Bharatiya Janata Party
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 |
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Abbreviation
President
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BJP
Amit Shah
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Parliamentary Chairperson
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Narendra Modi
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Lok Sabha leader
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Narendra Modi
(Prime Minister) |
Rajya Sabha leader
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Arun Jaitley
(Finance Minister) |
Founded
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6 April 1980 (36 years ago)
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Preceded by
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Bharatiya Jana Sangh(1951−1977)
Janata Party (1977−1980) |
Headquarters
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11 Ashoka Road,
New Delhi-110001 |
Newspaper
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Kamal Sandesh
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Youth wing
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Bharatiya
Janata Yuva Morcha
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Women's wing
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BJP Mahila Morcha
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Peasant's wing
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BJP Kisan Morcha
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Minority wing
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BJP Minority Morcha
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Membership
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110 million (July 2015)
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Ideology
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Hindu nationalism
National conservatism Social conservatism Right-wing populism Hindutva Gandhian socialism Integral humanism |
Political position
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Right-wing
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International affiliation
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International
Democratic Union
Asia Pacific Democrat Union |
Colours
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Saffron
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ECI Status
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National
Party
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Alliance
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National
Democratic Alliance (NDA)
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Seats in Lok Sabha
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282 / 545
(currently 541members + 1 Speaker)
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Seats in Rajya Sabha
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56 / 245\
(currently 244members)
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Election symbol
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 |
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Website
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www.bjp.org
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·
Politics of India
·
Political
parties
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Elections
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Part of a series on
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Concepts
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Early figures
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Political leaders
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Political parties
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Independent authors
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Hinduism
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v ·
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e
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The Bharatiya Janata Party Indian People's Party; abbr. BJP) is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress.[12] As of 2016, it is the
country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national
parliamentand state assemblies, and it is the world's largest party
in terms of primary membership. The BJP is a right-wing party,[6][13] with close ideological
and organisational links to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The BJP's origins lie in
the Bharatiya
Jana Sangh, formed in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. After the State of Emergency in 1977, the Jana Sangh
merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party; it
defeated the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general election. After three years in power,
the Janata party dissolved in 1980 with the members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh
reconvening to form the BJP. Although initially unsuccessful, winning only two
seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the
back of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Following
victories in several state elections and better performances in national
elections, the BJP became the largest party in the parliament in 1996; however,
it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government
lasted only 13 days.
After the 1998 general election, the BJP-led coalition known as
the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a government
under Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee for a year. Following
fresh elections, the NDA government, again headed by Vajpayee, lasted for a
full term in office; this was the first non-Congress government to do so. In
the 2004 general election, the NDA suffered an unexpected
defeat, and for the next ten years the BJP was the principal opposition party.
Long time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led it to a landslide
victory in the 2014 general election. Since that election, Modi
leads the NDA government as Prime Minister and as of August 2016, the alliance
governs 15 states.
The official ideology of
the BJP is "integral humanism", first formulated by Deendayal
Upadhyaya in 1965. The party expresses
a commitment to Hindutva, and its
policy has historically reflected Hindu nationalist positions. The BJP
advocates social
conservatism and a foreign policy
centred on nationalist principles. Its key issues have included the abrogation
of the special status to Jammu and
Kashmir, the building of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and the implementation of
a uniform civil code. However, the 1998–2004 NDA
government did not pursue any of these controversial issues. It instead focused
on a largely neoliberal economic policy
prioritising globalisation and economic growth over social welfare.
