Early life and education
Lal Krishna Advani was born at Karachi, in Sindh of British India to Kishanchand D. Advani and Gyani Devi. He completed his early schooling from Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi, then he joined the D.G. National College in Hyderabad, Sindh for his college education. He then graduated in Law from Government Law College, Bombay University.
Political career
Early career
L.K Advani's life as a politician started in 1947 when he was elected as the Secretary, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Karachi. In 1947, Advani was sent to Mewar in Rajasthan, which had witnessed communal violence following partition, to oversee the affairs of the RSS there.
Jana Sangh to Janata Party
Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. After serving various positions in theJana Sangh, he became its President in 1975. When Jai Prakash Narayan, who led the public movement against the Emergency refused to campaign for the opposition parties unless all of them joined together, the Jana Sangh and many other opposition parties merged into the Janata Party. With the dissolution of Jana Sangh, Advani and his colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Janata Party to fight the Lok Sabha Elections of 1977.
Janata Party to Bharatiya Janata Party
The Janata Party was formed by political leaders and activists of various political parties who had been united in opposing the state of Emergency imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After elections were called in 1977, the Janata Party was formed from the union of the Congress (O), Swatantra Party, Socialist Party of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Lok Dal. Indian National Congress defector Jagjivan Ram formed the Congress for Democracy and joined the Janata alliance. The widespread unpopularity of Emergency rule gave Janata Party and its allied a landslide victory in the election. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, Advani became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and his close friend and Jana Sangh senior colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the External Affairs Minister.
The nature of the birth of the Janata Party sowed the seeds of its destruction as well. Bitter animosity amongst its ranks ensured that the government remained on the brink. Finally, the issue of dual membership became the bone of contention as some members of the Janata Party insisted that the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh dissociate themselves from the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh, came out of the Janata Party and they formed the new Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani became a prominent leader of the newly founded BJP and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament).
The rise of the BJP
Advani became the president of the BJP in 1986. His rise coincided with a growing unease and disquiet with the ruling Congress Party, among the Hindu upper castes due the increasing assertion of the lower castes with the Mandal politics and growing fundamentalism among the minority Muslims. Sensing an opportunity Advani embarked on a new aggressive phase of his politics and by 1991, he had taken a party to new heights.
He gradually brought in a shift in the party's policies by advocating Hindutva. Meanwhile, the finance minister V. P. Singh also defected. In the elections of 1989, the combined might of the VP Singh led Janata Dal and the BJP managed to eat into the Congress's seats. Despite emerging as the single largest party, the Congress opted to sit in Opposition, and a coalition headed by V P Singh as Prime Minister formed the government. The BJP supported this government from the outside.
In 1989, the BJP launched a movement led by Advani on the issue of the Ram Janmabhoomi (the birth place of Rama). The BJP demanded that a temple dedicated to deity Rama be created at the site of the Babri Masjid where, according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a temple stood till Babur's invasion of India in 1528. Sunni Central Wakf Board rejected this claim claiming the remains of the temple had been found at a depth of 50 metres, while no digging up to such depths had actually taken place. However, rather than a settling on a political solution to the dispute, the disputed structure was destroyed by a Hindu mob, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim riots.
Advani embarked on a "Rath Yatra" to mobilize "karsevaks" to converge upon the Babri Masjid to offer prayers. This "Rath Yatra", undertaken in an air-conditioned van decorated to look like a chariot, started from Somnath in Gujarat and had covered a large part of Northern India until it was brought to a halt by the Chief Minister of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav.
This movement helped the BJP cross fresh boundaries, especially in North India. Advani succeeded in drawing away a large chunk of the upper caste voters who were already mortified at the rise of Mandal politics, away from the Congress. In the 1991 general elections, the BJP came second after the Congress party in terms of seats.
In 1992, two years after Advani ended his yatra, despite assurances given by the Kalyan Singh led BJP Government to the Supreme Court, the Babri Masjid was demolished by the "karsevaks" with alleged complicity of the Kalyan Singh government. Advani is one of the main accused in the Babri Masjid case.
BJP, under Advani, sat in the opposition from 1991-1996 during the reign of P V Narasimha Rao. The Rao regime was repeatedly accused by the BJP of corruption and various scandals.
NDA Government formation
After the 1996 general elections, the BJP became the single largest party and was consequently invited by the President to form the Government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 1996. However, the Government did not last long and Vajpayee resigned after thirteen days.
After two years in the political wilderness, the BJP under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance (a BJP-led coalition), again came to power with Vajpayee as PM in March 1998, when elections were called after India saw two unstable Governments headed by H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral respectively. Advani assumed the office of Home Minister and was later elevated to the position of Deputy Prime Minister. As Union Minister, Advani had a tough time with India facing a string of internal disturbances in the form of terror attacks from neighbouring Pakistan . The BJP-led NDA Government lasted for its full term of five years till 2004, with Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. The NDA was the only non-Congress Government to last for five years.
Advani was charged in a Hawala scandal where he allegedly received payments through hawala brokers. He and others were later discharged by the Supreme Court of India, because there was no additional evidence which could be used to charge them. According to the judicial inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) they could not find any substantive evidences; the Supreme Court ruling stated that no statement even mentioned Advani's name and that evidence against him was limited to the mention of his name on a few loose sheets of paper.
