Sandeep Shrivastwa sandeep.andes@gmail.com

Shaily Bhusri shailybhusri@gmail.com

LEADER EXTRAORDINARY!

In politics, victory is history and defeat shattering. The architect of BJP’s defeat,L K Advani, has all the qualities of a leader by their conspicuous absence. A sense of time, a grand vision, decisiveness, the ability to inspire and command respect, the ability to win trust and, above all, the ability to unite are qualities you find in any leader, be it Churchill, Lenin, Napoleon, Kennedy or Nehru, whom the part ideologues never grow tired of berating.

All Advani’s troubles stem from not quitting at the critical moment and not being decisive but dithering. In all his political career, or more precisely before, during or after the general election, he had no grand vision to offer. Instead of rising to Himalayan heights during the campaigning, he went on sniping at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was doing a reasonably good job under great constrains. His credibility was strained more than once challenged by his own party men. His machinations won him enemies in his party, sowing seeds of mistrust. Advani is truly a leader half a century out of date. In a fast changing world, he refused to change and found himself hanging on to a cliffhanger. So much for Advani but Rajnath Singh does not merit our time and space except to remind ourselves that he was in charge of UP assembly elections that ensured the emergence of Mayawati and the decimation of BJP. With the same precision, Singh ensured Sonia Gandhi’s victory and the decimation of his own party at the general election. Greater service, no man can do to his party.

During this crisis time, one lady kept her silence. A leader is one who knows when to speak and when to be silent. Her silence was golden. And Sushma Swaraj reaped a rich harvest for her silence. But Arun Jaitley cannot keep his mouth shut that long. The media savvy urbane glamour boy has a penchant and style that belong to the 21st century. He has no political roots or mass base like Narendra Modi but he can articulate and give a sense of direction to the party that needs leadership. Just imagine, one book triggered the crisis – that too, not on Godse but on Jinnah!