Contents
·
1History
o 1.1Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)
o 1.2Janata Party (1977–80)
o 1.3BJP (1980–present)
§ 1.3.1Formation and early days
§ 1.3.2Babri Masjid demolition and the
Hindutva movement
§ 1.3.3NDA government (1998–2004)
§ 1.3.42002 Gujarat violence
§ 1.3.5General election defeats
§ 1.3.6General election victory, 2014
·
2General election results
·
3Ideology and political positions
o 3.1Social policies and Hindutva
o 3.2Economic policies
o 3.3Defence and counterterrorism
o 3.4Foreign policy
·
4Organisation and structure
·
5Presence in various states
o 5.1Current NDA and BJP administrations
·
6References
o 6.1Citations
o 6.2Sources
·
7Further reading
History
Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)
Main
article: Bharatiya
Jana Sangh
The BJP's origins lie in
the Bharatiya
Jana Sangh, popularly known as the Jana Sangh, founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951 in response to
the politics of the dominant Congress party. It was founded in collaboration with
the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation,
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and was widely
regarded as the political arm of the RSS. The Jana Sangh's aims
included the protection of India's "Hindu" cultural identity, in
addition to countering what it perceived to be the appeasement of Muslim people
and the country of Pakistan by the Congress party and then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The RSS loaned several of its leading pracharaks, or full-time workers,
to the Jana Sangh to get the new party off the ground. Prominent among these was Deendayal
Upadhyaya, who was appointed General Secretary. The Jana Sangh won
only three Lok Sabha seats in the first general elections in 1952. It maintained a
minor presence in parliament until 1967.
The Jana Sangh's first
major campaign, begun in early 1953, centred on a demand for the complete
integration of Jammu and Kashmir into India. Mookerjee was arrested in
May 1953 for violating orders from the state government restraining him from
entering Kashmir. He died of a heart attack the following month, while still in
jail. Mauli
Chandra Sharma was elected to succeed
Mookerjee; however, he was forced out of power by the RSS activists within the
party, and the leadership went instead to Upadhyaya. Upadhyay remained the
General Secretary until 1967, and worked to build a committed grassroots
organisation in the image of the RSS. The party minimised engagement with the public,
focusing instead on building its network of propagandists. Upadhyaya also
articulated the philosophy of integral humanism, which formed the official doctrine
of the party.[18] Younger leaders, such as Atal
Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani also became involved with
the leadership in this period, with Vajpayee succeeding Upadhyaya as president
in 1968. The major themes on the party's agenda during this period were
legislating a uniform civil code, banning cow slaughter and abolishing the special status given to Jammu
and Kashmir.
After assembly elections
across the country in 1967, the party entered into a coalition with several
other parties, including the Swatantra Party and the socialists. It
formed governments in various states across the Hindi heartland,
including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It
was the first time the Jana Sangh held political office, albeit within a
coalition; this caused the shelving of the Jana Sangh's more radical agenda.
Janata Party (1977–80)
Main
article: Janata Party
In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency. The Jana Sangh took part in the
widespread protests, with thousands of its members being imprisoned along with
other agitators across the country. In 1977, the emergency was withdrawn and
general elections were held. The Jana Sangh merged with parties from across the
political spectrum, including the Socialist Party, the Congress (O) and the Bharatiya Lok Dal to form the Janata Party,
with its main agenda being defeating Indira Gandhi.
The Janata Party won a
majority in 1977 and formed a government with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister. The
former Jana Sangh contributed the largest tally to the Janata Party's
parliamentary contingent, with 93 seats or 31% of its strength. Vajpayee,
previously the leader of the Jana Sangh, was appointed the Minister of External Affairs.
The national leadership
of the former Jana Sangh consciously renounced its identity, and attempted to
integrate with the political culture of the Janata Party, based on Gandhian and
Hindu traditionalist principles. According to Christophe
Jaffrelot, this proved to be an impossible assimilation. The state and local
levels of the Jana Sangh remained relatively unchanged, retaining a strong
association with the RSS, which did not sit well with the moderate centre-right
constituents of the Party.[23] Violence between Hindus and Muslims increased sharply during
the years that the Janata Party formed the government, with former Jana Sangha
members being implicated in the riots at Aligarh and Jamshedpur in 1978-79. The
other major constituents of the Janata Party demanded that the Jana Sangh
should break from the RSS, which the Jana Sangh refused to do. Eventually, a
fragment of the Janata Party broke off to form the Janata Party (Secular). The Morarji Desai government
was reduced to a minority in the Parliament, forcing its resignation. Following
a brief period of coalition rule, general elections were held in 1980, in which
the Janata Party fared poorly, winning only 31 seats. In April 1980, shortly
after the elections, the National Executive Council of the Janata Party banned
its members from being 'dual members' of party and the RSS. In response, the
former Jana Sangh members left to create a new political party, known as the
Bharatiya Janata Party.
