•Welcome to Walk the Talk. And let me remind you of a coincidence: Walk the Talk started exactly five years ago to the date, on a Good Friday morning, and the guest that day was Mr L.K. Advani, the then deputy prime minister. Mr Advani is back on the programme today, this time as the Leader of the Opposition, basking in the glory of his autobiography (My Country, My Life). Mr Advani, do you remember a little conversation we had that time: you underlined the fact that it was Good Friday and linked it to the time the Janata Party broke up and you said, ‘This is the day of crucifixion, and two days later there’ll be a resurrection.’

I’ve repeated this analogy many times. I started it when I visited Kerala for the first time, after the formation of the BJP, and I could see that in the audience there were many Christians, who would understand it more precisely than the others. And I pointed out that it was on Good Friday that the formal resolution throwing us out of the Janata Party was passed, and that I regarded that as an attempt to crucify us, saying that we were communal and that so long as we were in the Janata Party, it would not grow. And we accepted that crucifixion, and when two days later, on Easter Sunday, the BJP was formally launched, I said, ‘This is the day of Resurrection.’

•So if we stretch the metaphor, did you feel you were being crucified, after the electoral defeat, then the Jinnah statement. And is now the time for Resurrection.

... contd.