The brawl over Advani's remarks is no more than a waste of time. The personal beliefs of politicians wont make any difference to this country. In any case, who would want to believe a politician?
Now coming to the real scenario for Advani to say what he has said, it became an open fact that Pakistan played deftly to over bowl Advani. It has projected him in an over significant role in the peace process and in a real masterstroke, made him inaugurate the temple complex. If the significance and red carpet hospitality accorded to him has made Advani extremely kind to Pakistan, the fact that pakistan has played same tunes as his, read communal notes, has made him go all fluffy to them. He was all agog to say something really, really nice about Pakistan. In an ongoing master play, his hosts paraded him to Jinnahs mausoleum which has decided on who Advani will shower his encomiums. Perhaps, his speech writer Kulkarni must have only added to his woes. The only silver lining is just imagine what would have happened if he has visited the terrorists camps in POK- he would just blurted out how happy he is to be with the dedicated freedom fighters
Advani made mistakes is correct.. wonder what the author refers to benefits from Congress as a "Secular" party. pls do not read secularism as giving privileges to one (be it x/y/z tribes do not matter) and not to others because they do not ask.. "secularism means all are equal"
I am not sure what is the point in this article. What if Musharaff inaugurates mosques in India? They come up all the time, if the President of Pakistan wants to open one, that should be fine-how is it going to cause problems? Jinna in fact never expected that the country would be so easily divided. Actually when he came to Hyderabad, in private circles he said, the slogan of Pakistan was only a bargaining chip and not a movement. It is the weak top brass which was mostly Hindu that partitioned India. I think Nehru was afraid that Jinn will become the Prime minister and hastened the division. Jinna was hardly a fanatic Muslim as Advani a fanatic Hindu. Advani is more religious than Jinna but by no means a fanatic as you imply. For one to be fanatic, one need not be religious. Jinna used his religious card for political gain and got more than he bargained for. Vijaya Kumar P.S. I do not think you have any qualification to comment on Savarkar.
