Basically, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which was established on 6 April 1980, with the concept of party with a difference and slogan of Gandhian Socialism, has changed many colours but has retained the tag of being called a saffron brigade since the backbone of BJP has always been the Rashtriya Swayamsevaka Sangh(RSS). A Tilakite Congressman, Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar from Nagpur established RSS as a Hindu Cultural brigade and his successor, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (Guruji), felt the need to establish a political party with former Hindu Mahasabha President, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, at the helm of the affairs and Sangh Pracharaka, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, as his lieutenant in 1951. Mookerjee was the Finance Minister in the Bengal Ministry during 1941-42. He was also the Union Minister for Industries and Commerce in Nehru Ministry after independence.
The Jan Sangh and its new avtar, BJP, continued to face rough weather during Nehru and Indira era but could call the shots in post-Emergency Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai during 1977-79 since it had 93 MPs. After the downfall of Desai Ministry and the rift within Janata Party on the issue of affiliation with RSS, the BJP was established in April 1980. It was blessed by Justice Mohammed Currim Chagla, former Chief Justice of Bombay High Court who remained the Union Minister in Nehru Government as well as Indira Ministry, in the first convention of BJP in December 1980 at Mumbai. Justice Chagla saw BJP as “the alternative that can replace the present (Indira Gandhi) Government.” Thanks to the liberal Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the first President of the BJP, the Gandhian Socialism was incorporated as the policy concept despite open defiance of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, the founder Vice President, and Bhairo Singh Shekhawat, the late Vice President of India and the most popular Chief Minister of Rajasthan. This writer, who covered the convention as a political correspondent of Hindusthan Samachar, the Hindi National News Agency run by RSS and headed by Rajmata Scindia, was fortunate to interview both the stalwarts of the BJP then. Hindutva or Cultural Nationalism presents the BJP's conception of Indian nationhood. It must be noted that Hindutva is a nationalist, and not a religious or theocratic, concept for BJP leaders.
At a later stage the saffron party got rid of Gandhian Socialism but Vajpayee continued to stick to it even after he lost the power at the Centre in 2004. In September 2004, when the book “The Quest, The Hurdles: A Socialist Testament" by Chandra Sekhar, former PM, was being launched in the presence of another former PM, I. K. Gujral, Vajapyee asked why the nation had stopped talking about socialism. "It is in the preamble of our Constitution and is a guiding goal for all parties. For the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gandhian socialism is what we want to achieve and make society free of exploitation and full of opportunities. So, we need to start this debate again," he said.
Thanks to the Rathyatra politics and Ram Mandir issue, the saffron party could come to power at the Centre under the leadership of Vajpayee with 24 parties in the coalition. PM Vajpayee and Deputy PM Advani could make a good team. Of course, the team lost to the coalition headed by Congress with Dr. Manmohan Singh as the PM from May 2004 to May 2014. Today the BJP with nearly 11 crore members is considered the largest political party in the world under the leadership of its charismatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Like the earlier team of Dr. Mookerjee and Pandit Deendayal as well as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, present day BJP has a perfect team of PM Modi and the National President Amit Shah. One of the Margadarshak Mandal members of BJP, Advani explains: “Bharatiya Janata Party is the primary member of the family of organisations known as the "Sangh Parivar". It has risen to become one of the strongest national-level parties in the country based on its progressive agenda of focusing on overall speedy growth of the nation. The party has always remained indefatigable in its approach to national unity, integrity, identity and strength through its individual and national character. The BJP, which is nurtured by and akin to the Rashtria Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), is wedded to India’s intrinsic identity and cultural fabric of unity and distinctiveness that have been the hallmark of this great country and its people for millennia. The BJP, today, is all set for a great leap forward which can bring about a paradigm-shift in the life of every Indian, so much so as to rewrite the history of this great nation in a way that its future generations would be proud of. Even the party’s detractors now believe that Bharatiya Janata party has transformed into an ‘unstoppable’ force.”
From single digit number in the Lok Sabha in 1984, the party has successfully scored absolute majority in the House of 545 and still managed to keep the coalition partners in the ruling National Democratic Alliance(NDA). It has 21 states out of 35 under NDA wings. Various state assembly elections and the next Lok Sabha election in 2019 are to judge the performance of the NDA Government headed by PM Modi. For the party with discipline cadres of Sangh Parivar, the lines of the poetry by Robert Frost are considered ideal: “And Miles to go before I sleep.”
Next Column: Jain King Kharavela, the Great Kalinga Ruler
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
