Brig Anil Gupta
Bharatiya Janata Party today dominates the world’s largest democracy. It has emerged as a most popular party. Despite the Party’s effort to reach the needy irrespective of religion, caste or creed; the opposition parties have been trying to create adverse public opinion by labelling it as “communal.” Nothing can be farther from truth than this allegation. No doubt that the party represents the aspirations of the majority population of the country, its door are always open for the others.
The party’s current incarnation dates back to 6 April 1980, but it is the natural successor to an earlier political party known as the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, which was formed in October 1951. The Jan Sangh, as it was known, in turn built on an earlier tradition of Hindu revivalist movements, whose roots date back to the British Raj. The Jan Sangh leadership supported a stringent policy against Pakistan and China and were averse to the then USSR and communism.
The BJP, of course, represents more than just strong nationalism. It also espouses a muscular foreign policy and national security posture. It is generally more pro-business than most of India’s political parties, which tend to be left of centre.
Unlike many other political parties, BJP is not monolith. It gives space to leaders with different perceptions. It has internationalists, isolationists, libertarians, and nationalists all residing under the general umbrella of the BJP.
BJP first formed its Government at the centre under the leadership of Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Despite, initial hiccups, he successfully led a coalition Government and started numerous nation-wide developmental projects to upgrade the infrastructure. He made India, an atomic power. During the tenure of NDA 1, India saw unprecedented development but not much effort was made to expand the party’s pan-India reach.
The BJP came to power again in the 2014 general election, when India was in the midst of an economic downturn. The ruling Indian National Congress, or Congress Party, was beleaguered by massive corruption allegations, slowing economic growth, rampant inflation, and a pervasive sense of “policy paralysis.”
In Narendra Bhai Modi, party found the ‘right man in the right place at the right time.’ For more than a dozen years, Modi had served as Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, which had enjoyed high growth and a reputation as an investment-friendly destination under his tenure.
Since 2014, Modi and Amit Shah have been able to reshape the party in their own mould. They drew on an aspirational agenda to expand the party’s electoral footprint at the state level as well. Their relentless drive and hard work of the karyakartas met with unprecedented success. At one time BJP and its allies controlled twenty of India’s twenty-nine states. That is more than double the number it ran four years ago. For comparison’s sake, its arch rival, the Congress Party, ran just three states and was able to add three more in 2018.
Under the able watch of Modi ji and Amit Shah ji, the BJP also strengthened its electoral operations, engineered broad-based social coalitions, and struck useful alliances with smaller regional parties. All of this has improved its stature across India and made it the most popular party contesting the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
BJP believes in and practices real secularism, “Sarva Dharam Sambhav.” It believes in equality for all religions and is opposed to appeasement of “minorities” at the expense of majority Hindus. BJP has replaced the “appeasement policy” of other political parties with much robust “Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas Policy.”BJP’s economic ideology is based on the principle of Antoyada. BJP has reached the poorest of the poor and afforded them an opportunity to rise.
Modi led present BJP Government is also credited with taking many historic and bold decisions which the previous Governments were scared to take fearing adverse electoral prospects. These decisions were need of the hour and were taken in national interest. These decisions have reformed and modernized the Indian economy:-
* Demonetization.
* Digital economy.
* GST.
* Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
* Stringent laws against black money.
Modi believes in empowerment of the poor to enable them to stand on their own feet rather than giving them free doles. He has provided the nation a corruption-free Government. Under his watchful eye India is poised to become fourth largest economy in the world.BJP Government kept the inflation in single digit throughout its five year tenure.
The achievements in foreign policy have been one of the relative bright spots for the government. It has broadened and deepened India’s relations with the United States in very productive ways, especially when it comes to defence cooperation. The Modi Government has also spent a fair amount of political capital building diplomatic and economic bridges to the country’s east, in order to forge closer ties with the economically dynamic countries of Southeast and East Asia. We enjoy the best of relationship with Muslim world. Commercialisation of Chabahar port in Iran bordering Pakistan’s Baluchistan has affected the geo-economics and geo-politics dynamics of the sensitive Af-Pak region. India has successfully exposed Pakistan as the hub of international terrorism.
Modi’s national security policy has been applauded world over. India is no longer considered a soft state. We have successfully exposed and neutralised Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail. The biggest shift has been with regards to LOC. India has conveyed to Pakistan in no uncertain terms that as long as it continues to harbour terrorists India reserves to attack the terrorists anywhere across the LOC as well.
The unprecedented success of numerous welfare schemes announced and implemented in last five years catering to all sections of the society cutting across caste, creed and religion has become an eyesore for the opposition who only thrived on appeasement of a particular section. To counter these the opposition, particularly Congress, has announced many populistic measures in its manifesto whose economic viability is a big question mark.
Congress needs to understand the basics of economics which simply states that “Wealth cannot be multiplied by dividing it.” One cannot increase GDP, productivity of people by taking out money from other pockets and projects and then putting that money into pockets of a particular set of some other people. History is replete with cases of many nations whose economies crashed and the nations failed and fell for not following the basics.
BJP Government has also taken far reaching decisions for national security and made Indian Armed Forces as the best fighting forces in the world. Latest state of the art military hardware has been purchased to make the Indian skies impenetrable while a lot of emphasis is also being given to ‘Make in India’programme to make our armed forces self-reliant. The success of ASAT programme and India becoming a member of the “Super Four” Club has been a major achievement.
BJP is undoubtedly the best party in India today. Its following features make it different from others:-
* It is a cadre based party where an ordinary karyakarta can rise to the highest organisational and Governmental post. It does not encourage dynasts.
It is people’s trust and confidence that makes our party stand out from the rest. It’s clean and nationalistic image is its biggest asset. Unprecedented development and social work speaks for itself. Modi led BJP believes in walking the talk.
BJP is indeed the best political party of India given to its nationalistic ideals and adherence to India’s cultural nationalism and rich heritage. It is the only party currently which bears the capability to take India on the path of progress, protect its age-old culture and eliminate all the anti-national elements. It’s resolve to eliminate terrorism is unparalleled. A vote for BJP will translate into a vote for Modi and will pave the way for another prime ministerial tenure for Modi.
(The author is a columnist and political commentator.)
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