BJP (1980–present)
Formation and early days
 |
Syama Prasad Mookerjee
founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh
|
Although the newly formed BJP was technically distinct from the Jana Sangh, the bulk of its rank and file were identical to its predecessor, with Vajpayee being its first president. Historian
Ramachandra Guha writes that the early 1980s were markedby a wave of violence between Hindus and Muslims. The BJP initially
moderated the Hindu nationalist stance of its
predecessor the Jana Sangh to gain a wider
appeal, emphasising its links tothe Janata Party and the ideology of Gandhian Socialism. This was unsuccessful, as it won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984.[4] The assassination of Indira Gandhi a few months earlier resulted in a wave of support for the Congress which won a record tally of
403 seats, contributing to the low number for the BJP.
 |
Atal
Bihari Vajpayee,
the first BJP prime minister(1998–2004)
|
 |
Lal
Krishna Advani,
deputy Prime Minister under
Vajpayee and one of the
architects of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement
|
On 6
December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving more than
100,000 VHP and BJP activists at the site of the mosque.[34] Under circumstances that are not entirely clear, the
rally developed into a frenzied attack that ended with the demolition
of the mosque.[34] Over the following weeks, waves of violence between
Hindus and Muslims erupted all over the country, killing over 2,000 people.[34] The government briefly banned the VHP, and many BJP
leaders, including Advani were arrested for making inflammatory speeches
provoking the demolition.[35][36] Several historians have said that the demolition was
the product of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar, and not a spontaneous act.[34]
A 2009 report,
authored by Justice Manmohan Singh
Liberhan, found that 68 people were responsible for the demolition,
mostly leaders from the BJP.[36] Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi.
The report also criticised Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
during the demolition.[36] He was accused of posting bureaucrats and police
officers who would stay silent during the demolition.[36] Anju Gupta, an Indian Police Service officer
in charge of Advani's security, appeared as a prominent witness before the
commission. She said that Advani and Joshi made provocative speeches that were
a major factor in the mob's behaviour.[37]
In the
parliamentary elections in 1996, the BJP capitalised on the communal
polarisation that followed the demolition to win 161 Lok Sabha seats, making it
the largest party in parliament.[38] Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister, but was
unable to attain a majority in the Lok Sabha, forcing the government to resignafter13 days.[38]
NDA government
(1998–2004)
Further information: National
Democratic Alliance (India)
A
coalition of regional parties formed the government in 1996, but this grouping
was short lived, and mid-term polls were held in 1998. The BJP contested the
elections leading a coalition called the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA), which contained its existing allies
like the Samata Party,
the Shiromani Akali Dal,
the Shiv Sena in addition to the All
India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Biju Janata Dal. Among these regional parties,
the Shiv Sena was the only one which had an ideology similar to the BJP;Amartya Sen, for example, called the coalition
an "ad hoc" grouping.[39][40] The NDA had a majority with outside support from
the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)
and Vajpayee returned as Prime Minister.[41] However, the coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the
leader of AIADMK, Jayalalitha, withdrew
her support, and fresh elections were held again.[42]
On 13
October 1999, the NDA, without the AIADMK, won 303 seats in parliament and thus
an outright majority. The BJP had its highest ever tally of 183. Vajpayee
became Prime Minister for the third time; Advani became Deputy Prime Minister
and Home
Minister. This NDA government lasted its full term of five years.
