On 8th November 2023, Former Deputy Prime Minister of India and BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani turned 96 years of age. Taking to X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended birthday greetings to the BJP co-founder who spearheaded the Rath Yatra movement for the construction of the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Former BJP President Advani is also attributed for playing a key role in catapulting BJP from a two-seat party to a national party that has been in power for the last nine-and-a-half years and counting.
On his birth anniversary, PM Modi lauded his party mentor for the monumental contributions that have strengthened the nation. PM Modi added, “His visionary leadership has furthered national progress and unity. I wish him good health and a long life. His efforts towards nation-building continue to inspire 140 crore Indians.”
Birthday greetings to Shri LK Advani Ji. He is a beacon of integrity and dedication who has made monumental contributions that have strengthened our nation. His visionary leadership has furthered national progress and unity. I wish him good health and a long life. His efforts…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 8, 2023
Lal Krishna Advani was born on November 8, 1927, in Karachi city of undivided India. He hails from the Sindhi community. At the time of partition, he came to India and over the years played a pivotal role as the backbone, first of Jan Sangh and then the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Strikingly, 33 years ago, i.e. in 1990, Advani took out a Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya with an aim to unite Hindus and demand the construction of the Ram temple on the birthplace of Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram. As scheduled, he left Somnath on 25th September and was slated to reach Ayodhya on 30th October 1990 traversing through different states.
The responsibility of this Ratha Yatra was entrusted to Narendra Modi who as we know later went on to serve as Gujarat Chief Minister from 2001 to 2014 and has been the Prime Minister of India since 2014.
Back in the 1990s, BJP worker Modi used to be the organisational general secretary of Gujarat BJP. Incidentally, the Rath Yatra marked Modi’s arrival at the national level.
Meanwhile, it was also the time when leaders who emerged from the Jaya Prakash Narayan-led movement, the JP movement, in the likes of Lalu Yadav were worried that the effect of the movement had waned or ended and their vote bank might tank considerably. The noose of their divisional reservation politics was getting loose.
As a result, several leaders like Lalu Yadav found refuge in the twisted interpretation of the word ‘Secularism’. Using the trope of secularism, he put a grinding halt on Advani’s Rath Yatra before it could reach its final destination.
However, this coercive step against the Rath Yatra had serious consequences as it led to the fall of Prime Minister VP Singh’s government. But it was not a happenstance as the Rath Yatra had such a massive appeal that devotees used to shower flower petals in every nook and cranny the Yatra traversed through. In fact, people’s devotions were so attached that some even used to apply soil from the place where the chariot passed by onto their foreheads as a mark of devotion.
Political journalists and pundits in Delhi who had over the years narrowed their vision sitting in their echo chambers were left astonished. While they had seen rallies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, were even witnessed the charisma of Indira Gandhi and her popularity. But they had never seen any Rath Yatra where people would apply soil beneath the chariot on their forehead, it was a different devotion altogether for the Yatra.
As stated above, the entire responsibility of this Rath Yatra was on Narendra Modi, currently India’s Prime Minister. Hemant Sharma in his book ‘Yudh Mein Ayodhya’ has described Modi as the strategist and architect of this Rath Yatra. He was the first person to formally give information regarding the route and program of the yatra on 13th September, 1990. It is said that the only person who had every detailed information about this yatra was Modi.
Despite witnessing the deep devotional connection of Hindus with the Yatra, the secular brand of Politicians went ahead to stall the yatra in a brazen attempt to appease their Muslim vote bank and project themselves as the biggest benefactor of the largest minority community.
According to ‘Yudh in Ayodhya’, on 19th October 1990, a meeting was held at Sundernagar Guest House of ‘Indian Express’. Advani had left the Rath Yatra in Dhanbad to attend the meeting. Reportedly, the meeting was held on the initiative of the then Prime Minister VP Singh. Advani said that he does not want to topple the government. Advani asserted that if the government brings an ordinance and hands over the disputed structure to the VHP or its representative, the BJP will support it.
However, political pundits believe that VP Singh did not want Mulayam to become the sole messiah of Muslims and hence on his instructions Lalu Yadav arrested Advani in Bihar. Hemant Sharma in ‘Yudh in Ayodhya’ writes that VP Singh killed two birds with one stone – Advani was arrested and Mulayam was defeated.
Nonetheless, Advani’s Rath Yatra had such a profound impact that kar sevaks from all over the country started gathering in Ayodhya. Karsevaks were adamant that the temple would be constructed no matter how much force the then-state government applied.
In the chain of events, on 30th October 1990, indiscriminate firing was meted out on the kar sevaks in Ayodhya which claimed the lives of all the kar sevaks including the Kothari brothers. According to some accounts, a dying Kar Sevak wrote ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the road with his blood.
After the start of the yatra, on one side Advani projected himself as the servant of faith of crores of Hindus of the country who was standing against leaders like VP Singh, Mulayam Singh, and Lalu Yadav who were competing among themselves to garner as many Muslim votes as possible.
Two years after the Rath Yatra, kar sevaks went on to raze the disputed structure over the Ram Janambhoomi site to the ground. They kept fighting for their rightful land in the court of law. A Bhavya Shri Ram Mandir is currently being built in Ayodhya. It will be ready for devotees to take Shri Ram’s darshan post on 22 January 2024.
In hindsight, political pundits assert that Lal Krishna Advani, the late Ashok Singhal, and the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee were awakening Hindu self-respect in a generation that had been trampled for decades under the boots of Nehruvianism and Indira’s communism which were concocted with secularism.
