Advani must step down from post but guide party

The long, noisy crisis in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has witnessed one surprising element. One man's voice has not been heard at all. LK Advani, one of the senior most leaders of BJP and Leader of Opposition is silent even though he has been facing attack after attack from within the party. From Jaswant Singh to Arun Shourie and even Brajesh Mishra, Advani has had guns trained on him, showcasing a serious erosion of his power.

The unceremonious sacking of Jaswant Singh from the BJP for writing a book praising Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah has added to Advani's problems. Singh has claimed that he had stood by Advani through the controversy created after he (Advani) called Jinnah a secular person.

Advani's credibility took further beating when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's aide Brajesh Mishra told CNN-IBN that Advani, who was the home minister during the Kandahar hijack (and subsequent exchange of terrorists for hostages) knew about the deal. Even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Mohan Bhagwat hinted that the BJP needed a generational change.

The man who began the year by being the BJP's prime ministerial candidate is now about to end his career on the lowest note of his career. Should Advani have resigned when his party had crushingly lost the Lok Sabha elections? Did the octogenarian leader hang on for too long and refused to see the writing on the wall?

Face The Nation debated: Is it time for L K Advani to retire from public life?
The panel of experts comprised of BJP member of the Sheshadri Chari; Political Editor of Hindustan Times, Vinod Sharma; Deputy Editor of The HinduVidya Subramaniam and news columnist and journalist Ashok Malik.

Wrong timing, bad decisions

Why did Advani not resign after the BJP's debacle in the general elections? When the people and the youth of India did not gravitate towards him, why did Advani not make a dignified exit then?

"Although he was projected as the prime ministerial candidate, the election defeat was not primarily due to the reason that Advani was projected as the prime ministerial candidate. There were a number of other reasons," argued Sheshadri Chari. He added that Advani had taken moral responsibility of the poll defeat but the party colleagues prevailed upon him to continue.

Chari rubbished Vidya Subramaniam's comparison between Sonia Gandhi's popularity and the friction Advani faced from members of the party they respectively led. "There can be no comparisons between someone from the Gandhi family and a man who has given his life for this country," Chari said.

Vinod Sharma countered Chari's comment by saying that the power of renunciation, the power of austerity and the power of leading a very Spartan life is not something just Sonia Gandhi exhibited; it was Mahatma Gandhi who gave to this country.

"Anything that is ostentatious and clinging on to power is not liked. But I will disagree with you on the suggestion that Advani should retire from public life," said Vinod Sharma.

"John McCain (US Republican defeated by Democrat candidate Barack Obama in recent US presidential polls) has not retired from public life, neither has (former US president) Bill Clinton who recently pulled off a big victory for American diplomacy by getting two US women journalists released from North Korea. My problem with Advani is that he continues to be Leader of Opposition perhaps in search of an opportunity to anoint people of his choice to crucial positions," Sharma added.
from IBNLive