Its policy agenda included a more aggressive stance on defence and terror as
well as neo-liberaleconomic
policies.[43]
In
2001, Bangaru Laxman,
then the BJP president, was filmed accepting a bribe of ₹100,000 (equivalent
to ₹280,000 or US$4,100 in 2016)[44] to recommend the purchase of hand-held thermal imagers
for the Indian Army to the Defence Ministry, in a sting operation by Tehelka journalists.[45][46] The BJP was forced to make him resign and he was
subsequently prosecuted. In April 2012, he was sentenced to four years in
prison.[47]
2002 Gujarat violence
Main article: 2002 Gujarat violence
On 27
February 2002, a train carrying Hindu
pilgrims was burned outside the town of Godhra, killing 59 people. The incident was
seen as an attack upon Hindus, and sparked off massive anti-Muslim violence across
the state of Gujarat that lasted
several weeks.[48] The death toll estimated was as high as 2000, while
150,000 were displaced.[49] Rape, mutilation, and torture were also widespread.[49][50] The then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and several high-ranking
government officials were accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as
were police officers who allegedly directed the rioters and gave them lists of
Muslim-owned properties.[51] In April 2009, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was
appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate and expedite the Gujarat riots
cases. In 2012, Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by the SIT and
BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, who later held a cabinet
portfolio in the Modi government, was convicted of having orchestrated one of
the riots and sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.[52][53] Scholars such as Paul Brass, Martha Nussbaum and Dipankar Gupta have said that there was a
high level of state complicity in the incidents.[54][55][56]
General election defeats
Vajpayee
called for elections in
early 2004, six months ahead of schedule. The NDA's campaign was
based on the slogan "India Shining",
which sought to depict it as responsible for a rapid economic transformation of
the country.[57] However, the NDA unexpectedly suffered a heavy defeat,
winning only a 186 seats in the Lok Sabha, compared to the 222 of the Congress
and its allies. Manmohan Singhsucceeded
Vajpayee as Prime Minister as the head of the United
Progressive Alliance. The NDA's failure to reach out to rural
Indians was provided as an explanation for its defeat, as was its divisive
policy agenda.[57][58]In May
2008, the BJP won the state
elections in Karnataka. This was the first time that the party won
assembly elections in any South Indian state. In the 2009 general
elections, its strength in the Lok Sabha was reduced to 116 seats.
It lost the next
assembly election in 2013.[59]
 |
| Narendra Modibecame
the Prime Minister of India, following the 2014 Indian general election |
General election
victory, 2014
In
the 2014 Indian
general election, the BJP won 282 seats, leading the NDA to a tally
of 336 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha.[60] Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of
India on 26 May 2014.[61][62]
The vote
share of the BJP was 31% of all votes cast, a low figure relative to the number
of seats it won.[63] This was the first instance since 1984 of a single
party achieving an outright majority in the Indian Parliament[64] and the first time that it achieved a majority in the
Lok Sabha on its own strength. Support was concentrated in the Hindi-speaking belt in North-central
India.[63] The magnitude of the victory was not predicted by most
opinion and exit polls.[63]
Political
analysts have suggested several reasons for this victory, including the
popularity of Modi, and the loss of support for the Congress due to the
corruption scandals in its previous term.[65] The BJP was also able to expand its traditionally
upper-caste, upper-class support base and received significant support from
middle-class and Dalit people, as well
as among Other Backward Classes.[66][63] Its support among Muslims remained low; only 8% of
Muslim voters voted for the BJP.[66][63] The BJP was also very successful at mobilising its
