Who will be the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014? The question has been asked many times over ever since the party's senior-most leader LK Advani set off on his Jan Chetna yatra.
Is he a contender? No, Mr Advani tells NDTV in an exclusive interview, he was not on the yatra as a contender for the PM's post. But the final decision would be that of the party and he does not see the need to rule himself out.
He speaks to NDTV's Barkha Dutt:
NDTV: Advaniji in many ways you are seen to be the politician who first use the Yatra as a metaphor for political change. Aur yahin par Uttar Pradesh mein everybody remembers that time when it was around the Ram Mandir issue. Do you believe that the Yatra is still a strong symbol of political change in a very changed political environment?
LK Advani: I hold that the arrival of television and other means of IT communication in recent years have brought about a major change in the modes of communication. But the fact that even today, despite television, despite the Internet, IT, Facebook, etc, India is a country where lakhs of villages do not have even electricity. So they are deprived even of television. So, very many people who communicate essentially through television think that things have changed. There is no need to go to the villages to hold rallies there, meetings there. Whereas from day 1, from 1990 at least when I first had my first Yatra, I found that people who attended my meetings in the course of that yatra, were mainly people who never go to any political rally. They have no exposure to political discourse of any kind. And the fact that even today there are still tens of thousands of villages, if not more, which have no power, no electricity. And even villages, which have electricity, do not have electricity more than 5 hours or 6 hours. This makes this Yatra still relevant.
NDTV: But you have embraced both new media, you blog, you are quite fond of technology, to keep up to speed with the latest gismos and even the music theme of this Yatra is targeting in a sense the young people. It's not rock and roll, it's rock and rath.
LK Advani: Yes, yes. Young and the urban so that the theme song that I have chosen this time is not meant for, the Yatra means the people in the countryside, its not meant for them. It's more for the urban youth. But after all, the object is both. And then this kind of impression also, that a person who is in any way inclined towards respecting religiosity is not bothered, he is a backward looking person. This is one of the biggest...
NDTV: Stereotypes.
LK Advani: No, no. One of the biggest damages which has been done to India damage that has been done to India in the name of secularism. Secularism is being equated to religion and religiosity, being undesirable facets of a human personality. It's so, in a way I would think the circuit of corruption in country today has not a little to do with this kind of approach. Religion and religiosity create in a human being a sense of ethical values. And therefore, anyone who thinks that talking about religion is something wrong is not doing justice to the country.
NDTV: This Yatra is of course an anti-corruption plank and it comes at a time when the ruling government is on the backfoot, very seriously on the backfoot on the issue of corruption. Do you believe that we are looking at the mid-term election?
LK Advani: I would only say that the condition of the government today has created in the country a sense of political uncertainty. I am among those who believe that in order to precipitate a mid-term goal much earlier than scheduled, you have to have not only an issue like corruption but also a person like VP Singh. And this is what I said on stage. The government's good fortune is that there is no VP Singh in the government today. And the people's good fortune is that we have a Chief Justice of Supreme Court who is different from the others in the judiciary. There is a CAG in the country who is unmindful of the fact that some minister may be abusing him or some lading spokesman of the Congress party may be thinking that if there is anything wrong in the country, it is the CAG. He is not mindful of that. He keeps on doing his duty. These are the people's good fortune.
NDTV: In the absence of VP Singh, is the BJP ready for a mid-term election? Would the BJP be inclined towards one?
LK Advani: I would say that there is no need for the BJP being ready. It is the government which has made people ready for the BJP and the NDA. We have not contributed very much except in Parliament where we did become the initiators of a campaign against corruption. Whether it was the two Houses where our leaders performed their tasks very well or the PAC where the chairman performed his task very well. And thus made corruption a major issue in the country. But simultaneously much was done by the government itself by defending corruption and defending those who were responsible for corruption. How would you have even the PM defending Raja? He did it. Chidambaram defending Raja did it. Not only Raja, but for a long time Suresh Kalmadi. All these things have happened. So that I have told my colleagues that a lot of work for the BJP, for the NDA is being done by the government.
