Monday, December 26 2005 14:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not have been born in 1980 had the Janata Party not raised the issue of dual membership in the manner they did, BJP president L K Advani said here today (Dec 26, 2005).

"The Janata Party parliamentary board put forward the excuse of our dual membership as they thought that they would not be able to progress if we stayed with them," Advani said here after releasing a book on 25 years of BJP.

The rationale of the birth of BJP lies in the fact that we opposed a ban on our ties with the RSS, which was sought to be imposed by the Janata Party leaders, Advani who arrived here this morning to attend the five-day party meet, said.

Advani said when the late Shyama Prasad Mukherjee approached the then RSS chief late Golwalkar Guruji saying that he wanted to set up a political party, he (Mukherjee) was informed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) would not enter active politics.

Mukherjee told the RSS chief that all major political parties of that period had `outside ideology as their base, be it communists or even the Congress party.

Congress came into being as A O Hume wanted a safety valve against anti-British sentiments, Advani said.

Lauding the book, published by the weekly magazine, 'Vivek', Advani said efforts should be made to document history. In this connection, he pointed out the efforts being made by the Sangh to set up its archives.