supporters, and raising voter turnout among them.[63]
Year
|
General election
|
Seats won
|
Change in seats
|
% of votes
|
Vote swing
|
|
Indian general election, 1984
|
8th Lok Sabha
|
2
|
↑ 2
|
7.74
|
⇿
|
|
Indian general election, 1989
|
9th Lok Sabha
|
85
|
↑ 83
|
11.36
|
↑ 3.62
|
|
Indian general election, 1991
|
10th Lok Sabha
|
120
|
↑ 35
|
20.11
|
↑ 8.75
|
|
Indian general election, 1996
|
11th Lok Sabha
|
161
|
↑ 41
|
20.29
|
↑0.18
|
|
Indian general election, 1998
|
12th Lok Sabha
|
182
|
↓ 21
|
25.59
|
↑5.30
|
|
Indian general election, 1999
|
13th Lok Sabha
|
182
|
⇿ 0
|
23.75
|
↓ 1.84
|
|
Indian general election, 2004
|
14th Lok Sabha
|
138
|
↓ 44
|
22.16
|
↓ 1.69
|
|
Indian general election, 2009
|
15th Lok Sabha
|
116
|
↓ 22
|
18.80
|
↓ 3.36
|
|
Indian general election, 2014
|
16th Lok Sabha
|
282
|
↑ 166
|
31.34
|
↑ 12.54
|
[↑ Up / ↓ Down/ ⇿ Nothing]
General
election results
The
Bharatiya Janata Party was officially created in 1980, and the first general
election it contested was in 1984, in which it won only two Lok Sabha seats.
Following the election in 1996, the BJP became the largest party in the Lok
Sabha for the first time, but the government it formed was short-lived.[38] In the elections of 1998 and 1999, it remained the
largest party, and headed the ruling coalition on both occasions.[43] In the 2014 general election, it won an outright
majority in parliament. From 1991 onwards, a BJP member has led the Opposition whenever
the party was not in power.[67]
Social policies and Hindutva
Ideology
and political positions
Further information: Hindutva
The
official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral humanism,"
a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in
1965, who described it as advocating an "indigenous economic model that
puts the human being at center stage."[77][78] It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian
independence activist Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar. According to the party, Hindutva is cultural nationalism
favouring Indian culture over westernisation, thus it extends to all Indians
regardless of religion.[4] However, scholars and political analysts have called
their Hindutva ideology an attempt to redefine India and recast it as a Hindu
country to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist
party in a general sense.[34][4][79][80] The BJP has slightly moderated its stance after the
NDA was formed in 1998, due to the presence of parties with a broader set of
ideologies.[34][43]
The BJP's
Hindutva ideology has been reflected in many of its government policies. It
supports the construction of the Ram temple at the site of the Babri
Mosque.[79] This issue was its major poll plank in the 1991
general elections.[79] However, the demolition of
the mosque during a BJP rally in 1992 resulted in a backlash
against it, leading to a decline of the temple's prominence in its agenda.[79] The education policy of the NDA government reorganised
the National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) and tasked it with extensively revising the textbooks
used in Indian schools.[81] Various scholars have stated that this revision,
especially in the case of history textbooks, was a covert attempt to "saffronise" Indian history.[81][82][83][84] The NDA government introduced Vedic astrology as a subject in college
curricula, despite opposition from several leading scientists.[85]
Taking a
position against what it calls the "pseudo-secularism" of the
Congress party, the BJP instead supports "positive secularism".[79] Vajpayee laid out the BJP's interpretation of Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of Sarva
Dharma Sambhava and contrasted it with what he called European
secularism.[86] He had said that Indian secularism attempted
to see all religions with equal respect, while European secularism was
independent of religion, thus making the former more "positive".[87] The BJP supports a uniform civil code,
which would apply a common set of personal laws to every citizen regardless of
their personal religion, replacing the existing laws which vary by religious community.
