Advani was born in Karachi and migrated to India during the Partition of India and settled down in Bombay where he completed his college education. Advani joined the RSS in 1941 at the age of fourteen and worked as a pracharak in Rajasthan. In 1951, Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee and performed various roles including in charge of parliamentary affairs, general secretary, and president of the Delhi unit. In 1967, he was elected as the chairman of the First Delhi metropolitan council and served till 1970 while becoming a member of the RSS national executive. In 1970, Advani became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time and would go on to serve four terms till 1989. He became the president of Jana Sangh in 1973 and Jana Sangh merged into the Janata Party before the 1977 general election. Following the Janata party's victory in the elections, Advani became the union minister for Information and Broadcasting and leader of the house in Rajya Sabha.
In 1980, he was one of the founding members of the BJP along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and served as the president of the party three times. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989 where he served seven terms. In 1992, he was alleged to have been part of the Demolition of the Babri Masjid, but was acquitted by the courts due to lack of evidence. Following the same, he was one of the chief proponents of the movement to build a temple over the disputedRam Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya and the subsequent rise of Hindutva politics in the late 1990s. He has served as leader of opposition in both the houses. He was the minister of home affairs from 1998 to 2004 and deputy prime minister from 2002 to 2004. He served in the Indian parliament until 2019 and is credited for rise of BJP as a major political party. In 2015, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour and in 2024, he was conferred with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.[2]
Advani married Kamla Advani in February 1965 and they have a son Jayant and a daughter Pratibha.[10] Pratibha is a television producer and also supports her father in his political activities.[11] His wife died on 6 April 2016 due to old age.[12] Advani resides in Delhi.[13]
Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a political party founded in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in collaboration with the RSS. He was appointed as the secretary to S. S. Bhandari, then general secretary of the Jana Sangh in Rajasthan. In 1957, he moved to Delhi and became the general secretary and later, president of the Delhi unit of the Jana Sangh. From 1966 to 1967 he served as the leader of BJS in the Delhi Metropolitan Council (DMC). After the 1967 Delhi Metropolitan Council election, he was elected as the chairman of the council and served till 1970.[8][17] He also assisted K. R. Malkani with the publication of Organiser, the weekly newsletter of the RSS and became a member of its national executive in 1966.[16]
1971-75: Parliament entry and Jan Sangh leader
In 1970, Advani became a member of the Rajya Sabha from Delhi for the six-year tenure.[18] In 1973, he was elected as the president of BJS at the Kanpur session of the party working committee meeting.[8]
On 6 April 1980, Advani along with few of the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh quit the Janata Party and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the first president.[24] Though the previous government lasted briefly from 1977 till 1980 and was marred with factional wars, the period saw a rise in support for the RSS which culminated into the formation of the BJP.[25] In 1982, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the third time from Madhya Pradesh representing the BJP.[18] BJP won only two seats in the 1984 election with the Congress winning a landslide on the back of a sympathy wave due to the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This failure led to a shift in the party's stance with Advani being appointed party president and the BJP turning to Hindutva ideology of Jana Sangh.[26]
In 1990, Advani embarked on Ram Rath Yatra, a procession with a chariot to mobilise volunteers for Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The procession began from Somnath in Gujarat and headed to converge at Ayodhya.[31] In the 1991 general election, the BJP became the second largest party after the Congress with Advani winning for the second time from Gandhinagar and becoming the leader of opposition again.[32] In 1992, Babri Masjid was demolished with Advani alleged to have delivered a provocative speech prior to the demolition.[33][34][35] Advani was among the accused in the demolition case but was acquitted on 30 September 2020 by a CBI's special court.[36][37] In the judgement, it was mentioned that the demolition was not pre-planned and that Advani was trying to stop the mob and not incite them.[38][39]
In the 1996 general election, the BJP became the single largest party and was consequently invited by the President to form the government. Advani did not contest the elections over allegations of involvement in the Hawala scandal from which he was acquitted later by Supreme Court.[40][41] While Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 1996, the government collapsed after just thirteen days.[42]
1998-2004: Home minister and deputy prime minister
