Advani and Jinnah - A roundup

Only the Indian Express seems to truly believe that Advani was following his heart when he made his comments about Jinnah.
"The paper says it is to Mr Advani's great credit that he has chosen a matter of principle on which to stand up to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist organisation from which the BJP draws its ideological roots."

The Times and The Hindu seem to have taken the standard line that Advani is just and oppurtunist who is swaying with the wind.
"It is possible to agree with many of his critics who insist that Mr Advani has never had any core beliefs and that his thinking and politics were always shaped by a shrewd discerning of the prejudices of the day" - Hindu

"The sudden reappraisal of Jinnah was part of a well thought out plan to shake off [Mr Advani's] hardliner image, which was seen to be working to his disadvantage in the Premier League power game." - Times of India

I believe that Hindu and Times are being too simplistic in their appraisal of Advani. The reason that there was never a crisis of leadership between Vajpayee and Advani is because they agreed on more issues than was generally acknowledged. One has to only look at the horrible devisiveness of the current crop of BJP leaders to realize that Advani could not have been as hardline as the leftist media has claimed and yet have a wonderful working relationship with the then PM.

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