NDTV: A huge trigger of change has also been the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. Now there is a huge controversy with the Congress' Digvijaya Singh saying this is an RSS backed movement. He is releasing letters to show that. What do you say to that?
LK Advani: I have known, I have, I came to politics not because of anything else, but simply because I became the member of the RSS at the age of 14. My interest in public life and later politics is basically related to my membership of the RSS. So I have known the manner in which RSS is dragged in every issue. If you want to abuse anyone, you would say he is of the RSS, or he is associated with the RSS. And for a long time when the name of RSS was brought in, it was in order to associate someone with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Later on it became anything else, communalism etc etc. I have always maintained that just as the Arya Samaj, the Ramakrishna Mission were great ethical movements of the 19th century, similarly there is not a greater ethical movement of the 20th century - And now also the 21st century - than the RSS.
NDTV: But do you see the Anna Hazare movement as one primarily bolstered by the RSS?
LK Advani: Not at all. Though it is true that a large number of not only RSS activists, but even BJP activists participated in it, because it was against corruption. And I also advised everyone. I said, I for one, do not agree with the view that corruption relevant in country today is simply there because of there not being a Lokpal. Inadequacy of laws is not the basic reason for corruption. If there is a basic reason for corruption, it is inadequacy of the political will to curb corruption. It is lacking in the PM, in the Executive today. This is the reason. But I would not like anyone to criticise Anna Hazare's movement on this account. Because it is basically something against corruption.
NDTV: We have seen something quite unusual in the Hisar elections where Anna Hazare's group has actually given a call for a negative position in the Congress saying "kisi ko bhi vote do, Congress ko mat do". We have not really seeing this happening in the Indian elections before. As an observer of politics, do you believe it's a healthy trend?
LK Advani: No. Have you not seen something happening in the vote, after all what did Jaiprakash do? Jaiprakash had no relation with either the BJP, the Jansangh or with any other party except the BSP. So much so that he didn't even like the SP and the SSP. The SSP didn't like Jaiprakash Narayan. Jaiprakash Narayan was only BSP. And so I remember when I went to request him, I said you have brought all the Opposition parties together, in a move to fight corruption. I say that these student movements alone can't stop corruption. There has been a student movement in Gujarat, under the name of the Navnirman Samiti. He himself initiated a movement in Bihar, brought all the student bodies together. He said this will not go so far, The root of corruption in the country today is the government, meaning the Congress party. So unless the Opposition parties combine to fight corruption, which is because of the Congress, nothing will happen. Simultaneously came the judgement of the Allahabad High Court and which in a way indicted the PM of the country for electoral corruption. The Congress, of course, has every right to say that it is small technical flaw. But it was elctoral corruption which made a-seat in the House and disqualified her for six years from membership of Parliamant. This was virtually a loss for the party, as if no other PM could have survived. But she survived only by imposing Emergency in the country in a manner which was unbelievable. Incredible and if we gained democracy after that, it is because of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan's initiative and his leading the whole country. And therefore it is that I started a law from there - that both on corruption as well as on democracy he was our leader.
NDTV: That's interesting, the parallel between the Anna Hazare position and Jaiprakash Narayan movement. Advani ji, the differences in the UPA government whether it's what we saw with Pranab Mukherjee and Chidambaram basically and Digvijaya Singh often speaking in public are well known. But the Congress turns around and says that there are many internal fractions within the BJP as well. They claim for example, that the party is not settled yet who will be its Prime Ministerial candidate. At every press conference you are asked that, you say we will decide this in 2014, Do you see yourself as somebody who would be a contender for Prime Ministerial post in 2014?
LK Advani: I am not a contender for a Prime Ministerial post. In fact even in 2009 when the party said that you are to be the Prime Ministerial candidate, I was not a contender. In fact my party's own displeasure with me has started just a few months before that. And yet I was chosen. And I didn't say no. I am not a contender but at the same time if people say that, you may say that I will not become PM, I see no reason.
