Lal Krishna Advani

LK Advani (2008)

Lal Krishna Advani ( Hindi : लालकृष्ण आडवाणी Lālkṛṣṇa Advani [ lɑːlkrɪʃnʌ ʌɖʋɑːni ] * 8. November 1927 in Karachi , Sindh , then British India , now Pakistan ) is an Indian politician of the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). From 1977 to 1979 he was Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Morarji Desais government and from 1998 to 2004 Minister of the Interior under Atal Bihari Vajpayee . He was also party chairman of the BJP and its predecessor party Bharatiya Jana Sangh and opposition leader in the Indian parliament.

biography

Early years

LK Advani was born on November 8, 1927 in Karachi in what is now Pakistan into a Sindhi- speaking Hindu family. He attended the renowned St. Patrick's High School in Karachi before joining the Hindu nationalist cadre organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1942 at the age of 14 . After the partition of India and the subsequent violence between Hindus and Muslims, Advani fled Karachi in 1947 and worked for the RSS in Rajasthan for the next few years . In 1951 he joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh , the newly established political arm of the RSS. In 1957 he moved to the capital Delhi and worked there for the Jana Sangh.

Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Janata Party

In 1970 LK Advani was elected for the first time for the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the Rajya Sabha , the upper house of the Indian parliament, of which he remained a member until 1989. In 1973 he was elected party leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. During the state of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi , Advani, like many other opposition politicians, was arrested in 1975. After the state of emergency was lifted, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh joined forces with a number of other opposition parties to form the new Janata Party , which won the 1977 general election . Advani was appointed General Secretary of the Janata Party and took over the office of Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Morarji Desai government . However, due to ideological conflicts between the left-wing and secular wing on the one hand and the Hindu nationalist wing on the other, the Janata Party government fell after only two years.

Bharatiya Janata Party

In 1980 the former members of the Bharatiya Janata Sangh withdrew from the Janata Party and founded the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Advani also joined the new party and was appointed general secretary. In 1986 he rose to the office of party chairman, which he initially held until 1991. In 1989 he was elected to the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha . With the exception of 1996, he ran in all subsequent elections (1991, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014) and was successful in every candidacy. Until 1991 he represented the constituency of New Delhi , since then the constituency of Gandhinagar in Gujarat . From 1989 to 1993 Advani was opposition leader in parliament. From 1993 to 1998 he again took over the office of BJP party chairman.

Advanis planned pilgrimage from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990

LK Advani was the central figure in the BJP's campaign to build the Ram Janmabhumi Temple at the alleged birthplace of the god Rama in place of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, North India, built during the Muslim period (see: Temple-Mosque Controversy of Ayodhya ) . In 1990 Advani undertook a high-profile pilgrimage ( Rath Yatra ) from Somnath on the west coast of India to Ayodhya to mobilize volunteers for the campaign. The pilgrimage did not reach its destination because Advani was arrested on October 23, 1990 in Samastipur , Bihar, at the instigation of the Chief Minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav . This event indirectly led to the overthrow of Prime Minister VP Singh's government . Two years later, on December 6, 1992, militant Hindu nationalists destroyed the mosque. India-wide violence between Hindus and Muslims followed, killing more than 2,000 people. Advani was charged with alleged responsibility for the destruction of the Babri Mosque and acquitted on two counts in 2003 and 2010. However, on April 19, 2017, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the retrial of Advani and other co-defendants.

In 1998, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won the Indian parliamentary elections and then formed the government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee . LK Advani took over the office of Minister of the Interior in the Vajpayee government. In the new election in 1999 , the government was confirmed, Advani was again given the Ministry of the Interior. From 2002 he was also Deputy Prime Minister. In the 2004 general election , the BJP government was voted out again. In the following legislative period, Advani served as the opposition leader for the BJP. In addition, in 2004 he was elected party chairman of the BJP for the third time. In June 2005, Advani sparked internal party squabbles when he praised Pakistan's state founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah as secular during a trip to the neighboring country. Advani had to resign as party chairman, but withdrew his resignation a few days later. At the end of 2005 he finally gave up the party leadership.

In the 2009 parliamentary elections , Advani ran as the BJP's top candidate, but the election was again lost to the Congress Party . Advani initially took over the office of opposition leader again, but at the end of 2009 he handed it over to his party colleague Sushma Swaraj .

In 2015 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan .

literature

• LK Advani: My Country, My Life. New Delhi 2008. (autobiography LK Advanis)

Web links

Commons : Lal Krishna Advani  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Profile of Shri Lal Krishna Advanis on the Lok Sabha website
• WORD PORTRAIT: Shri Lal Krishna Advani on the BJP website
• Portrait of LK Advanis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lal Krishna Advani & Ram Rath Yatra. indiansaga.com, accessed November 17, 2014 . 
2. ^ Krishnadas Rajagopal: Babri case: SC revives criminal conspiracy charges against Advani, others. The Hindu, April 19, 2017, accessed April 19, 2017 .