However, the failure of this prosecution by the CBI was widely criticized. While some believe the CBI probe catapulted his rise through the BJP on his newfound "moral authority", others have claimed the inquiry was a political stunt.
As elections approached in 2004, Advani was supremely confident and conducted an aggressive campaign where he claimed the Congress Party would not get even 100 seats. The BJP suffered a defeat in the general elections held in 2004, and was forced to sit in the opposition. Another coalition, the United Progressive Alliance led by the resurgent Congress came to power, with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The NDA disintegrated with the Telugu Desam Party, which had supported the NDA government from the outside, deserting the alliance.
Vajpayee retired from active politics after the 2004 defeat, putting Advani to the forefront of the BJP. Advani became Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. During this period, Advani had to deal with rebellion from within the party. His two close associates, Uma Bharati, and Madan Lal Khurana, and longtime rival Murali Manohar Joshi publicly spoke out against him. In June 2005, he drew much criticism when he, while on a visit to the Jinnah Mausoleum at Karachi - his town of birth, endorsed Mohammad Ali Jinnah and described him a "secular" leader. This did not sit well with the RSS either and Advani was forced to relinquish his post as BJP president. However, he withdrew the resignation a few days later.
The relationship between Advani and the RSS reached a low point when K S Sudarshan, opined that both Advani and Vajpayee give way to new leaders. At the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the BJP in Mumbai in December 2005, Advani stepped down as party president and Rajnath Singh, a relatively junior politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh was elected in his place. In March 2006, following a bomb blast at one of the holiest Hindu shrines at Varanasi, Advani undertook a "Bharat Suraksha Yatra" (Sojourn for National Security), to highlight the alleged failure of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (a Congress led coalition) in combating terrorism.
Prime Minister candidacy
In an interview with a news channel in December 2006, L.K. Advani stated that as the Leader of the Opposition in a parliamentary democracy, he considered himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the general elections, ending on 16 May 2009. Some of his colleagues were not supportive of his candidacy.
A major factor going in favor of Advani was that he had always been the most powerful leader in the BJP with the exception of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who endorsed Advani's candidacy shortly after the interview was done. On 2 May 2007, BJP President Rajnath Singh, in an interview, stated that: "After Atal there is only Advani. Advani is the natural choice. It is he who should be PM". On 10 December 2007, the Parliamentary Board of BJP formally announced that L. K. Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate for the General Elections due in 2009.
However, Indian National Congress party and its allies won the 2009 General Elections, allowing incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue in office. Following the defeat in the elections, L. K. Advani paved way for Sushma Swaraj to become the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Vajpayee-Advani Duo
Through the 90s and the first few years of the 21st century, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-LK Advani combination steered the BJP to heights it had never before witnessed. Their political relationship provided stability, continuity, experience and authority to a party that was beginning even then, to severely lack a solid second-rung. As Advani himself acknowledged, rarely do two political leaders share such a bond, a working relationship that allows them both to thrive and grow without disturbing the fine balance of that bond.
Vajpayee, the poet-Prime Minister and Advani as his able and trusted lieutenant, brought depth and gravity to the BJP leadership. It still is, and will be in many ways, the gold standard to which the BJP will hold itself for many years to come.
Rath Yatras
Popularly known in India as the Eternal yatri or Eternal Charioteer, L.K. Advani has taken 6 yatras throughout India.
1. Ram Rath Yatra- L.K. Advani started his first Rath Yatra from Somnath, Gujarat on 25 September 1990 to finally reach Ayodhya on October 30, 1990. The yatra has been linked to the Mandir-Masjid dispute centred around Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya. The BJP and Advani, however, focused the yatra on the secularism–communalism debate.
2. Janadesh Yatra- Four Yatras named Janadesh Yatra started on 11 september 1993 from four corners of country. L.K. Advani led this yatra from Mysore. Travelling through 14 States and two Union Territories, the yatris congregated at Bhopal on September 25 in a massive rally. The purpose of Janadesh Yatrawas to seek the people's mandate against the two Bills, the Constitution 80th Amendment Bill and the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill.
3.Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra- The Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra by Mr. Advani travelled across India between May and July 1997. According to Mr.Advani, the yatra was conducted in celebration of 50 years of Indian Independence and also to project the BJP as a party committed to good governance.
4. Bharat Uday Yatra- The Bharat Uday Yatra took place in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections.
5. Bharat Suraksha Yatra- The BJP launched a nationwide mass political campaign in the form of the Bharat Suraksha Yatra from April 6 to May 10, 2006. It consisted of two yatras – one led by L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), from Dwaraka in Gujarat to Delhi; and the other led by Rajnath Singh, then the President of the BJP, from Jagannath Puri in Orissa to Delhi. The yatra was focused on left wing terrorism, minority politics, corruption, protection of democracy and price rise.
6. Jan Chetna Yatra- The Jan Chetna Yatra was launched on 11 October 2011 from Sitab Diara, Bihar. The BJP states the purpose of Jan Chetna Yatra is to mobilise public opinion against corruption of the UPA government and put BJP agenda of good governance and clean politics before the people of India.
