The Hindu : Front Page : Advani regrets stalling of Parliament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 10, 2004

Front Page

Advani regrets stalling of Parliament

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 9. The Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, has expressed regret for the BJP's stalling of Parliament in the last session and promised to make every effort to ensure this is not repeated in the winter session. He also said that if the next Lok Sabha election were to be held on schedule after five years then it was "quite likely" that the BJP leadership would pass on to a person other than the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and himself.

Speaking rather candidly in an interview given to BBC's `Hardtalk India' programme to be telecast tomorrow night, Mr. Advani virtually suggested that henceforth his party would prefer to use the term `Bharatiyata' (Indianness) or nationalism instead of Hindutva to denote the BJP ideology.

"At our last meeting in Goa, the word `Hindutva' was not stressed. `Indianness' was stressed, `Nationalism' was stressed. And it was emphasised that when we talk of Hindutva, we do not mean anything other than Bharatiyata or Indianness," he said.

It was brought to Mr. Advani's notice that in five years both Mr. Vajpayee and he would be over 80 years in age. It was in that context he said that a change of leadership was "quite likely" although he did not indicate who would be the new leader.

Mr. Advani agreed that he would like to see Parliament debate important issues, and he hoped that the next session would be smooth — at least he would make the effort to see that it was, he told the BBC.

Younger leadership

PTI, UNI report:

To the question of younger leadership in the BJP, Mr. Advani said: "Well, we've already done it in many ways. In the election of party office-bearers, in our selection of candidates. Perhaps no other party in the country has been trying to build a second-rung leadership in the systematic manner in which the BJP has been doing.''

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