Rajat Jayanti Nagar, Mumbai, Dec 30: There is no political party in the world, which has achieved so much and has won the confidence of the people as the Bhartiya Janta Party, said BJP President L K Advani on the concluding day of the three-day Silver Jublilee convention of the party in Mumbai on Friday.

At the same time he said in his concluding remarks that while he was please with the performance of the party in the past 25 years, he was upset over the events over the last 25 weeks. There have been no shortcomings in the philosophy of the party over the 25 years of the party’s existence, but the shortcomings were in the case of individuals. One hangs one’s head in shame over the bribes taken by 11 of our MPs.

He was pained that the BJP was targeting the party for the fault of some individuals in the organization. He, however, said that the media reports were important for the party. He reminded the delegates that the party had survived much tougher phases in its existence right from the Jana Sangh days. ‘ I really felt the party was over when I heard about the untimely death of Deen Dyal Upadhyay”, at a time none of the yesteryears and present day leaders were even known, he said.

The party has seen downs and ups during the last 25 years but has never given up its ideals and ideology for long. The party, which had just two MPs in 1984 elections, had emerged as the leader of the NDA coalition that successfully ruled the country for six years.

The party was just seven short in terms of number of MPs compared to the Congress party and the UPA was now in power. Mr. Advani said the Volcker Committee and Mitrokhin Archives had made revelations against the Congress Party and its leaders of the past and present.

Without referring to the criticism from within the BJP for equating corruption of MPs with ‘stupidity’ Mr Advani said he could not be blamed for that. The party never supported the individual actions, he asserted.