RSS seeks to distance itself from BJP's crisis...

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said that it will not interfere to resolve a leadership crisis within the BJP.

"The BJP leaders are quite capable of handling it. The BJP has to think about its own future," Bhagwat said, when asked if the RSS was going to intervene to resolve the crisis.

Bhagwat's comments are seen as an attempt by the RSS to distance itself from the crisis within the BJP, while also trying to halt speculation that the radical ideological parent was beginning to get a firmer grip on its political arm. The BJP has appeared largely directionless after a massive election defeat in May 2009, its problems further compounded after some senior party leaders began attacking each other. The party has been debating its future -- whether its Hindutva agenda, once its passport to power, was now irrelevant for younger voters.

The crisis boiled over after senior party leader Jaswant Singh was fired for writing a book sympathetic to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Muslim founder of rival Pakistan.

"The issue of leadership has to be decided by the party," Bhagwat said.

"As far as our opinion is concerned 55-60 should be the average age of the top leadership for the Sangh," he said in comments that could hint at how the RSS might want the BJP top leadership to look like. Finally, Sangh acknowledges youth presence in voting population! But, will it be on the ‘hindutva’ agenda? I hope not.