Trace the emergence of BJP as a significant force in post-Emergency politics.
Trace the emergence of BJP as a significant force in post-Emergency politics.
The rise of the BJP can be traced back to the 1980s. The fall of the Janata Party and its breakup with the supporter of erstwhile Jana Sangh resulted in the formation of a new political force with the idea of cultural nationalism based on the Hindu identity.
The party upheld fivefold messages of Suhita (probity in public life), Suraksha (security), Swadeshi (economic nationalism), Samajik Samarasata (social harmony) and Hindutva (cultural nationalism) as its ideological pillars.
a. The party embraced Gandhian socialism as its ideology and adopted a program based on the Nehruvian model of development, state-led planning and state intervention.
b. The strategies of the BJP during the period 1980–86 were in a way a moderate Hindu nationalist ideology with a cautious moral critique of the Congress management of the state.
c. After 1986, the party began to emphasise the Hindu nationalist element in its ideology. The BJP pursued the politics of Hindutva and adopted the strategy of mobilising the Hindus.
d. The year 1986 onwards, the BJP took a more gradual turn towards its ideology of cultural nationalism. In 1986, during the controversy over the Shah Bano case, the BJP actively criticised the Congress’s move as appeasing the minorities.
e. After 1989, the BJP took the lead in the Indian political discourse and produced slogans and concepts for gaining mass mobilisation such as “Pseudo Secularism” and “Appeasement or Pampering of Minorities”.
f. From 1989, the issue of Ramjanambhoomi became a part of BJP’s ideology. The BJP made this issue its major electoral and political plank. Along with many other organisations like the RSS and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the BJP convened a series of symbolic and mobilisation programmes. The Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in UP can be seen as a good example in this context.
g. Due to its effective language, the campaign proved to be a major success for the Sangh Pariwar, and the BJP emerged as the second largest party in the country and attained a decisive breakthrough in UP when Kalyan Singh became the chief minister.
h. Because of the demolition of Babri Masjid, the BJP-led UP government was dismissed. Along with that, other states where the BJP was in power were also put under President’s rule.
i. Thereafter, the BJP consolidated it position and began alignine Muslim integration wite national mainstream; the party emerged as the single largest party in the 1996 elections.
j. It also led nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1997. The party came to power again in 1999, leading the NDA coalition.
k. Although the party came under heavy criticism in the state of Gujarat over the Godhra riots and communal clashes, Narendra Modi became an important factor in the revival of the party.
l. The BJP swept the general elections of 2014. The results brought about unprecedented victory of the BJP that swept the polls winning 282 seats. The NDA in total won 336 out of 543 seats. The Modi wave swayed the entire nation. He proved himself as a strong candidate and a powerful orator with charismatic personality who promised to replicate Gujarat's development model in the nation. The 2014 elections surprised all political analysts, with people moving beyond narrow identities and factors and voting for a change.
The rise of the BJP can be traced back to the 1980s. The fall of the Janata Party and its breakup with the supporter of erstwhile Jana Sangh resulted in the formation of a new political force with the idea of cultural nationalism based on the Hindu identity.
The party upheld fivefold messages of Suhita (probity in public life), Suraksha (security), Swadeshi (economic nationalism), Samajik Samarasata (social harmony) and Hindutva (cultural nationalism) as its ideological pillars.
a. The party embraced Gandhian socialism as its ideology and adopted a program based on the Nehruvian model of development, state-led planning and state intervention.
b. The strategies of the BJP during the period 1980–86 were in a way a moderate Hindu nationalist ideology with a cautious moral critique of the Congress management of the state.
c. After 1986, the party began to emphasise the Hindu nationalist element in its ideology. The BJP pursued the politics of Hindutva and adopted the strategy of mobilising the Hindus.
d. The year 1986 onwards, the BJP took a more gradual turn towards its ideology of cultural nationalism. In 1986, during the controversy over the Shah Bano case, the BJP actively criticised the Congress’s move as appeasing the minorities.
e. After 1989, the BJP took the lead in the Indian political discourse and produced slogans and concepts for gaining mass mobilisation such as “Pseudo Secularism” and “Appeasement or Pampering of Minorities”.
f. From 1989, the issue of Ramjanambhoomi became a part of BJP’s ideology. The BJP made this issue its major electoral and political plank. Along with many other organisations like the RSS and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the BJP convened a series of symbolic and mobilisation programmes. The Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in UP can be seen as a good example in this context.
g. Due to its effective language, the campaign proved to be a major success for the Sangh Pariwar, and the BJP emerged as the second largest party in the country and attained a decisive breakthrough in UP when Kalyan Singh became the chief minister.
h. Because of the demolition of Babri Masjid, the BJP-led UP government was dismissed. Along with that, other states where the BJP was in power were also put under President’s rule.
i. Thereafter, the BJP consolidated it position and began alignine Muslim integration wite national mainstream; the party emerged as the single largest party in the 1996 elections.
j. It also led nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1997. The party came to power again in 1999, leading the NDA coalition.
k. Although the party came under heavy criticism in the state of Gujarat over the Godhra riots and communal clashes, Narendra Modi became an important factor in the revival of the party.
l. The BJP swept the general elections of 2014. The results brought about unprecedented victory of the BJP that swept the polls winning 282 seats. The NDA in total won 336 out of 543 seats. The Modi wave swayed the entire nation. He proved himself as a strong candidate and a powerful orator with charismatic personality who promised to replicate Gujarat's development model in the nation. The 2014 elections surprised all political analysts, with people moving beyond narrow identities and factors and voting for a change.
