Bharatiya Janata Party
India. In the 12th Lok Sabha (1999-2004) it was the single largest party with 179 (out of 545) members. It is the successor party of the BJS, which merged itself into the Janata Party in 1977. The BJP was formed as a separate party in 1980 after internal differences in the Janata Party resulted in the collapse of its government in 1979.
Founder (of BJS): Syama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-1953)
Presidents:
It is the dominant component of the National Democratic Alliance. As the largest party in opposition former party president and Deputy Prime Minister in the previous government Lal Krishna Advani is the leader of the opposition in the 13th Lok Sabha. The party has close ties to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization and is considered by many to be responsible for inciting Hindu-Muslim riots on a number of occasions. Muslim groups claim that workers of the BJP were responsibe for destroying the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya which, many Hindu groups allege, had been built after destroying a Hindu temple.
The BJP considers itself to be a Hindutva party and defines Hindutva not in terms of religion but as Indian-ness. According to the party this is in consonance with the root meaning of the word Hindu by which the Arabs referred to all people inhabiting India. However the BJP is considered by some to be a Hindu-fundamentalist party.
In 2002, Abdul Kalam, architect of the Indian nuclear programme, was nominated by the BJP in spite of being a Muslim to become President of India and he won the subsequent elections for the post. This nomination is seen by many as a bargaining point as non-Hindu candidates are conspicuous by their absence in the BJP.
Following the 2004 elections, the NDA was confronted with its failure to secure sufficient seats to form a government. There were significant setbacks in rural states, but the BJP also had major reversals in key urban centres including Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai. This electoral shock was widely attributed to popular discontent with the BJP's record on economic policy, notably its perceived inability to extend the benefits of strong economic growth to a broader range of the populace. Disaffection was particularly evident amongst the rural electorate, suffering under the pressures of drought, a dearth of infrastructure investment, and relative impoverishment. The mantle of power has thus passed to the alliance headed by the Indian National Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi.
On July 14, 2004, the BJP announced that it would oppose the proposed hike in sectoral caps for foreign direct investment in the insurance, civil aviation and telecom sectors. This is in contrast to the policies the NDA followed when it was in power when it hiked caps and introduced foreign direct investment in insurance sector.