According to historian Yogendra Malik, this ignores the differential procedures
required to protect the cultural identity of the Muslim minority.[4][79]The BJP favours the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution,
which grants a greater degree of autonomy to the Jammu and Kashmir in
recognition of the unusual circumstances surrounding its accession to the
Indian union.[4]
The BJP
opposes illegal
migration into India from Bangladesh.[80] The party states that this migration, mostly in the
states of Assam and West Bengal, threatens the security, economy and stability
of the country.[80] Academics have pointed out that the BJP refers to
Hindu migrants from Bangladesh as refugees, and reserves the term
"illegal" for Muslim migrants.[80] Academic Michael Gillan writes that this is an attempt
to use an emotive issue to mobilise Hindu sentiment in a region where the party
has not been historically successful.[80][88]
In 2013,
the Supreme Court of
India reinstated the controversial Section
377 of the Indian Penal Code, which, among other things,
criminalises homosexuality. There was a popular outcry, although clerics,
including Muslim religious leaders, stated that they supported the verdict.[89][90] BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the party
supported section 377, because it believed that homosexuality was unnatural,[91]though its stand has softened after its victory in the 2014 general
elections.[92]
Economic policies
The BJP's
economic policy has changed considerably since its founding. There is a
significant range of economic ideologies within the party. In the 1980s, like
the Jana Sangh, it reflected the thinking of the RSS and its affiliates. It
supported swadeshi (the
promotion of indigenous industries and products) and a protectionist export policy. However, it
supported internal economic
liberalisation, and opposed the state-driven industrialisation
favoured by the Congress.[93]
During the
1996 elections, the BJP shifted its stance away from protectionism and
towards globalisation; its
election manifesto recommended increasing foreign investment in priority
sectors, while restricting it in others. When the party was in power in 1998,
it shifted its policy even further in favour of globalisation. The tenure of
the NDA saw an unprecedented influx of foreign companies in India.[93] This was criticised by the left parties and the BJP's
affiliates (the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch).[93] The communist parties said that the BJP was attempting
to appease the World Bank and
the United States government through its neoliberal policies.[93] Similarly, the RSS stated that the BJP was not being
true to its swadeshi ideology.[93]
The two
NDA governments in the period 1998-2004 introduced significant deregulation and
privatisation of government owned enterprises. It also introduced
tariff-reducing measures. These reforms built off of the initial economic
liberalisation introduced by the Congress government in the early 1990s.[94] India's GDP growth increased substantially during the
tenure of the NDA. The 2004 campaign slogan "India Shining" was based
on the party's belief that the free market would bring prosperity to all
sectors of society.[95] After its unexpected defeat, commentators said that it
was punished for neglecting the needs of the poor and focusing too much on its
corporate allies.[57][58][96]
This shift
in the economic policies of the BJP was also visible in state governments,
especially in Gujarat, where the BJP held power for 16 years.[97] Modi's government, in power from 2002 to 2014,
followed a strongly neo-liberal agenda, presented as a drive towards
development.[98][99] Its policies have included extensive privatisation of
infrastructure and services, as well as a significant rollback of labour and
environmental regulations. While this was praised by the business community,
commentators criticised it as catering to the BJP's upper class constituency
instead of the poor.[98][100]
Defence and
counterterrorism
Compared
to the Congress, the BJP takes a more aggressive and nationalistic position on
defence policy and terrorism.[101][102] The Vajpayee-led NDA government carried out nuclear
weapons tests, and enacted the Prevention
of Terrorism Act, which later came under heavy criticism.[101][102] It also deployed troops to evict infiltrators from
Kargil, and supported the United States' War on Terror.[103]
Although
previous Congress governments developed the capability for a nuclear weapons
test, the Vajpayee government broke with India's historical strategy of
avoiding it and authorised Pokhran-II, a series of five nuclear tests in
1998.[101] The tests came soon after Pakistan tested a
medium-range ballistic missile. They were seen as an attempt to display India's
military prowess to the world, and a reflection of anti-Pakistan sentiment within
the BJP.[101]
The
Vajpayee government ordered the Indian armed forces to expel the Pakistani
