IBNLive Chat: Advani's book, his last die to become PM

MY AIM: LK Advani is BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the next General Elections.

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Keywords: My Country My Life, LK Advani

Leader of Opposition L K Advani has spent more than 60 years in politics. He has been a witness and a participant in great historical events of modern independent India. He recounts his career in his memoirs, My Country My Life, which was published recently. What is the politics behind writing this book and will it help him in his prime ministerial ambitions? Bhupendra Chaubey, CNN-IBN's National Bureau Chief, chatted on this topic with IBNLive readers on Thursday, March 27. Here is the full transcript of the chat.

Kapil: Don’t you think that in the next election Advani should not raise the issues of Ayodhya or Hinduism, as in Gujarat Narendra Modi has proved that good governance can win polls?

Bhupendra Chaubey: Ayodhya is not an issue anymore for the BJP. It’s more of lip service that’s being done. It’s image and track record and a good coalition that matters

Amarnath Tewary: How difficult it will be for Advani to get out of his hardliner image? And, can his entire political career be judged through few thousand words written after a well thought of idea and plan?

Bhupendra Chaubey: The book is an attempt made by Advani to put a few things straight about himself. He wants to correct that impression about himself that he is just a hardliner.

Sundarji: Advani has a penchant for putting foot in the mouth inadvertently many a times, but can the tiger change his spots now?

Bhupendra Chaubey: Tiger has indeed changed his spots. Advani is the kind of politician who will never say ‘no comment’ to any question.

KR: Isn’t it possible that his attempt of an image makeover through this book may actually backfire. Instead of getting wider acceptance he may end up loosing most of his vote-bank.

Bhupendra Chaubey: The hardliner debate is now getting old. I don’t think people look at Advani just through the glasses of Babri Masjid. I don’t think it will do any damage to him, though I also don’t think that it will bring tremendous gains.

Rosa Basanti: The BJP has still not figured out why India didn't shine for them. How would this book help Advani attain his prime ministerial ambitions?

Bhupendra Chaubey: India shining was a tactical blunder made by the party. They admit it too in as many words. This is a book meant to clear some perceptions about Advani in the minds of people. Read it to see whether you manage to change your perception about him. Advani will become the Prime Minister if he can put together a good coalition. The days of identity politics are over. Just like the days of individual driven politics.

KR: Who among the second generation of BJP leaders is the most ideal PM candidate after Advani?

Bhupendra Chaubey: First let Advani get elected as the PM. We can then think of his successor. Someday though I would like to do a web chat on whether Narendra Modi is a deserving successor to Advani.

Sunil Mallya: LK Advani has always been projected by the media as a pro-Hindutva leader and as the chief architect of Babri demolition. But now it seems times have changed. Do you think the book and comments during his visit to Pakistan has played a role in this? Or is it something else?

Bhupendra Chaubey: India has changed, and hence Advani has changed too. He had an image in the 90s of being a hardliner, in 2008 all that is changed.

Adhitya: Sir, do you view Advani's rise to the helm of the BJP a symbol of a further shift to the "Right" vis-a-vis AB Vajpayee?

Bhupendra Chaubey: Not at all. Advani of 2008 is not the rabble-rouser of 1992. He is a much more mellowed, milder version. The BJP's policies will be the same one as Vajpayee. So what if there is no poetry involved.

Harikesh: Do you feel that the release of book after the Union Budget will give some limelight to BJP? Some times it seems that UPA, in between Congress as the ruler and the Left as Opposition, is eating away all the attraction.