At 86, Advani says his political journey has not yet ended

New Delhi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani on Sunday said his political journey that started 55 years ago has not yet ended, indicating an active innings ahead.

Blogging after a gap of one-and-a-half months, Advani, 86, recalled his association with RSS, which he joined as a fourteen-and-a-half-year-old in Karachi, and said, "It has given meaning to my life.

"I found meaning when I left my home and family to work as a pracharak of the RSS, first in Karachi and later, after being uprooted by Partition, in Rajasthan.

"That meaning got further enriched when I embarked on a political journey fifty-five years ago, first as a worker of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and later of the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is a journey that has not yet ended," he said.

The blog comes days after speculation in a section of the BJP over Advani's nomination to Rajya Sabha.

Party President Rajnath Singh has, however, denied any such talk, saying Advani was free to choose his own Parliamentary seat to contest the forthcoming polls. In his blog titled 'How association with RSS has given meaning to my life', Advani recalled his recent visit to Khushwant Singh, who entered his centenary year on February 2, and lauded him for being a prolific and active writer despite his advanced age.

Advani also recalled how Khushwant Singh had in an article praised his "liberal" persona despite criticising him in the past in connection with the demolition of Babri Masjid.

"Only a liberal and generous and earnestly large hearted person can so readily shed his aversion to another, one of whose actions he had so strongly disapproved earlier....," the BJP leader said on his blog about Singh.

Quoting from Singh's article, Advani wrote on his blog, "After he (Advani) led his Rath Yatra from Somnath Temple to Ayodhya and watched the Babri Masjid being pulled down, I have been one of his severest critics. I used harsh words for him on his face at a public meeting he was to address.

"So, about my visit to his residence, he wrote: I had reason to fear that he wanted to tick me off and tell me to go to hell... Instead of ticking me off, as I expected, he brought a bouquet of roses for me and my daughter.

"I had to concede he was better Sikh than I am. He is an Amil Sindhi, a community that subscribes to Sikh tenets.

"We spent an hour talking about different things but did not refer to rath yatra and the destruction of Babri Masjid. It was entirely a courtesy call to reaffirm that despite differences we were on amicable talking terms. He is a bigger man that I thought he was."

Advani also contradicted the claim made in a novel 'The Interpretation of Murder' by Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale professor, that a man can either have meaning or happiness in life and said, "I have had the good fortune of experiencing both, and in abundance."