NDTV: So you are saying if the party wants you to...
LK Advani: No, no. I will only because, but therefore, therefore it is. When I saw in the newspapers a report that the RSS is not happy with the announcement of my Yatra, the moment I saw that, I felt surprised. Then I thought why ask anyone else, I will go to Nagpur. I have gone to Nagpur for the first time after many years that way. And I said I will meet Mr Bhagwati himself. Is there any truth in this? Because I had an impression that anyone fighting for corruption would be welcomed. He said in fact the day I heard the report, your press conference announcement, a meeting was going on and I told them that an excellent decision has been taken. And everyone in the RSS should support him. You don't worry about it. Absolutely, no basis. But I said the other day, I said it in Nagpur itself, I said that when I had decided about this Yatra the issue is not Prime Ministership. The issue is, in fact I said it today because I was asked that is it repackaging of LK Advani. Someone asked me. I said Advani is not the issue. The issue is the country. The issue is India. And when say this, I sincerely feel it. I strongly feel it, not sincerely. But strongly feel it that India when it became independent everyone viewed it as a country being liberated from foreign bondage having immense possibilities. And for many other countries in a similar position, it would not have taken so long as it has taken to become a really well developed country. We are still a third world country.
NDTV: So you are saying that when you met the RSS chief, he absolutely rubbished reports that the RSS was against the Yatra?
LK Advani: Yes.
NDTV: And you are also saying that while you are not a contender for the PM post, you see no reason to rule it out publically, it's up to the party?
LK Advani: That's all. Not only that but I would say I don't know when the elections would come, they may come three years hence. Today I am in a very fit condition, tomorrow I do not know. I do not know. After all, a person is, so it all depends on many factors. And besides that, besides that, I say that we have many many leaders in the party who can fit the bill, who can do justice to that job. I am not saying it just as rhetorical matter of fact. See how well the leaders in the two houses are conducting themselves.
NDTV: Narendra Modi wrote a blog supporting your Yatra but he made an interesting observation that you launched your Yatra from a stage where once the Chief Minister then, Lalu Prasad Yadav had stopped you. And Nitish Kumar today has flagged off your Yatra was then in the same party as Lalu.
LK Advani: Therefore, this is, in fact I felt that the blog was prompted by newspaper reports or television reports which saw that my rebuff to Narendra Modi and they saw that it is Modi who is against the Yatra. And in a way I felt very happy. Then he pointed out that how great a change has come about in the political situation today that there was a time when the Chief Minister of Bihar stopped my Yatra. This was the amazing and welcomed turnabout in the situation. I felt happy about it.
NDTV: Advani ji, towards the end when we reach your next meeting I want to ask you, you have had such a colourful, eventful political life, you have written your memoirs, all of that. When you look back today, any regrets, any unfinished dreams that you still want to see closure on?
LK Advani: Unfinished dream for the country, yes. Not for myself. In fact I have again and again said that from the age of 14 when I became the member of the RSS, I have had two families - one my personal family, and one my ideological family. Now she is my daughter, personal family. She has said this morning only again that Advani is like my father, ideological family. And I have received affection and respect and support from both the families. This had been one reason for my satisfaction and or for my saying that what I have received from the country till today is much more than what Prime Minister ship would give me.
NDTV: You got very emotional when Uma ji was speaking today and I also remember you getting emotional when once I interviewed you and Pratibha together. This is an iron man with a soft heart!
LK Advani: Iron man doesn't mean that his heart is also tough. No one has to have toughness in other fields. I have always been that emotional, this morning when who was praising me, I do not know, someone was praising me a lot. And it got tears to my eyes. I said sometimes I used to wonder ki bhai koi meri tareef karta hai phir bhi mujhe aankhon mein aansu aate hain, ye to galat baat hai, achchi baat nahi hai. Lekin, then I read a very good article in the Reader's Digest once in which it was said that a person being emotional, it's a good trait. Nothing's wrong with this. It shouldn't be deemed as weakness.
