The life of LK Advani, from Karachi to Ayodhya

HIS STORY: L K Advani, the voracious reader, has chosen to go back to his past to build his future.

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Keywords: Atal Behari Vajpayee, My Country My Life

New Delhi: BJP leader L K Advani's much-awaited book, My country, My life is going to be released next week. Party stalwart, Atal Behari Vajpayee has written the foreword for the book, calling Advani an outstanding leader, who's best is perhaps yet to come. Here is an exclusive extracts from the book.

"Advaniji has been my friend and comrade-in-arms for over fifty years. He has never compromised on his core belief in nationalism, and yet has displayed flexibility in political responses whenever it was demanded by the situation. He has an open mind that always absorbs new ideas from diverse sources. I am certain that My Country My Life will be read widely, and with keen interest, by people from diverse backgrounds. For mirrored in it is the remarkable journey of a sensitive human being and an outstanding leader whose best, I hope and pray, is yet to come."

With this foreword begins the journey of L K Advani, the prime minister in waiting, who is now laying his heart bare in a candid account in the book.

The book captures Advani's life right from the time he was a teenager in Karachi till the present date.

It's quite literally the story of India through the eyes of L K Advani.

In Chapter 1, Advani narrates his personal account — How he grew up in Sindh, how he got initiated into the RSS and how he left home at the tender age of 14 to work as a swayamsevak.

It captures his plight during Partition, the relationship between Hindus and Muslims during those turbulent times and other events which went a long way in shaping Advani's future politics.

Ironically, the book is causing a flutter within the BJP. Many leaders are anxious about what Advani will say about controversial issues like the Jinnah fiasco, the most talked about and interpreted relationship with Atal Behari Vajpayee and the evolution of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

BJP leader, Venkaiah Naidu says, "We are not worried. It will be good for us."

In the past, Jaswant's Singh 'mole theory' in his autobiography had caused severe embarrassment to the BJP.

In 2004, Atal Behari Vajpayee teamed up with Jagjit Singh to reveal the best of his poetic side.

In 2008, L K Advani, the voracious reader, has chosen to go back to his past to build his future.