New Delhi:
LK Advani made reference to a wounded
Bhishma Pitamah lying on a bed of arrows in a scene in
Mahabharata after the sulking BJP veteran, citing ill-health, stayed away from the party executive meet that elevated Narendra Modi on Sunday.
The 83-year-old party stalwart, however, made no mention of the Gujarat Chief Minister in his blog or in a video address to a religious event in Jaipur.
The reference to
Mahabharata epic - which is often interpreted metaphorically - was made by Mr Advani in his blog on a day when Mr Modi was anointed as Chief of BJP's Election Campaign Committee for 2014 general elections.
In his video address for the Jaipur event, Mr Advani broke his silence on his ill-health that triggered speculation on his perceived opposition to Mr Modi's appointment. He was due to have attended the event.
Mr Advani, who missed BJP executive meet for the first time in his entire political career, said he was having "stomach upset" for the last three days and therefore could not participate in the deliberations.
In his blog, he first praises a sandalwood carving of Lord Krishna's
Vishwaroop avatar, which he says also has a carving of "
Bhishma Pitamah on his bed of arrows, sermonizing to the
Pandavas".
Mr Advani was referring to a "remarkable" piece of sandalwood carving on display at his Prithviraj Road residence in Delhi in which Shri Krishna is administering
Geetagnyan to Arjuna at Kurukshetra, and in that process giving him a
darshan of His
Vishwaroop.
"What is even more significant about this carving is the fact that the artist, from Chikmangloor in Karnataka, has depicted on the back side of this excellent
Vishwaroop carving not only several other scenes from the Mahabharata, like Draupadi
Cheer Haran, and
Bhishma Pitamah on his bed of arrows, sermonizing to the
Pandavas, but also all the
Dashavataras, from
Matsyavatara and
Kurmavatara to Krishna and Kalki," he said.
Mr Advani also wrote about seeing Kamal Haasan's film
Vishwaroopam (in Tamil) and
Vishwaroop (in Hindi) on June 3 after he had expressed a desire to the actor-cum-director following a controversy over its screening.
The BJP veteran said he had recounted to Mr Haasan an anecdote he had heard during his school days in Karachi.
"The story is about a meeting Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had during the Second World War, in which Hitler tells the Italian Supremo that the sins committed by the two of them would prove very costly for them after death," he said.