The Comrade

THE FIRST DUO of the BJP, Vajpayee and Advani did have their differences, but they stood with each other through the party’s worst trials. They disagreed on the BJP’s participation in the Ayodhya movement, and the period between 1998 and 2004 tested an otherwise enduring partnership. Despite disagreeing with Advani, Vajpayee relented on Modi after the 2002 Gujarat riots and on the fateful India Shining campaign that arguably cost the BJP the elections in 2004

- Sudheendra Kulkarni

Those who were present at, or witnessed on their TV screens, the funeral of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on August 17 would not have failed to notice one thing. Among all the political leaders sitting mournfully at the cremation ground, the one who looked the loneliest was Lal Krishna Advani. Not surprising. In Atalji’s demise, he had not only lost his senior party colleague but also “my closest friend of 65 years”.

In the history of independent India or, perhaps, any other democracy in the world, no other political partnership between two leaders of near-equal eminence was as close and strong, or lasted for so long, as the one between Vajpayee and Advani. Politics, especially power politics with competing ambitions, can be a highly destructive solvent capable of dissolving the best of friendships. Our political landscape is strewn with acts of skulduggery by comrades turning conspirators. V.P. Singh was a minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government. But as soon as he sensed trouble for his own prime minister, he raised the banner of revolt. H.D. Deve Gowda pulled the rug from underneath the feet of Rama krishna Hegde in Karnataka. After C.N. Annadurai’s demise in Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi and MGR became sworn enemies. The Janata Party government collapsed mainly due to personality clashes at the top.