LK Advani: Rivals aren't enemies' or anti-national'

New Delhi: After being dormant for almost five years, veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani’s personal blog came alive on Thursday with the senior party leader writing a piece titled “Nation First, Party Next, Self Last”, in which he cautions party leaders against the destruction of democracy within the party and strikes the right margdarshak note by speaking against the growing culture of hate and deliberate attempts to polarise voters.

On the eve of the BJP’s foundation day (April 6), Mr Advani urges the party to “look back, look ahead and look within” and stressed on “democracy and democratic traditions” within.

He also wrote that his party has never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as “anti-national” or “enemies” but only as adversaries.

“The essence of Indian democracy is respect for diversity and freedom of expression. Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our ‘enemies’, but only as our adversaries. Similarly, in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as ‘anti-national’. The party has been committed to freedom of choice of every citizen at the personal as well as political level,” Mr Advani wrote in the blog, in which the last post is of April 23, 2014.

He also noted that the “defence of democracy and democratic traditions, both within the party and in the larger national setting, has been the proud hallmark of the BJP”.

Tagging the blog, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Advani Ji perfectly sums up the true essence of the BJP, most notably the guiding mantra of ‘Nation First, Party Next, Self Last’. Proud to be a BJP karyakarta and proud that greats like L.K. Advani Ji have strengthened it.”

Mr Advani, 91, one of the BJP’s founding members, also thanked the people of Gandhinagar for their love and support.  

The BJP veteran, one of the party’s founder members, has been smarting since he was dropped and BJP president Amit Shah decided to contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, a seat he held for six terms, since 1991.

Wishing everyone contesting the coming polls, Mr Advani wrote that everyone should “collectively strive to strengthen the democratic edifice of India”.

The veteran leader added: “True, elections are a festival of democracy. But they are also an occasion for honest introspection by all stakeholders in Indian democracy — political parties, mass media, the authorities conducting the election process and, above all, the electorate... My best wishes to everyone.”

Mr Advani’s blog comes at a time when the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls is in full swing and the party often attacks its rivals as being “anti-national” or of speaking the language of India’s enemies, specifically Pakistan.