MUMBAI: Careful not to give away all that he has to say to his party before stepping down from the top post on Dec 31, BJP chief L.K. Advani kept his opening address at the Mumbai national executive on Monday as plain as he could.

But the BJP chief made sure that his Pakistan visit was counted among the 12 landmark events listed in a political career spanning over 50 years. The speech was an essay in diplomatic defiance. Cautious not to ruffle RSS feathers, Advani understandably refrained from bringing up the name of M.A. Jinnah, while speaking of his Pakistan visit in the summer of 2005. An attempt at mentioning the founder of Pakistan’s secular intent may have changed his equations with Pakistan, but had cost him a long period of discontent with RSS, finally culminating in the directive to step down.

But if Advani was careful not to revisit the Jinnah issue, he also kept RSS out of the context. Not once did he refer to the Sangh in his short opening address.While listing his Pakistan visit, Advani stuck to his claim that it had resulted in the revival of the Katasraj temple, which is in tune with the Hindutva agenda of the saffron party.

A six-day visit to Pakistan, during which “I am asked to inaugurate a project of the restoration of Katasraj temples of the Mahabharata era,” was Advani’s manner of mentioning his Pakistan visit. If there was no direct mention of BJP’s war with RSS which peaked in the context of the Jinnah issue, Advani signed off acknowledging that the past one year — which saw RSS help him achieve pre-eminence next only to Vajpayee and many of the colleagues whom he had mentored turn against him over the Jinnah issue — has been a learning experience.—Dawn/Times of India News Service