Advani’s post came just two days before the BJP’s Foundation Day celebrations and seven days before the start of polling in the seven-phase Lok Sabha election.
File photo of LK Advani with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh (extreme left) and BJP president Amit Shah (extreme right). (Photo: AFP PHOTO / SAM PANTHAKY)
Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch LK Advani wrote a blog saying that those who oppose the party are not “anti-nationals”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the former BJP chief’s comments sums up the true essence of the party.
“Advani ji perfectly sums up the true essence of 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,” Modi said in a tweet posted on Thursday night.
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Advani Ji perfectly sums up the true essence of BJP, most notably the guiding Mantra of ‘Nation First, Party Next, Self Last.’
Proud to be a BJP Karyakarta and proud that greats like LK Advani Ji have strengthened it. https://t.co/xScWuuDuMq
— Chowkidar Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 4, 2019
In a blog written earlier in the day, the 91-year-old Advani, one of the tallest veterans of both the RSS and BJP, said, “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’,” he added.
Though Advani didn’t take any names, his remarks were interpreted as veiled criticism of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Advani’s post came just two days before the BJP’s Foundation Day celebrations and seven days before the start of polling in the seven-phase Lok Sabha election.
He also thanked the people of Gandhinagar from where he was elected six times to the Lok Sabha since 1991. The nonagenarian was reportedly denied a ticket from the constituency this time and was replaced by BJP president Amit Shah. Besides Advani, the party also denied a ticket to 85-year-old Murli Manohar Joshi.
Read More: Those who disagree with BJP are not ‘anti-nationals’, ‘enemies’: LK Advani
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said that both Advani and Joshi had themselves refused to contest.
Advani’s also said that the 6 April Foundation Day is an “important occasion for all of us in the BJP to look back, look ahead and look within”, and called on the electorate and “all the stakeholders” to “strengthen the democratic edifice of India” in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
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