Charismatic Lal Krishna Advani has been in active politics for over half a century. Born on November 8, 1929 in Karachi, Advani was the RSS organizer in Karachi City in 1947. After the partition he was involved in the RSS work in Rajasthan. When Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee founded the Jan Sangh in 1951, Advani went on to become its Rajasthan secretary. In 1973 he was appointed the president of the Jana Sangh in Delhi, the post of which he held till 1977 when he joined Morarji Desai's Cabinet as Information and Broadcasting Minister. During his tenure he freed the media from legislative and executive restraints, institutionalized reforms and inbuilt safeguards to guard freedom. He abolished Press Censorship and repealed anti-press legislation. Advani began his stint in Parliament when he became a Rajya Sabha member in 1970. Thereafter, in 1989 and 1991, he was elected to the Lok Sabha. When the Bhartiya Janata Party was launched in 1980, he held the post of the General Secretary for six years, after which he became the president in 1986. Advani's influence on Indian politics has been phenomenal. When the country was pulled apart by the divisive forces of casteism. He emphasized the cultural unity of the country by highlighting Shri Rama as a symbol of cultural resurgence. Advani is accredited with invigorating the Bhartiya Janata Party. in 1991 he donned the mantle of the Leader of Opposition. His journey across the country in the early 1990s atop a motorized chariot christened "Rath" projected him as the uppermost BJP leader. Advani was elected the President of the BJP in 1993 and made it to the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998. The same year India finally took the hardest, and most controversial, of all decisions and conducted five underground nuclear tests. With Pokhran II (as the tests have been christened), Advani's long-term dream has come true, as true as his image of a no-nonsense, hard decision-maker. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his friend and colleague since decades assumed prime ministership of India, Advani got the number 2 slot of the Home Ministry in the new government. The following year on October 13 he became the Union Cabinet Minister for the Home Affairs. As Home Minister in the BJP-led Government, Advani had been assigned the most thorny of nation's areas, Kashmir being one to them. Though many in and out of the BJP talk of his Prime Ministerial due and the unspoken war between Vajpayee and Advani, the two who have been good friends for decades, sit back and relish the gossip. In fact Vajpayee openly recognised his position in the party by making him the Deputy Prime Minister of India on 1 July 2002, the position which he held till May 13, 2004. Suave and soft-spoken, Advani is given to a modest life style. He has been a voracious readers since his days of film journalist with the RSS mouthpiece Organiser. Wife Kamala, daughter Pratibha, daughter-in-law Geetika and son Jayant make up his small, happy family.