In the 2004 general election, the BJP suffered a defeat with United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress coming to power, with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister.[46] Advani won his fifth term to the Lok Sabha and became the leader of opposition.[47][48] Vajpayee retired from active politics after the 2004 defeat, promoting Advani to lead the BJP.[49] In June 2005, while on a visit to Karachi, Advani described Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a "secular" leader which led to criticism from the RSS. Advani was forced to resign as BJP president but withdrew the resignation a few days later.[50] In April 2005, RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan opined that Advani should step aside.[51] At the silver jubilee celebrations of the BJP in Mumbai in December 2005, Advani stepped down as party president and Rajnath Singh, from Uttar Pradesh was elected in his place. In March 2006, following a bomb blast at a Hindu shrine at Varanasi, Advani undertook a "Bharat Suraksha Yatra" (Sojourn for National Security), to highlight the alleged failure of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in combating terrorism.[52]
2009-15: Prime Minister candidacy and later years
Advani during an election campaign in 2009
In December 2006, Advani stated that as the leader of the opposition in a parliamentary democracy, he considered himself the Prime Ministerial candidate for the next general elections in May 2009.[53] While not everyone was supportive of his candidacy, Vajpayee endorsed Advani's candidacy.[54] On 2 May 2007, BJP President Rajnath Singh stated that Advani is the natural choice for the next prime minister if BJP won the next elections.[55] On 10 December 2007, the Parliamentary Board of BJP formally announced that L. K. Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate for the general elections due in 2009.[56]
Though Advani won his sixth term in Lok Sabha, the BJP lost to Congress and its allies in the 2009 general elections, allowing then incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue in office. Following the defeat in the elections, L. K. Advani handed over the position of leader of opposition to Sushma Swaraj.[57][58] He was elected working chairman of the National Democratic Alliance in 2010.[59] Advani contested the 2014 general election from Gandhinagar, winning for the fifth consecutive time. Later he was part of the Marg Darshak Mandal (vision committee) of the BJP along with Murli Manohar Joshi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.[60]
Rath Yatras
Advani in 2009
Advani often organised Rath yatras or processions to boost the popularity of the BJP and unify the Hindutva ideology. He organized six rath yatras or processions across the country with the first one in 1990.[61]
Janadesh Yatra: Four processions starting on 11 September 1993 from four corners of country were organized and Advani led the yatra from Mysore in South India.[63] Traversing through 14 states and two Union Territories, the processions were organized with the purpose to seek the people's mandate against the two bills, the Constitution 80th Amendment Bill and the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill and congregated at Bhopal on 25 September.[64]
Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra: The procession was organized between May and July 1997 and was conducted in celebration of 50 years of Indian Independence and to project the BJP as a party committed to good governance.[65]
Bharat Uday Yatra: The yatra took place in the run-up to the 2004 election.[66]
Bharat Suraksha Yatra: The BJP launched a nationwide mass political campaign from 6 April to 10 May 2006 consisting of two yatras – one led by Advani from Dwaraka in Gujarat to Delhi and the other led by Rajnath Singh from Puri to Delhi.[67] The yatra was focused on fighting left wing terrorism, minority politics, price rise and corruption, protection of democracy.[68]
Jan Chetna Yatra: The last of the yatras was launched on 11 October 2011 from Sitab Diara in Bihar with the purpose of mobilising public opinion against corruption of then ruling UPA government and promote the BJP agenda of good governance and clean politics.[69]
Positions Held
Positions Held
Position
Duration
Member, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Maintenance of Heritage Character and Development of Parliament House Complex
8 Oct. 2014 - 25 May 2019
Chairperson, Committee on Ethics
15 Sep. 2014 - 25 May 2019
Member, Standing Committee on Information Technology
^Ahmed, Khaled (27 June 2014). "The fading memory of amity". The Indian Express. Retrieved 20 July 2024. BJP leader L.K. Advani, in his autobiography My Country, My Life (2008), writes: "The Advani family belonged to the Amil branch of Sindhi Hindus. Traditionally, the Amil was a revenue official who assisted munshis in the administrative set-up of Muslim kings. It was one of the two main divisions of the Lohano clan which was linked to the Vaishya (business) community. In time, Amils came to dominate government jobs and professions in Sindh."
^ abcde"Members Bioprofile". Lok Sabha of India/National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
^Malik, Yogendra K.; Singh, V.B. (1994). Hindu Nationalists in India: The Rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. pp. 40–43. ISBN978-0-8133-8810-6.
^Panikkar, K. N. (1993). "Religious Symbols and Political Mobilization: The Agitation for a Mandir at Ayodhya". Social Scientist. 21 (7/8): 63–78. doi:10.2307/3520346. ISSN0970-0293. JSTOR3520346.
^Ruparelia, Sanjay (2005). "Managing the United Progressive Alliance: The Challenges Ahead". Economic and Political Weekly. 40 (24): 2407–2412. ISSN0012-9976. JSTOR4416746.
^Advani, L. K., 1927- (January 2014). Rāshṭra sarvopari (Saṃskaraṇa prathama ed.). Dillī. ISBN978-93-5048-549-1. OCLC904246754. Archived from the original on 28 March 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
