The End Of The Yatra?

AROUND 11 am on September 6, L.K. Advani got a call at his C1/6 Pandara Park residence from his counsel K.K. Sud. The message: Special court judge V.B. Gupta had ordered the CBI to frame charges against him in the hawala case. Advani was calm and composed in his response before a motley group of friends—S. Gurumurthy, Ram Jethmalani, Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Shatrughan Sinha and a few others. He told them that he knew it would be a long and patient fight before he gets exonerated and re-enters Parliament with his honour intact.

Gupta's order, however, came as a blow to the Advani camp, which had hoped that the designated court might drop the cases against him—after all the CBI did fail to find enough evidence to substantiate the allegation that Advani had accepted Rs 60 lakh as payoffs from the Jain brothers, suspected hawala dealers.

Judge Gupta thought otherwise. In his 267-page ruling, he said: "The court has to be satisfied that the accusation was not frivolous and that there was some material proof to proceed against". According to Gupta, even a strong suspicion that there is some factual ingredients in the alleged offences may justify framing of the charges. What lies in store for the 69-year old BJP chief—now a hawala scam accused—is a protracted judicial battle. And this might spell the end of his nearly four-decade parliamentary career. Advani is believed to be reconciled to such a turn of events.

As an Opposition leader, Advani, with his skilful oratory, often put the government on the mat. He was also a stickler for discipline—even pulling up colleagues when they got out of hand. Today, Advani is a tired man. His wife Kamala, a tower of strength in his years of struggle, is understandably sad. According to family friends, she is miserable that a "person like her husband has to face trial on charges of corruption" and wants him to call it a day.

But the Sangh parivar will not hear of it—it wants him to continue the fight like a hero and not give it up halfway. And the feeling is he won't forget his friends and admirers in the Rashtriya Swayam sevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP who have stood by him. Says an aide: "Advani may outright—politely though—say no if the RSS wants him to enter the Lok Sabha. But he will certainly not defy the Sangh if it wants him to continue to guide the BJP."

In fact, the BJP chief has time and again blurted out his feelings to veteran Sangh leaders—Rajendra Singh, H.V. Shesadri—but has never been allowed to quit. Even three days prior to Gupta's order, Advani told a small group of friends, including a journalist, that he was ill-suited to the brand of politics practised today.

Soon after Gupta's order, senior leaders, including Atal Behari Vajpayee and M.M. Joshi, visited Advani at home and advised him not to resign. They told him that the judge's order changed nothing—the party still had faith in his leadership. After all,

Advani was instrumental in steering the BJP to the political mainstream. After the BJP's dismal performance in the 1984 elections—it won just two seats—critics had almost written off the party. Under Advani, the BJP bounced back in the 1989 and 1991 general elections and in 1996 even emerged as the single largest party. The leadership knows exactly what Advani's absence might mean for the party.

The ruling could not have come at a worse time for the BJP. On the eve of the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections, Advani's exoneration would have given the party an edge over its rivals, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. If the ruling had gone in his favour, the Gujarat BJP unit would most certainly have requested him to contest from Gandhinagar in the October byelection to the Lok Sabha. 

"This is a setback to one's commitment to probity in public life and all those who believe in it," feel Gujarat BJP chief Vajubhai Vala and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel.

In January, Advani's resignation from Parliament and his vow not to contest until cleared of the charges came in the wake of the CBI decision to chargesheet him two months before the 11th general elections were notified. The CBI decision, which the BJP alleged was made at the behest of the Congress government led by P.V. Narasimha Rao, at least gave his political rivals the perfect weapon to hit out at him—the BJP was not a party with a difference after all.

The immediate reaction to the court order in the party was one of indignation. Said BJP General Secretary Sushma Swaraj: "Advani's trial is based on no evidence against him". According to Arun Jetley, Advani's counsel and BJP national executive member, "only in very rare instances, cases are dropped at this stage. But Advani's happens to be a rarest of the rare cases." 

Advani's lawyers are preparing an appeal against Gupta's order in the high court on the ground that he refused to take cognisance of the fact that the BJP chief's name never figured in the actual Jain diary or the three ledgers that the Jains maintained between February 1988 and April 1991, listing all such expenses. Advani's name cropped up at a much later stage in a "loose summary sheet" which was in a separate sheaf of papers recovered during raids. One sheet had the initials LKA. The proposed appeal also deals with the fact that the judge did not take cognisance of the CBI admission that there was no evidence of Advani's association with the Jains and that the mention of "LKA" in the loose sheet had no corroborative mention in any of the ledgers unlike, say, Congress leader V.C. Shukla, whose name figured in them.

BUT for Advani's political rivals, the impending trial has got the same political implications like any other ongoing trials of politicians in corruption cases. That the BJP, which had made corruption the main plank in its election manifesto, is corrupt too. Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has said more than once that the BJP should avoid throwing stones at others from a glasshouse.

It's going to be difficult campaigning in Uttar Pradesh now. But Kalraj Mishra, state BJP chief, is confident that the ruling is not going to hamper party prospects: "Just a mere trial is not going to affect us in the election adversely. The party and the people are convinced about Advani's innocence." In any case, Advani had delegated most decision-making powers on Uttar Pradesh affairs to senior leaders like Vajpayee, Joshi and S.S. Bhandari much before the judgement. Advani was, however, taking a keen interest in Gujarat affairs. Having finally expelled Shan-kersinh Vaghela from the party, he was making all efforts to save the Sureshbhai Mehta Government. Now Gupta's order—though with little bearing on Gujarat politics—has devastated Advani.

But the paeans don't seem to stop. Says Ashok Bhatta, Gujarat revenue minister: "For us, he is like King Harish chandra who abdicated the throne for truth and probity. We will be too happy if he contests from Gandhi nagar. We will show how insignificant Vaghela is outside the BJP and also vindicate his honour in the people's court." But Advani has at least made one point clear—that he is not going to go back on his word. That he will wait until he is vindicated. And yet hope for the best and cut short the cumbersome judicial process through an appeal. In June—if not before—when Advani completes his two-term tenure as party president and relinquishes the post, he will still be fighting to clear his name.