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THE RUMBLINGS BEGAN just before the storm, and the wise men predicted its arrival with uncanny precision.
In the first week of June, a few days before the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive meeting in Goa, the veteran party leader and former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi placed an urgent phone call to Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi, the second-in-command at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). At the upcoming meeting in Goa, the party planned to announce that the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, would be elevated to chair the party’s campaign committee. The purpose of Joshi’s call was to warn the RSS leader of the chaos that would ensue. “Aap baat keejiye Advaniji se,” Joshi said. “Jo ho raha hai theek nahin hai. Tamasha ho jayega. (Talk to Advaniji. What is happening is not good. There will be a public spectacle.)”
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