NDTV: Pratibha has always been with you in all of the events. Would like to see her in politics? I have asked this before but...
LK Advani: It all depends on her. But until a time when one of my principal adversaries tries to impose their principles on political parties, it may be difficult.
NDTV: Why do you say that?
LK Advani: Yes because it's not right. And once I also do it, then their principle in public life and politics, then it would become a virtue. Theek hai, aakhir sab karte hain, aaj bhi bahut saare log karte hain. This is one, and you have said this that time to me. Is it not being unfair to Pratibha, I said may be.
NDTV: That's what I was going to ask you again.
LK Advani: No, no. You have said it that day and I said even if it is so, I would like to do it my way.
NDTV: So you would not like to. One last question, you flagged off Kalraj Mishra's Yatra. Also Rajnath Singh is leading his own Yatra. Both of them are culminating in Ayodhya. Where is the space for Hindutva today in the BJP's politics?
LK Advani: For us, Rashtrawad and Hindutva have always been synonymous. And Hindutva doesn't mean in the narrow sense. No, never. We have never viewed it that way. I remember that the Father of Jansangh, one of the first times that I heard Deen Dayal Upadhayay, wrote an article fully, that for us Bharatiyata, Indianness and Hindutva are synonymous. For us Indian, Bharatiya and Hindu are synonymous. Once he propounded this thesis, the approach changed and that applies even today
NDTV: I have to ask you how do you remain so energetic, on the road, morning to night. Your day ends at 11 o'clock at night. And many people are remarking only on the energy of L K Advani in his 80's today hitting the roads.
LK Advani: Thanks to the Supreme Court. Today there is a limit on the use of loud speakers after 10 o'clock. So therefore nothing of the kind that was there on the earlier Yatras is going to bother me now. But so far as my being able to bear this Yatra, I have already said I see no other reason except the support and sustenance I receive from the two families that I have.
NDTV: Advani ji, thank you.
Is he a contender? No, Mr Advani tells NDTV in an exclusive interview, he was not on the yatra as a contender for the PM's post. But the final decision would be that of the party and he does not see the need to rule himself out.
He speaks to NDTV's Barkha Dutt:
NDTV: Advaniji in many ways you are seen to be the politician who first use the Yatra as a metaphor for political change. Aur yahin par Uttar Pradesh mein everybody remembers that time when it was around the Ram Mandir issue. Do you believe that the Yatra is still a strong symbol of political change in a very changed political environment?
LK Advani: I hold that the arrival of television and other means of IT communication in recent years have brought about a major change in the modes of communication. But the fact that even today, despite television, despite the Internet, IT, Facebook, etc, India is a country where lakhs of villages do not have even electricity. So they are deprived even of television. So, very many people who communicate essentially through television think that things have changed. There is no need to go to the villages to hold rallies there, meetings there. Whereas from day 1, from 1990 at least when I first had my first Yatra, I found that people who attended my meetings in the course of that yatra, were mainly people who never go to any political rally. They have no exposure to political discourse of any kind. And the fact that even today there are still tens of thousands of villages, if not more, which have no power, no electricity. And even villages, which have electricity, do not have electricity more than 5 hours or 6 hours. This makes this Yatra still relevant.
NDTV: But you have embraced both new media, you blog, you are quite fond of technology, to keep up to speed with the latest gismos and even the music theme of this Yatra is targeting in a sense the young people. It's not rock and roll, it's rock and rath.
LK Advani: Yes, yes. Young and the urban so that the theme song that I have chosen this time is not meant for, the Yatra means the people in the countryside, its not meant for them. It's more for the urban youth. But after all, the object is both. And then this kind of impression also, that a person who is in any way inclined towards respecting religiosity is not bothered, he is a backward looking person. This is one of the biggest...
NDTV: Stereotypes.
