One can argue with his politics, his rath yatras, his ideological somersaults, but it has to be conceded that L.K. Advani is a politician’s politician. He is possibly the most astute and accomplished practitioner of the art which, unfortunately, has fallen into disrepute. Besides being a total pro, Mr Advani is one of those rarities in Indian public life who has a life beyond party politics. He reads books, he sees films, he has a full family life, he enjoys small portions of haute cuisine, he holds views on any number of subjects from climate change to TV anchors. You don’t have to approve of any of the above, but in a country where netas are at once self-centred and one-dimensional, he makes a welcome change. I cannot claim to know him well, neither can I claim to be a part of his inner circle made up, interestingly, of numerous editors and commentators. Nevertheless, I have found him to be unfailingly polite, soft-spoken and a pleasure to talk to because—and this again is rare—he listens to what you have to say. Most Indian politicians speak with a kind of papal authority, they love nothing more than the sound of their own voice.

I was not one of the privileged few who got an advance copy of his much-splashed autobiography, but candid or dull, cautious or titillating, he has done the country a service by giving us his version of events. We journalists may write the first rough draft of history, but politicians write the real stuff.

If Mr Advani and his aides have made a critical error it is this: journalists and editors have been segregated into "friends" and "enemies". The friends are to be indulged, the enemies are to be shunned. This apartheid has turned out to be counter-productive. It ensures a complete freeze. As any novice spin doctor will tell you, the trick is to convert enemies into friends. The friends have already been won, so one should pay restricted attention to them and calculatedly reach out to the enemies. The prime minister-in-waiting often complains about his image problem and blames the media for painting him as a "hardliner". This may well be true, but it is also true that the cause of the problem could be the way Mr Advani has handled his press relations.