Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani indicated on Monday that he had no plans to retire from politics."I do not want to retire," Advani told BBC news channel in an interview. He told the questioner that he gives advice to the party whenever it is sought.
Expressing satisfaction at the line being pursued by his party under the new leadership, Advani said it had a bright future and a large number of young people were coming to the organisation. "It (BJP) is pursuing the right line and its future is bright," Advani said when asked if his party needed a makeover.
Advani, 83, had to step down as Leader of Opposition after the Sangh Parivar fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh reportedly asked him to pave way for a younger leadership in the wake of two consecutive Lok Sabha election defeats.
However, many feel the BJP patriarch is still in the saddle and has acquired the role of an elder statesman whom the party leaders look up to to provide solutions and resolve their differences. In reply to another question on whether right-wing BJP's hardliner image was making it unattractive to the younger generation, Advani replied in the negative.
"There are a large number of younger people coming to the party. A very large number... The mere fact that some prominent leaders of the ruling party (Congress) have their own children also elected to Parliament does not make them attractive to younger people," Advani said.
The main opposition has often taken potshots at Congress for promoting the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and lacking in inner-party democracy. On the current law and order problems in Jammu and Kashmir, the octogenarian leader said, "In one word I would say I am disappointed. I do not want to spell it out further."
Advani insisted that his party did not favour the army having a free hand in the trouble-torn state. "Army need not have a free hand anywhere," he said. Advani claimed that the single biggest achievement of his party was that it had turned India into a multi-polar polity by ending the single-party dominance of Congress.