LK Advani: No, no. One of the biggest damages which has been done to India damage that has been done to India in the name of secularism. Secularism is being equated to religion and religiosity, being undesirable facets of a human personality. It's so, in a way I would think the circuit of corruption in country today has not a little to do with this kind of approach. Religion and religiosity create in a human being a sense of ethical values. And therefore, anyone who thinks that talking about religion is something wrong is not doing justice to the country.
NDTV: This Yatra is of course an anti-corruption plank and it comes at a time when the ruling government is on the backfoot, very seriously on the backfoot on the issue of corruption. Do you believe that we are looking at the mid-term election?
LK Advani: I would only say that the condition of the government today has created in the country a sense of political uncertainty. I am among those who believe that in order to precipitate a mid-term goal much earlier than scheduled, you have to have not only an issue like corruption but also a person like VP Singh. And this is what I said on stage. The government's good fortune is that there is no VP Singh in the government today. And the people's good fortune is that we have a Chief Justice of Supreme Court who is different from the others in the judiciary. There is a CAG in the country who is unmindful of the fact that some minister may be abusing him or some lading spokesman of the Congress party may be thinking that if there is anything wrong in the country, it is the CAG. He is not mindful of that. He keeps on doing his duty. These are the people's good fortune.
NDTV: In the absence of VP Singh, is the BJP ready for a mid-term election? Would the BJP be inclined towards one?
LK Advani: I would say that there is no need for the BJP being ready. It is the government which has made people ready for the BJP and the NDA. We have not contributed very much except in Parliament where we did become the initiators of a campaign against corruption. Whether it was the two Houses where our leaders performed their tasks very well or the PAC where the chairman performed his task very well. And thus made corruption a major issue in the country. But simultaneously much was done by the government itself by defending corruption and defending those who were responsible for corruption. How would you have even the PM defending Raja? He did it. Chidambaram defending Raja did it. Not only Raja, but for a long time Suresh Kalmadi. All these things have happened. So that I have told my colleagues that a lot of work for the BJP, for the NDA is being done by the government.
NDTV: A huge trigger of change has also been the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. Now there is a huge controversy with the Congress' Digvijaya Singh saying this is an RSS backed movement. He is releasing letters to show that. What do you say to that?
LK Advani: I have known, I have, I came to politics not because of anything else, but simply because I became the member of the RSS at the age of 14. My interest in public life and later politics is basically related to my membership of the RSS. So I have known the manner in which RSS is dragged in every issue. If you want to abuse anyone, you would say he is of the RSS, or he is associated with the RSS. And for a long time when the name of RSS was brought in, it was in order to associate someone with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Later on it became anything else, communalism etc etc. I have always maintained that just as the Arya Samaj, the Ramakrishna Mission were great ethical movements of the 19th century, similarly there is not a greater ethical movement of the 20th century - And now also the 21st century - than the RSS.
NDTV: But do you see the Anna Hazare movement as one primarily bolstered by the RSS?
LK Advani: Not at all. Though it is true that a large number of not only RSS activists, but even BJP activists participated in it, because it was against corruption. And I also advised everyone. I said, I for one, do not agree with the view that corruption relevant in country today is simply there because of there not being a Lokpal. Inadequacy of laws is not the basic reason for corruption. If there is a basic reason for corruption, it is inadequacy of the political will to curb corruption. It is lacking in the PM, in the Executive today. This is the reason. But I would not like anyone to criticise Anna Hazare's movement on this account. Because it is basically something against corruption.
NDTV: We have seen something quite unusual in the Hisar elections where Anna Hazare's group has actually given a call for a negative position in the Congress saying "kisi ko bhi vote do, Congress ko mat do". We have not really seeing this happening in the Indian elections before. As an observer of politics, do you believe it's a healthy trend?
