Amulya Ganguli: It would have been better if LK Advani had given his excellent advice to his party men about their attitude towards other parties before being denied a LS ticket. Now, it would appear that the nonagenarian former Deputy PM was expressing his resentment by criticising the party for not choosing him as a candidate for yet another term in the Lok Sabha.
Even then, the validity of his advice remains unimpaired. But will his party listen? Going by initial reactions, there is no sign the BJP has accepted the central point of his charge political opponents are not anti-nationals. Instead, a spokesperson argued on TV if the Congress sided with the “tukde-tukde gang” or those who want to break up the country, it can be called anti-national. Ever since the BJP’s win in 2014, it has interpreted its majority in the LS and that of the group by it, the NDA, as a stamp of approval by the voters of the party’s nationalist credentials, a claim which places the losers in a less exalted category.
