It was a 'shameful' episode which not only threw entire country into an unending debate over the Qaid-e-Azam's "cause for a secular state" -- as the BJP president would love to say -- , but also ensured that LK Advani's own house was in disorder and turmoil. While the (Mohammed Ali) Jinnah row kept India on the boil, the forgettable saga gave the Congress enough ammunition to target the Sangh Parivar.

"Eighty crore Hindus in India will feel betrayed if someone wants to create a secular image for himself by showering praise on Jinnah," a front page edit in the Marathi daily Saamna said. The edit said Advani did not stop at just praising Jinnah, but also 'almost apologised to Muslims in Pakistan for the demolition of the Babri Masjid'. "Shiv Sena is firm on the issue of Hindutva. We think Hindutva is nationalism," it went on, adding fuel to fire, engulfing the BJP and its affiliates.

The result was, a unanimous call for his immediate sack. Even as Advani brought the father of Pakistan back to life, researchers and historians busied themselves with gigantic tasks of tracing Jinnah's secular roots which eluded them.

If Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and RSS chief KS Sudarshan were livid at Advani's assertions, parties cutting across party lines and a whole nation went berserk over Advani's presumptuousness of supporting Jinnah's two-nation theory.

While the controversy still refuses to die down, even after Advani's announcement to call it quits, his very Pakistan visit seems to have tarnished his image within the Parivar.

In his post retirement days, Advani will, perhaps, be remembered more for his once-in-a-lifetime condemnable Jinnah speech, than his political acumen, sense of timing and those fiery speeches that cultivated an entire generation of Hindu supporters and catapulted his party into the national mainstream and psyche.