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As he extended birthday wishes to under-fire Lal Krishna Advani, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said it was unfair to limit the veteran BJP leader’s long years of service to one episode, no matter how important it was.
Tharoor also said that while the totality of Jawaharlal Nehru’s career cannot be assessed only by the China shock and the totality of Indira Gandhi’s career cannot be assessed only by the Emergency, he believes “we should show the same courtesy to Advaniji”.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP described Advani as a true politician whose service life has been exemplary. “Sorry, Mr. Tharoor, exposing the ‘dragon seeds of hatred’ (to quote Kushwant Singh) in this country is not a public service,” a lawyer posted on X in response to Tharoor’s post pointing out Advani’s role in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
Responding to the post, Tharoor said, “Agreed, @Sanjayyuvacha, but reducing his long service to one episode, no matter how important, is also unfair.”
The Congress leader said, “The totality of Nehruji’s career cannot be assessed only by the China shock, nor can Indira Gandhi’s career be assessed only by the Emergency. I believe we should show the same courtesy to Advaniji.”
Advani, who played a key role in turning the BJP into a major force in national politics, was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, earlier this year.
He led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and launched the historic Rath Yatra in 1990, which became a defining moment in the country’s political landscape.
Along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani played a key role in founding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980. He became the face of the party’s vocal Hindutva ideology and played a key role along with Vajpayee in transforming the BJP into a major political force.
Under his leadership, the party grew from just two parliamentary seats in 1984 to 121 in 1992 and 161 in 1996, marking a turning point in Indian politics. The Congress lost its long-standing dominance in the 1996 elections, and the BJP emerged as the largest party in the Lok Sabha for the first time since independence.
During the 1990s, Advani also rose to prominence as a key leader of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He started the historic Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath on September 25, 1990, the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, which was planned to end in Ayodhya on October 30 after covering a distance of 10,000 kilometres. The purpose of this yatra was to garner public support for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
(with inputs from agencies)
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