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RSS doesn`t consider anyone as Atal`s successor
New Delhi, June 20: The RSS has stated that it does not consider anyone as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee`s successor and that in due course `new people` should replace old leaders at the helm of party`s affairs.
New Delhi, June 20: The RSS has stated that it does not consider anyone as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's successor and that in due course "new people" should replace old leaders at the helm of party's affairs.
In an interview to a news magazine, RSS chief K S Sudarshan also expressed serious reservations about the Kanchi Shankaracharya's latest peace initiative on Ayodhya and charged VHP with suffering from a "persecution phobia."
"We don't consider anyone to be Atalji's succesor. Since the BJP is a democratic party and people come through elections, so new people must come and replace the old ones. And the older people should allow the others to come forward and take on their responsibility," Sudarshan is quoted as having said in the interview, according to a release from the magazine here today.
The statement assumes significance as it comes close on the heels of the recent leadership controversy in the party which was seen as a power struggle between Vajpayee and Advani though both leaders later scotched such speculation by praising each other and dubbing the episode as a "non-issue."
However, Sudarshan, who had at the peak of the controversy counselled BJP president Venkaiah Naidu to emphasise on ideology and not individuals, reiterated that no personality can be bigger than the party.
"Why base the party on personality? Once upon a time people asked: After Nehru who. Nehru died and Shastri took over, we should not forget who made the big leaders - the cadres," the release quoted the Sarsanghchalak as saying.
On the Kanchi seers efforts for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, the RSS chief said: "The Shankaracharya had spoken to me on Ayodhya. I told him that if we had to make this kind of a compromise we would have done it in 1991 when the Babri Masjid Action Committee offered us the Ram temple in exchange of us dropping Kashi and Mathura. The Ram Janambhoomi movement will go on. The VHP will reach out to one crore people.
Disclosing details of his recent meeting at Delhi with VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, Sudarshan said: "They had come to meet me and told me that they were very unhappy with the Kanchi initiative as there is no question of giving up Kashi and Mathura".
He, however, was critical of the parishad's behaviour.
"The VHP gets excited when decisions are taken against them. It is a sort of persecution phobia as they believe that some people want to finish them off," Sudarshan said.
The RSS chief also wanted BJP to fight the next elections on its own manifesto.
"Since none of the other NDA allies have given up their agendas, why should the BJP?" he asked.
Bureau Report
"We don't consider anyone to be Atalji's succesor. Since the BJP is a democratic party and people come through elections, so new people must come and replace the old ones. And the older people should allow the others to come forward and take on their responsibility," Sudarshan is quoted as having said in the interview, according to a release from the magazine here today.
The statement assumes significance as it comes close on the heels of the recent leadership controversy in the party which was seen as a power struggle between Vajpayee and Advani though both leaders later scotched such speculation by praising each other and dubbing the episode as a "non-issue."
However, Sudarshan, who had at the peak of the controversy counselled BJP president Venkaiah Naidu to emphasise on ideology and not individuals, reiterated that no personality can be bigger than the party.
"Why base the party on personality? Once upon a time people asked: After Nehru who. Nehru died and Shastri took over, we should not forget who made the big leaders - the cadres," the release quoted the Sarsanghchalak as saying.
On the Kanchi seers efforts for a negotiated settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, the RSS chief said: "The Shankaracharya had spoken to me on Ayodhya. I told him that if we had to make this kind of a compromise we would have done it in 1991 when the Babri Masjid Action Committee offered us the Ram temple in exchange of us dropping Kashi and Mathura. The Ram Janambhoomi movement will go on. The VHP will reach out to one crore people.
Disclosing details of his recent meeting at Delhi with VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, Sudarshan said: "They had come to meet me and told me that they were very unhappy with the Kanchi initiative as there is no question of giving up Kashi and Mathura".
He, however, was critical of the parishad's behaviour.
"The VHP gets excited when decisions are taken against them. It is a sort of persecution phobia as they believe that some people want to finish them off," Sudarshan said.
The RSS chief also wanted BJP to fight the next elections on its own manifesto.
"Since none of the other NDA allies have given up their agendas, why should the BJP?" he asked.
Bureau Report