Free Republic

Pakistan reacted with shock after Opposition leader and BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani offered on Tuesday to resign as chief of the party, having drawn fire for praising Pakistan's founding father. "I am shocked and surprised over the reaction," information minister Sheikh Rashid told the agency. Advani returned to New Delhi on Monday from a week-long visit to Pakistan, where he was quoted as saying that the country's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was a "great man" who had favoured a secular state to an Islamic Pakistan. "Advani's image in Pakistan was as a hardliner and a hated man. But he...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani on Saturday described the torture of Iraqis by US soldiers as "shocking" and "disgusting" but in the same breath called it an "internal matter" for the US. "What has happened is shocking and disgusting and one gets a feeling of revulsion," he said. Advani was reacting to Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony's observation that had India been ruled by Indira Gandhi, V.K. Krishna Menon or Rajiv Gandhi, New Delhi's condemnation over the American behaviour would be stronger. Advani said "it is up to the Indian government to decide what to condemn and what not...

<p>Whereas Vajpayee was the human face of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has led a coalition government for four years, Advani is more in tune with the party's base of radical nationalists who seek to undermine the secular India of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. In addition, Advani's policy towards Pakistan is larded with nuclear threats and bellicosity.</p>