BJP's national executive meet: Will it be second time lucky for Narendra Modi?

AHMEDABAD: The last time BJP held its national executive in Goa in April 2002, Narendra Modi had a close shave with destiny — he almost lost his job as Gujarat chief minister in the wake of the post-Godhra riots. Amid growing clamour within BJP that he should follow ‘raj dharma’, it was his one-time mentor L K Advani who stone-walled the move by then prime minister AB Vajpayee to sack him.
Back then, in a midnight drama, Jaitley had come to Ahmedabad and accompanied Modi to Goa for the BJP national executive where Vajpayee had prepared the ground for Modi’s exit. Under Advani’s guidance, Jaitley orchestrated support which enabled Modi to survive the crisis.
Eleven years on, as BJP leaders pack their bags for the BJP’s second national executive in Goa, Advani seems to be regretting his 11th-hour intervention which saved Modi.
In 2002, the guru had saved his shishya’s job. Cut to 2013: the guru may thwart the shishya's bid to become BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
A week before the conclave — to be held from June 6 to 8 — Advani opened a Pandora’s box by backing Modi’s in-house competitor and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at a function in Gwalior. While praising Chouhan, there were between-the-lines barbs for Modi.
Cracks in the three-decade-old relationship surfaced for the first time in 2005 when Modi maintained silence after Advani angered right-wing organizations by praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
Tensions escalated during campaigning for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections when Modi began projecting himself as a proxy PM candidate. Next came a series of public meetings in Gujarat when crowds would start leaving the venue after listening to Modi even as Advani would be delivering his speech.
The last straw was Modi’s Sadbhavna Mission — an attempt to woo minorities and bare his prime ministerial ambitions — which was launched at a time when Advani was planning his anti-corruption yatra. An upset Advani, who had planned the yatra from Porbandar on Gandhi Jayanti, eventually flagged it off from Sitabdiara in Bihar, a region now lorded over by Modi’s staunchest political foe, Nitish Kumar.
Modi’s supporters say Goa has been lucky for him. Only time will tell how lucky.