The latest hullabaloo in the highest echelons of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) certifies for those who may still have doubts that the party’s two aged leaders will hammer the last nail into the coffin of Hindutva before they depart.

The trouble was as usual about power and not policy and arose because L.K. Advani told a TV anchor that he had proposed his rival Vajpayee’s name for prime minister last time but next time round did not expect the favour to be returned.

Advani then admitted that he was keen to be prime minister and invoked British parliamentary conventions to strengthen his claim. Is it not usual for the Leader of the Opposition to become prime minister when his party wins?

The interview sent the BJP’s obscure, almost invisible president, Rajnath Singh, into a very public tizzy and he rushed off to assure Vajpayee that he was still numero uno. He also seemed slightly put out at being dismissed as a prime ministerial candidate without realising that the very idea of him as India’s prime minister is laughable.

You may say that if that humble peasant Deve Gowda could be prime minister then why not a humble Thakur, and you would be right. But the thought of Rajnath Singh as prime minister remains laughable.

As for Advani and his high hopes, all that can be said is that if he lowered his sights for a moment he might notice that the once mighty party of Hindutva has crumbled.

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