RSS chief asks BJP to replace old with young, end discords

By IANS,

New Delhi : A day ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) crucial brainstorming session, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat Tuesday said the young generation should take charge and that the party leaders should resolve their differences at the earliest.


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Breaking his silence over the leadership crisis in the BJP, Bhagwat said: “It is a universal rule that the young generation must replace the old generation.”

Bhagwat made his comments in an interview with television channel Times Now when asked about the aging top leadership of the BJP.

“When, where and how (it happens), they will have to decide the modus operandi,” he said, and added that “transition is necessary”.

The RSS is the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.

Asked if senior BJP leader Advani should carry on for next five years as leader of opposition, Bhagwat said: “That they will have to decide. If they come and ask for our suggestion, we will give it to them.”

About the transition to young leadership by the next general elections, he pointed out: “We have been saying that since 2003. Whenever they ask us how should our party be, we have told them you have young men, bring them slowly forward. At all levels of the party.”

Asked about the factionalism in the party, Bhagwat said it had suffered a “nasty jolt” in the elections and must address real issues and put an end to factionalism.

“It was a nasty jolt, quite unexpected, and it destabilised the party. Whatever happened was not very good, even BJP leaders have said this,” he said.

In a stern message to the party as it braces for its three-day chintan baithak (introspection session) that begins in Shimla Wednesday, the RSS chief said: “They have to get their balance back and make amends to everything.” Bhagwat said the sooner the party does this, the better.

“The BJP leaders express their angst about this (factionalism), they are keen to restore it,” he added.

Bhagwat said he had not applied himself to how the party should resolve the differences between its leaders. “I have not given a thought to the internal situation of the BJP. That is not my job. I tell them to sit together and amend things,” he pointed out.

He clearly advised the party not to lose sight of its goals. “Their party had a mission and that mission should be kept in sight. They should think where they have gone wrong. The general condition of the party should be paid attention to.”

Mohan Bhagwat said he told senior BJP leader L.K. Advani who went to meet him recently to find ways to resolve the internal strife.

And added: “He came to me. He wanted to meet me. He described all these things. I told him that you consider how this situation came to be because it was a disciplined party, was a very good party. It was a party with a difference.”

“In the chintan baithak. All sit together and think about it. Personal considerations must be kept away. This is what I told him,” Bhagwat said.

He asserted that the party would have to be clear on the ideology and there should be a dialogue with the Sangh as a while also.

“They should be reasonably sound and articulate about the ideology. You should have a collective work pattern and should have dialogue with all the thought brothers. They should have a system of dialogue within them,” Bhagwat said.

And added: “Theirs should be a party with a difference and lastly they should bring the young generation forth.”

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