The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, [bʱaːɾətiːjə dʒənətaː paːɾʈiː] ⓘ; lit. ’Indian People’s Party’) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress.[36] Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[37] The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation.[38][39] Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology.[40][41] As of January 2024, it is the country’s biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
The party’s origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Indian politician Syama Prasad Mukherjee, after he left Hindu Mahasabha to form a party as the political wing of RSS.[42][43] After the Emergency of 1975–1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other political parties to form the Janata Party; it defeated the then-incumbent Indian National Congress 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 modern-day BJP. Although initially unsuccessful—winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the back of the movement around Ram Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh. Following victories in several state elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest political party in the Parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government, under its then-leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lasted for only 13 days
Name, symbol, and themes
The name as well as the symbol of the party were selected by the founders. The name “Bharatiya Janata Party” literally translates to “Indian People’s Party”. The Symbol of the party is the flower Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera).[51] Lotus has a cultural significance within India as well as Hinduism. The symbol has been regarded as a symbol of peace and prosperity within Hinduism. Likewise, during the independence movement of India, the symbol was used by Indian nationalist as a symbol of revolt against the British Raj.[52] Lotus is also recognised as the national flower of India. Thus, use of the symbol gives the party a nationalist as well as Hindutva appeal.[53] Besides these, the party also heavily uses the Saffron colour in its promotional materials and campaigning. Similar to Lotus, the Saffron colour also has a major significance within Hinduism.[54] The most common flag used by the party is predominantly saffron with a stripe of green in the left. Within the Saffron part of the flag, the lotus symbol is also integrated.[55] This particular colour scheme used in the flag assists the party to project itself as a secular party. Meanwhile, this also helps the party to maintain a religious undertone for its core electorate and Hindu nationalistic supporter groups.[55]
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.[58] 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.[63]
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. Political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot wrote that this proved to be impossible assimilation.[64] 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.[65] 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 in Aligarh and Jamshedpur in 1978–79.[citation needed] The other major constituents of the Janata Party demanded that the former Jana Sangh members should dissociate themselves from the RSS, which they 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 Desai’s 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.[66][63]
Formation and early days
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.[67] Historian Ramachandra Guha writes that the early 1980s were marked by 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 to the Janata Party and the ideology of Gandhian socialism.[68] This was unsuccessful, as it won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984.[68] 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.[6
Ram Janmabhoomi movement
The failure of Vajpayee’s moderate strategy led to a shift in the ideology of the party toward a policy of more hardline Hindu nationalism.[68][70] In 1984, Advani was appointed president of the party, and under him it became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. In the early 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Rama at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque had been constructed by the Mughal Emperor Babur in 1527. There is a dispute about whether a temple once stood there.[71] The agitation was on the basis of the belief that the site is the birthplace of Rama, and that a temple had been demolished to construct the mosque.[72] The BJP threw its support behind this campaign and made it a part of their election platform. It won 86 Lok Sabha seats in 1989, a tally which made its support crucial to the National Front government of V. P. Singh.[73]
In September 1990, Advani began a Rath Yatra (chariot journey) to Ayodhya in support of the Ram temple movement. According to Guha, the imagery employed by the yatra was “religious, allusive, militant, masculine, and anti-Muslim”.[74] Advani was placed under preventive detention on the orders of the then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. A large number of kar sevaks (religious volunteers) nonetheless converged at Ayodhya, and some attacked the mosque. Three days of fighting with the paramilitary forces ended with the deaths of several kar sevaks. Hindus were urged by VHP to “take revenge” for these deaths, resulting in riots against Muslims across Uttar Pradesh. [75] The BJP withdrew its support from the V.P. Singh government, leading to fresh general elections. The BJP further increased its tally to 120 seats, and won a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.[76]
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.[76] The rally developed into a frenzied attack that ended with the demolition of the mosque.[76] Over the following weeks, waves of violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted all over the country, killing over 2,000 people.[76] The government briefly banned the VHP, and many BJP leaders, including Advani were arrested for making inflammatory speeches provoking the demolition.[77][78] Several historians have said that the demolition was the product of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar, and not a spontaneous act.[76] 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.[44] Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister but was unable to attain a majority in the Lok Sabha, forcing the government to resign after 13 days.[44]
A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, found that 68 people were responsible for the demolition, mostly leaders from the BJP.[78] Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi. The report also criticised Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition.[78] He was accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the demolition.[78] In 2020, the Supreme Court of India acquitted all of the accused in the demolition including Advani and Joshi.[79]
Following the 2019 Supreme Court verdict, the Government of India announced a trust to construct the Mandir. On 22 January 2024, the Ram Mandir was officially opened.[54] Prime Minister Narendra Modi led its consecration, claiming it to be the start of a new era.[54] The temple is expected to be fully completed by December 2024.[80]
Vajpayee era (1996–2004)
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 that had an ideology similar to the BJP; Amartya Sen, for example, called the coalition an “ad hoc” grouping.[81] The NDA had a majority with outside support from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Vajpayee returned as Prime Minister.[82] However, the coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the leader of AIADMK, J. Jayalalithaa, withdrew her support, and fresh elections were held again.[83]
On 13 October 1999, without the AIADMK, the NDA 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[a] and Home Affairs Minister. This NDA government lasted its full term of five years. Its policy agenda included a more aggressive stance on defence and terror and neo-liberal economic policies.[45] In 2001, Bangaru Laxman, then the BJP president, was filmed accepting a bribe in a sting operation.[84][85] He was compelled to resign and was subsequently prosecuted, eventually being sentenced to four years in prison.[86]
Modi era (2014–present)
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.[100] Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 14th prime minister of India on 26 May 2014.[101][102] The vote share of the BJP was 31% of all votes cast, a low figure relative to the number of seats it won.[103] This was the first instance since 1984 of a single party achieving an outright majority in the Indian Parliament[104] 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.[103] The magnitude of the victory was not predicted by most opinion and exit polls.[103]
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.[105] 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.[106][103] Its support among Muslims remained low; only 8% of Muslim voters voted for the BJP.[106][103] The BJP was also very successful at mobilizing its supporters and raising voter turnout among them.[103]
After winning the election, the organisation of the BJP became more centralised with Modi at the helm.[107] People loyal to Modi were rewarded leadership positions across various states within India.[108] Amit Shah, a close confidant of Modi, was appointed as the president of the BJP in 2014.[109] Contextually, many veteran leaders of the party like Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Jaswant Singh amongst others were allegedly sidelined.[110]
In 2016, the BJP joined the International Democratic Union, a grouping of various centre-right and right-wing political parties across the globe.[111] However, as of 2024, the party is no longer a member, the secretary general of the IDU, Tina Mercep, stated that they would welcome full membership of the BJP in their global network. However, BJP’s youth organisation remains a member of the youth wing of the IDU.[112][113]
During Modi’s first term as prime minister, the BJP expanded its presence in several states where it had previously been a minor player, and it regained power in other states where it had been in opposition for a considerable period. Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir saw an increase in the BJP’s influence, and the party entered government in several of these states.[114]
Second Modi government (2019–2024)
In 2019, the BJP won the general election with an increased majority. Soon after returning to power, on 5 August 2019, the Modi administration revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India as a state. This state consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947.[115][116]