India Uncut

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, writing in the Indian Express, feels that LK Advani has broken out of a time warp that the Congress and the BJP are still stuck in. He also approves of Advani's recent actions, writing:

Advani’s statements over Jinnah have turned out to be explosive politics. For one thing, it was a reminder to Pakistanis that if they can espouse Jinnah’s secular ideals they will be better of. And India will be more secure if Pakistan follows the legacy of Jinnah rather than assorted mullahs and generals. It is difficult to guess whether Advani anticipated the storm his remarks would brew. But his resignation has produced a moment of reckoning thrice over. After months of being perceived as being weak, he has taken an initiative and stuck by it. He has emerged as a man of conviction with a capacity for independent initiative. He has also forced the BJP to come to terms with its own ideological and organisational disputes.

This doesn't mean, as Mehta states, that Advani "has given up Hindu nationalism," but it does give him much more credibility in the eyes of most secular people, who never suspected him of nuance. Maybe that was the whole point.

PS: Mid Day is worried that Narendra Modi could become the next BJP chief. I'm not. If Modi takes over, the party will hurtle towards the extreme right and become a lesser force in politics, and the breakaway of moderates that TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan had predicted will become much likelier. So if you don't like Modi and the religious right, then his taking over now could bring about just the result you want: their long-term marginalisation, and the emergence of a new centrist force.