LK Advani: No. Have you not seen something happening in the vote, after all what did Jaiprakash do? Jaiprakash had no relation with either the BJP, the Jansangh or with any other party except the BSP. So much so that he didn't even like the SP and the SSP. The SSP didn't like Jaiprakash Narayan. Jaiprakash Narayan was only BSP. And so I remember when I went to request him, I said you have brought all the Opposition parties together, in a move to fight corruption. I say that these student movements alone can't stop corruption. There has been a student movement in Gujarat, under the name of the Navnirman Samiti. He himself initiated a movement in Bihar, brought all the student bodies together. He said this will not go so far, The root of corruption in the country today is the government, meaning the Congress party. So unless the Opposition parties combine to fight corruption, which is because of the Congress, nothing will happen. Simultaneously came the judgement of the Allahabad High Court and which in a way indicted the PM of the country for electoral corruption. The Congress, of course, has every right to say that it is small technical flaw. But it was elctoral corruption which made a-seat in the House and disqualified her for six years from membership of Parliamant. This was virtually a loss for the party, as if no other PM could have survived. But she survived only by imposing Emergency in the country in a manner which was unbelievable. Incredible and if we gained democracy after that, it is because of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan's initiative and his leading the whole country. And therefore it is that I started a law from there - that both on corruption as well as on democracy he was our leader.
NDTV: That's interesting, the parallel between the Anna Hazare position and Jaiprakash Narayan movement. Advani ji, the differences in the UPA government whether it's what we saw with Pranab Mukherjee and Chidambaram basically and Digvijaya Singh often speaking in public are well known. But the Congress turns around and says that there are many internal fractions within the BJP as well. They claim for example, that the party is not settled yet who will be its Prime Ministerial candidate. At every press conference you are asked that, you say we will decide this in 2014, Do you see yourself as somebody who would be a contender for Prime Ministerial post in 2014?
LK Advani: I am not a contender for a Prime Ministerial post. In fact even in 2009 when the party said that you are to be the Prime Ministerial candidate, I was not a contender. In fact my party's own displeasure with me has started just a few months before that. And yet I was chosen. And I didn't say no. I am not a contender but at the same time if people say that, you may say that I will not become PM, I see no reason.
NDTV: So you are saying if the party wants you to...
LK Advani: No, no. I will only because, but therefore, therefore it is. When I saw in the newspapers a report that the RSS is not happy with the announcement of my Yatra, the moment I saw that, I felt surprised. Then I thought why ask anyone else, I will go to Nagpur. I have gone to Nagpur for the first time after many years that way. And I said I will meet Mr Bhagwati himself. Is there any truth in this? Because I had an impression that anyone fighting for corruption would be welcomed. He said in fact the day I heard the report, your press conference announcement, a meeting was going on and I told them that an excellent decision has been taken. And everyone in the RSS should support him. You don't worry about it. Absolutely, no basis. But I said the other day, I said it in Nagpur itself, I said that when I had decided about this Yatra the issue is not Prime Ministership. The issue is, in fact I said it today because I was asked that is it repackaging of LK Advani. Someone asked me. I said Advani is not the issue. The issue is the country. The issue is India. And when say this, I sincerely feel it. I strongly feel it, not sincerely. But strongly feel it that India when it became independent everyone viewed it as a country being liberated from foreign bondage having immense possibilities. And for many other countries in a similar position, it would not have taken so long as it has taken to become a really well developed country. We are still a third world country.
NDTV: So you are saying that when you met the RSS chief, he absolutely rubbished reports that the RSS was against the Yatra?
LK Advani: Yes.
NDTV: And you are also saying that while you are not a contender for the PM post, you see no reason to rule it out publically, it's up to the party?
LK Advani: That's all. Not only that but I would say I don't know when the elections would come, they may come three years hence. Today I am in a very fit condition, tomorrow I do not know. I do not know. After all, a person is, so it all depends on many factors. And besides that, besides that, I say that we have many many leaders in the party who can fit the bill, who can do justice to that job. I am not saying it just as rhetorical matter of fact. See how well the leaders in the two houses are conducting themselves.
