SHANTANU GUPTA - BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY: Past, Present and Future: Story of the World’s Largest Political Party (BJP)

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Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2020

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Copyright Shantanu Gupta 2020

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ISBN: 978-93-5333-782-7

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

On 29 March 2015, at the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJPs) old office at 11 Ashoka Road, a digital counter was ticking. Party workers, office-bearers and staff were all staring at a digital screen. It showed the total number of party members enrolled through the partys new Sadasyata Abhiyan, or membership drive. The partys national president, Amit Shah, was in office that day. When he came to check the digital counter, there was a child-like eagerness in his eyes. Fortunately, I was witness to that moment. As soon as the counter hit the target, the whole office erupted in euphoria. The jubilant party president, who is known to be a strict taskmaster, was not able to hide his joy. The ambitious membership drive was his idea. To him, a base of active members was a device to consolidate the BJPs freshly achieved eminence. Next day, every leading newspaper reported it bold and clear: The BJP becomes the largest political party in the world. The Times of India further reported, The ruling BJP has become the largest political party in the world with its enrolment drive in the past five months taking its membership to 8.80 crore. The Communist Party of China was until now considered the largest party with about 8.60 crore members. Sources said the party hit the 8.80 crore mark on Sunday and the BJP expects its membership to cross 10 crore by the end of this month, exactly what it had aimed for when it launched the drive in November last year. Party president Amit Shah will announce the final figure at the national executive to be held in Bangalore on April 3-4.

That day I decided that the story of this phenomenon had to be narrated to the world. As the Congress ruled the government for decades after Independence and the left ruled the academia, the story of the nationalist movementfrom the Arya Samaj to the Hindu Mahasabha to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)never got narrated in its entirety. This book is an honest attempt to document the past, present and future of the BJPthe worlds largest political party.

Today, as I complete this book, the BJP is the worlds largest party by membership size, with more than 18 crore members. Its ruling in nineteen states, directly or through partners. Its getting good vote shares even in Kerala and West Bengal. It is no longer a party of north India, or the cow belt. The Prime Minister, the President of India, the Vice President of India and the Lok Sabha Speaker are all from the BJP. At no other time in history has any non-Congress party been this dominant in Indias polity. Trends suggest that this dominance will continue at least till 2024, and maybe even beyond. In many ways, the BJP today is where the Congress used to be in the 1950s. We may again be entering a phase of single-party dominance, this time with a party rooted in Indias nationalist values.

Though the BJP was formally founded in 1980, its political journey started with the formation of the BJS in 1951. The BJS had its roots in the RSS and in other dharmic, cultural and nationalist movements before it. So to understand the BJP, we have to go to the roots, the formations, the ideas, the leaders and the ideological frameworks of the BJS, the RSS and the other movements before themall the way back to the Arya Samaj. Its also worth the readers attention to read about the forces, external and internal, that have been weakening India over thousands of years and understand the need for a nationalist movement and a nationalist political party. This book will cover a time frame of a little over 160 yearsfrom 1857 to 2019.

We will divide this 160-year journey into five broad partswhy we need a nationalist political alternative, nationalist movements before the RSS, the phenomemon called the RSS, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and, finally, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

For the benefit of modern readers, I will keep connecting past political events to references to them by current leaders, the media and commentators, to help them better understand the countrys current political landscape. I am content that the book has come out as a comprehensive work for a range of readersfrom new political readers to serious political scientists, historians, governments and politicians of today and of generations to come.

Part 1