L.K. Advani has lunch with daughter Pratibha after the closing ceremony of the BJP’s silver jubilee conclave in Mumbai on Friday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, Dec. 30: The BJP ended its silver jubilee celebrations today with Atal Bihari Vajpayee skipping the customary address and L.K. Advani expected to step down as president in a day’s time.

This was exactly what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had in mind when the year began, with its chief ordering Vajpayee and Advani to make way for the second generation. The party will enter the new year without the two veteran leaders, and the prospect lent a solemn air to the proceedings.

Vajpayee had to go off the dais midway, leaving Advani to deliver the valedictory address. It was an emotionally charged gathering that heard a moist-eyed Advani speak with disarming frankness.

For the first time in the past five days, he clearly dealt with the subject of political corruption.

“If our MPs take money, we have to hang our head in shame. Because of the painful events of the last 25 weeks, people have started writing our political epitaph,” Advani said.

“But do not be swayed by what appears in the media. We have passed through worse times. So many of our elders ? Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Guruji ? left us midway. We suffered humiliating electoral setbacks. But nothing deterred us. How many parties have been able to achieve what we have done in just 25 years?” he asked amid deafening applause.

The sex scandals and scams that have hit the party in recent weeks were “individual mistakes”, Advani said. “It was the weakness of individual character, not a deviation of ideology or collective failure.”

The outgoing chief cautioned party members against being too “eager” to appear before TV cameras. “Do not talk to the party through TV cameras. Everyone cannot be a spokesperson for the party and interact with the media. Only some people should do it.”

It was left to M. Venkaiah Naidu to clear up the ambiguities on issues such as political corruption, population control and the Ram temple.

He stoutly defended Advani’s handling of the cash-for-questions scam. The BJP president is being criticised for his perceived defence of the corrupt MPs through his “stupidity” remark in Parliament and his speeches during the silver jubilee celebrations.

“Everyone has spoken in one voice against corruption. Advaniji was the first to condemn it,” Naidu said. “When he heard about the sting operation, his spontaneous reaction was we should suspend the erring MPs. Sushmaji said yesterday that we should be ashamed. There is no ambiguity about it.”

On Ayodhya, Naidu said: “We have no two views on the Ram temple. It is our conviction that there should be a temple of Bhagwan Ram at his janamsthan. We don’t need to repeat it to convince anyone.”