Swadeshi, cow protection, rejection of technology in favour of village implements etc have been streams of Parivar politics. When NRIs flock to campaign for Modi who wears Armani frames and the Indian middle class relish their global consumer tastes, how has the Parivar politics changed? “Swadeshi has never been about rejecting foreign goods for us. It was so during Gandhiji’s times but that version is not relevant now,” Advani says.

Opposition to computers was only a trade unionist agenda within the Parivar, he explains. Swadeshi, then or now, certainly involves rejecting a foreign leader though. As early as 1986, Advani had acquired a digital diary and in 1989, he was photographed with it during a BJP session in Mumbai. “Is this Swadeshi?” the caption screamed out on the front page next day. These days Advani carries a Nokia E 61i, fully-loaded and jazzy. “But only to make calls. It’s always kept off,” he says before one can ask for the number. Every now and then his daughter Pratibha reads out SMSs. In 1990, Advani visited Seattle to learn about the software boom. “I used to tell socialists about the futility of opposing English. India’s surge in software is because of the advancement we made in English,” he says. Swadeshi found a mention in passing in Advani’s printed speech at BJP national executive last month.

Advani is not too sure if he is a hardliner. “If hardliner means being decisive, then I would not mind being called one. But otherwise, I have a very pragmatic approach to life and politics,” he says. He’s right when he recalls that pragmatism has been a trait of Parivar politics since the beginning — from the days Deen Dayal Upadhyaya aligned with Socialists to Advani himself first allying with Shiv Sena, then Janata Dal, then Left and subsequently all sorts of regional outfits. But the softer side of Advani is often visible — when he is caught with his eyes moist or even tears rolling down. “I get emotional on good news and bad news,” he admits.

... contd.