soldiers occupying Kashmir territory,
later known as the Kargil War.[104][105] Although the government was later criticised for the
intelligence failures that did not detect Pakistani presence, it was successful
in ousting them from the previously Indian-controlled territory.[104][105] The Vajpayee administration also offered political
support to the US War on Terror, in the hope of better addressing India's
issues with terrorism and insurgency in Kashmir. This led to closer defence
ties with the US, including negotiations for the sale of weapons.[103]
After
the terrorist
attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, the NDA
government passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act.[102] The aim of the act was to improve the government's
ability to deal with terrorism.[102] It initially failed to pass in the Rajya Sabha; therefore, the NDA took the
extraordinary step of convening a joint session of the Parliament, where the
numerical superior Lok Sabha allowed
the bill to pass.[102] The act was subsequently used to prosecute hundreds of
people accused of terrorism.[102] However, it was criticised by opposition parties and
scholars for being an infringement upon civil liberties, and the National
Human Rights Commission stated that it had been used to target
Muslims.[102] It was later repealed by the Congress-led UPA
government in 2004.[106]
Foreign policy
The
historical stance of the BJP towards foreign policy, like the Jana Sangh, was
based on an aggressive Hindu nationalism combined with economic
protectionism.[107] The Jana Sangh was founded with the explicit aim of
reversing the partition of India;
as a result, its official position was that the existence of Pakistan was
illegitimate.[107] This antagonism toward Pakistan remains a significant
influence on the BJP's ideology.[107][108] The party and its affiliates have strongly opposed
India's long standing policy of nonalignment,
and instead advocate closeness to the United States.[107]
The
Vajpayee government's foreign policy in many ways represented a radical shift
from BJP orthodoxy, while maintaining some aspects of it.[93][108] Its policy also represented a significant change from
theNehruvian idealism of
previous governments, opting instead for realism.[109] His party criticised him for adopting a much more
moderate stance with Pakistan. In 1998, he made a landmark visit to Pakistan,
and inaugurated the Delhi–Lahore Bus service.[107] Vajpayee signed the Lahore Declaration,
which was an attempt to improve Indo-Pakistani relations that deteriorated
after the 1998 nuclear tests.[107] However, the presence of Pakistani soldiers and
militants in the disputed Kashmir territory was discovered a few months later,
causing the 1999 Kargil War. The
war ended a couple of months later, with the expulsion of the infiltrators two
months later, without any shift in the Line of Control that marked the de
facto border between the two countries.[107] Despite the war, Vajpayee continued to display a
willingness to engage Pakistan in dialogue. This was not well received among
the BJP cadre, who criticised the government for being "weak".[107] This faction of the BJP asserted itself at the
post-Kargil Agra summit,
preventing any significant deal from being reached.[107]
Organisation
and structure
The BJP is
the world's largest political party by primary membership, having 100 million
registered members as of April 2015.[1] The organisation of the BJP is strictly hierarchical,
with the president being the highest authority in
the party.[78] Until 2012, the BJP constitution mandated that any
qualified member could be national or state president for a single three-year
term.[78] This was amended to a maximum of two consecutive
terms.[110] Below the president is the national executive, which
contains a variable number of senior leaders from across the country. It is the
higher decision making body of the party. Its members are several
vice-presidents, general-secretaries, treasurers and secretaries, who work
directly with the president.[78] An identical structure, with an executive committee
led by a president, exists at the state, regional, district and local level.[78]
The BJP is
a cadre-based party. It has close connections with other organisations with
similar ideology, such as the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The cadres of these groups often supplement the BJP's. Its lower members are
largely derived from the RSS and its affiliates, loosely known as the Sangh Parivar:[78]
·
The Akhil
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All India Student's Union),
the students' wing of the RSS.[78]
·
The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (Indian
Farmer's Union), the farmers' division.[78]
·
The Bharatiya Mazdoor
Sangh (Indian Labourers Union), the labour union
associated with the RSS.[78]
The party
has subsidiary organisations of its own, such as:
·
The BJP Mahila Morcha (BJP Women's Front),
its women's division.