NDTV: Narendra Modi wrote a blog supporting your Yatra but he made an interesting observation that you launched your Yatra from a stage where once the Chief Minister then, Lalu Prasad Yadav had stopped you. And Nitish Kumar today has flagged off your Yatra was then in the same party as Lalu.
LK Advani: Therefore, this is, in fact I felt that the blog was prompted by newspaper reports or television reports which saw that my rebuff to Narendra Modi and they saw that it is Modi who is against the Yatra. And in a way I felt very happy. Then he pointed out that how great a change has come about in the political situation today that there was a time when the Chief Minister of Bihar stopped my Yatra. This was the amazing and welcomed turnabout in the situation. I felt happy about it.
NDTV: Advani ji, towards the end when we reach your next meeting I want to ask you, you have had such a colourful, eventful political life, you have written your memoirs, all of that. When you look back today, any regrets, any unfinished dreams that you still want to see closure on?
LK Advani: Unfinished dream for the country, yes. Not for myself. In fact I have again and again said that from the age of 14 when I became the member of the RSS, I have had two families - one my personal family, and one my ideological family. Now she is my daughter, personal family. She has said this morning only again that Advani is like my father, ideological family. And I have received affection and respect and support from both the families. This had been one reason for my satisfaction and or for my saying that what I have received from the country till today is much more than what Prime Minister ship would give me.
NDTV: You got very emotional when Uma ji was speaking today and I also remember you getting emotional when once I interviewed you and Pratibha together. This is an iron man with a soft heart!
LK Advani: Iron man doesn't mean that his heart is also tough. No one has to have toughness in other fields. I have always been that emotional, this morning when who was praising me, I do not know, someone was praising me a lot. And it got tears to my eyes. I said sometimes I used to wonder ki bhai koi meri tareef karta hai phir bhi mujhe aankhon mein aansu aate hain, ye to galat baat hai, achchi baat nahi hai. Lekin, then I read a very good article in the Reader's Digest once in which it was said that a person being emotional, it's a good trait. Nothing's wrong with this. It shouldn't be deemed as weakness.
NDTV: Pratibha has always been with you in all of the events. Would like to see her in politics? I have asked this before but...
LK Advani: It all depends on her. But until a time when one of my principal adversaries tries to impose their principles on political parties, it may be difficult.
NDTV: Why do you say that?
LK Advani: Yes because it's not right. And once I also do it, then their principle in public life and politics, then it would become a virtue. Theek hai, aakhir sab karte hain, aaj bhi bahut saare log karte hain. This is one, and you have said this that time to me. Is it not being unfair to Pratibha, I said may be.
NDTV: That's what I was going to ask you again.
LK Advani: No, no. You have said it that day and I said even if it is so, I would like to do it my way.
NDTV: So you would not like to. One last question, you flagged off Kalraj Mishra's Yatra. Also Rajnath Singh is leading his own Yatra. Both of them are culminating in Ayodhya. Where is the space for Hindutva today in the BJP's politics?
LK Advani: For us, Rashtrawad and Hindutva have always been synonymous. And Hindutva doesn't mean in the narrow sense. No, never. We have never viewed it that way. I remember that the Father of Jansangh, one of the first times that I heard Deen Dayal Upadhayay, wrote an article fully, that for us Bharatiyata, Indianness and Hindutva are synonymous. For us Indian, Bharatiya and Hindu are synonymous. Once he propounded this thesis, the approach changed and that applies even today
NDTV: I have to ask you how do you remain so energetic, on the road, morning to night. Your day ends at 11 o'clock at night. And many people are remarking only on the energy of L K Advani in his 80's today hitting the roads.
LK Advani: Thanks to the Supreme Court. Today there is a limit on the use of loud speakers after 10 o'clock. So therefore nothing of the kind that was there on the earlier Yatras is going to bother me now. But so far as my being able to bear this Yatra, I have already said I see no other reason except the support and sustenance I receive from the two families that I have.
NDTV: Advani ji, thank you.
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