AYODHYA AND THE PARADOX OF ADVANI'S POLITICAL LIFE

What the former deputy prime minister made his life’s mission saw sublime fruition but he could never personally pick the fruits

- SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

Perhaps for the first time since Narendra Modi assumed power in 2014, his political and ideological elder, Lal Krishna Advani, has been in the news for reasons other than his neglect in the BJP. Recently, he deposed via video conference before a special judge presiding over the Babri Masjid case, and answered, to be precise, 1,050 questions, to fully deny his role in the conspiracy to demolish the mosque. Instead, he told the judge that it was a political conspiracy to implicate him in the case. Besides this, Advani is also in the news because he may be one of the 200 guests attending the ‘groundbreaking’ ceremony for the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5, precisely at the place where the mosque once stood.

The paradox and irony of the moment cannot be lost. The Ram temple issue has reached closure, but the Babri Masjid case remains open, while both are related to each other. If one had seen closure the other should have ended too, and the reverse should have been true as well, but that is not how it stands. In some ways, this paradox and irony reflects Advani’s own current political position. What he made his life’s mission saw sublime fruition but he could never personally pick the fruits. Campaigning for the temple, willy-nilly he became a conspirator for everybody else’s success in his party, except himself. One wonders which mythological character captures this complexity, and if this could be an inbuilt condition of that character or a transient curse.