NEW DELHI — The leading Hindu nationalist party that put India on the nuclear map but lost power last year has been rocked by an internal war of words and ideology that threatens to break it up.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), now the main opposition party in Parliament, is stumbling from one embarrassment to the other.
The troubles were never more apparent than during BJP President Lal Krishna Advani’s recent goodwill trip to Pakistan. Mr. Advani, who was born in present-day Pakistan but moved to India when the subcontinent was divided at independence from British colonial rule in 1947, visited the grave of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the driving force behind the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan.
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Before the visit, many people in Pakistan were threatening to investigate Mr. Advani for a purported plot to kill Mr. Jinnah in 1947. But at the grave site, Mr. Advani eulogized Mr. Jinnah as a “secular” leader.
“There are many people who leave an inerasable stamp on history, but there are a few who actually create history,” he said of Mr. Jinnah.
Coming out with another shocker, Mr. Advani then apologized for the 1992 demolition of an ancient mosque in northern India, saying it was “the saddest day of my life.” The Babri Mosque demolition by Hindu militants triggered widespread communal riots that killed hundreds, ignited Hindu fundamentalist passions in the country and brought the BJP to its first national electoral victory.
While the comments created more cordial relations between Mr. Advani and the Pakistani government, they brought a tide of anger from his political circle, which viewed them as an ultimate betrayal of their ideology. Protesters from conservative Hindu organizations burned his photos in the streets and their leaders called him a “traitor.”
Saying he was “deeply hurt” by the backlash, Mr. Advani turned in his resignation. A week later, he quietly withdrew the resignation and became party president once more on June 10.
The resignation drama is only the most serious in a series of embarrassing events for the party. Last year, Uma Bharati, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state, quit her post and stormed out of a national BJP meeting broadcast on national television.
Mr. Advani’s statements in Pakistan are seen by analysts as an attempt to present himself as moderate, prime ministerial material for the BJP’s coalition allies.
If the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or the National Service Corps, the militaristic Hindu umbrella organization that created the BJP as its political arm, exerts more influence over the party, it’s likely that some coalition partners will exit, leaving the opposition in tatters. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or the World Hindu Council, another offshoot organization of the RSS, is already speaking of starting its own political party that would hold fast to the Hindu hard line.
All this chaos in the BJP leaves the ruling Congress party in a stronger, more stable position. “This is a soap opera which only ends to restart again in the near future. The nation has no option but to wait during the commercial break till the next installments of this tragic-comedy,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said about the Advani resignation.
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