided, but in all big democracies, foreign origin is a political issue’’.Advani, whose Bharat Uday Yatra entered Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district yesterday, cited the example of the US. One has to be born there to be eligible for the posts of president or vice-president, he told reporters.‘‘While the world acknowledges that India is doing well, Congress, which has done little in 50 years, says India isn’t shining,’’ said Advani, while addressing a rally at Yavatmal.Advani also called for ‘‘delinking’’ Ayodhya and the polls and put the NDA agenda ahead of the BJP’s. He said the NDA was firm that a solution to the Ayodhya dispute would come through a court verdict or negotiated settlement between the two communities. ‘‘The way things have moved in the last six to eight months, I am confident that a solution can be found through negotiations to the satisfaction of all,’’ Advani said on the tenth day of his Bharat Uday Yatra.Interestingly, Shiv Sena leaders participated in Advani’s yatra for the first time. Balasaheb Thackeray had yesterday asked the Union Minister of State for Finance and Buldana Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul to attend Advani’s Yavatmal rally.On Friday, party president Uddhav Thackeray reiterated the Sena’s support to the yatra and attended Advani’s Nagpur rally in the evening.Entering Vidarbha on the tenth day of his tour, Advani touched on the issue of separate statehood. ‘‘We (the Centre) will be happy if the (Maharashtra) Assembly passes such a resolution because the BJP had favoured statehood for Vidarbha,’’ he said.