·
The Bharatiya
Janata Yuva Morcha (Indian People's Youth Front), its
youth wing
·
The BJP Minority Morcha (BJP
Minority Front), its minority division.
Presence
in various states
 |
| Current ruling parties in the states and union territories of India
BJP
Coalition with BJP
INC
Coalition with INC
Other parties
|
·
Arunachal Prades
·
Assam
·
Chhattisgarh
·
Goa
·
Gujarat
·
Haryana
·
Jharkhand
·
Madhya Pradesh
·
Maharashtra (with Shivsena)
·
Rajasthan
In five
other states, it shares power with other political parties of the NDA
coalition. In all these states, the BJP is junior ally in the ruling alliance.
The states are:
·
Jammu and Kashmir (with Jammu
and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party)
·
Punjab (with Shiromani Akali Dal)
·
Nagaland (with Naga People's Front)
·
Andhra Pradesh (with Telugu Desam Party)
and
·
Sikkim (with Sikkim Democratic
Front)
In the
past, the BJP has also been the sole party in power in the following states:
·
Uttar Pradesh
·
Uttarakhand
·
Himachal Pradesh
·
Karnataka
·
Delhi
It has
also ruled the following states as a junior ally being a part of coalition
governments in the past:
·
Odisha
·
Bihar
It also
has a regional political alliance in the North-East named the North-East
Democratic Alliance.[111][112][113][114]
Current NDA and BJP
administrations
See also: List of chief ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party
No
|
State/UT
|
NDA govt. Since
|
Chief Minister
|
CM's Party
|
CM Since
|
Seats in Assembly
|
|
1
|
Gujarat
|
28 February 1998
|
Vijay Rupani
|
BJP
|
7 August 2016
|
123/182
|
|
2
|
Chhattisgarh
|
4 December 2003
|
Raman Singh
|
BJP
|
7 December 2003
|
49/90
|
|
3
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
4 December 2003
|
Shivraj Singh Chouhan
|
BJP
|
29 November 2005
|
166/230
|
|
4
|
Punjab
|
13 February 2007
|
Prakash Singh Badal
|
SAD
|
1 March 2007
|
72/117
|
|
5
|
Nagaland
|
8 March 2008
|
T. R. Zeliang
|
NPF
|
24 May 2014
|
50/60
|
|
6
|
Goa
|
6 March 2012
|
Laxmikant
Parsekar
|
BJP
|
8 November 2014
|
24/40
|
|
7
|
Rajasthan
|
8 December 2013
|
Vasundhara Raje
|
BJP
|
13 December 2013
|
160/200
|
|
8
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
16 May 2014
|
N. Chandrababu Naidu
|
TDP
|
8 June 2014
|
108/175
|
|
9
|
Haryana
|
19 October 2014
|
Manohar Lal Khattar
|
BJP
|
26 October 2014
|
47/90
|
|
10
|
Maharashtra
|
19 October 2014
|
Devendra
Fadnavis
|
BJP
|
31 October 2014
|
186/288
|
|
11
|
Jharkhand
|
23 December 2014
|
Raghubar Das
|
BJP
|
28 December 2014
|
47/81
|
|
12
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
23 December 2014
|
Mehbooba Mufti
|
JKPDP
|
4 April 2016
|
55/87
|
|
13
|
Assam
|
24 May 2016
|
Sarbananda
Sonowal
|
BJP
|
24 May 2016
|
86/126
|
|
14
|
Sikkim
|
24 May 2016
|
Pawan Kumar Chamling
|
SDF
|
12 December 1994
|
21/32
|
|
15
|
Arunachal Pradesh
|
16 September 2016
|
Pema Khandu
|
BJP
|
16 September 2016
|
49/60
|
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