Samikhsya Bureau
Bharatiya Janata Party and National Democratic Alliance lawmakers meeting on Saturday in the historic Central Hall of Parliament turned out to be an interesting and exciting affair especially in the perspective of the body language and gestures of Lal Krishna Advani and other veterans.
About 40 minutes before the Prime Minister arrived for the meeting, Advani was at the venue gesturing his signature style ‘Namaskar’ and meeting party leaders and lawmakers – most of them were onetime his acolytes and lieutenants. Many later said this gesture was missing in Advani’s conduct in 2014 when the NDA MPs had met at the same venue for formal election of Narendra Modi as the parliamentary party leader.
Accompanied by BJP general secretary Ram Lal, Advani went around for about 15 minutes strolling slowly – fighting his age – and met a number of leaders. Several BJP leaders rose from their seats to touch his feet. They included former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, actress-turned-BJP MP from Hoogly, Bengal, Locket Chatterjee and others.
Emotional
Occasionally, Advani appeared emotional and touched several of them on their heads – as a gesture of blessings. The 91-year-old Advani and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated BJP in 1980 after the Jan Sangh group came out of the then Janata Party.
In fact, most of the BJP leaders had worked closely with Advani. The party patriarch, however, did not contest this year’s election from his traditional Gandhinagar seat and the constituency will be now represented by none other than BJP chief Amit Shah.Before the formal meeting of BJP and NDA MPs began, there was a joyous mood in the Central Hall with newly-elected members and those re-elected greeting each other, shaking hands, posing for selfies and often embracing each other.
BJP chief Amit Shah’s arrival was greeted by a thumping of desks by all and sundry. Similar gesture was seen when Prime Minister arrived at the venue. He was received by Shah and Union home minister Rajnath Singh. Before the meeting began, Modi walked up to senior leaders and touched the feet of three elders present Advani, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal and Murli Manohar Joshi.
