Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ugog Nizdast (talk | contribs) at 12:27, 26 November 2014 (Reverted 1 edit by 182.56.77.168 (talk): Unexplained removal. (WT)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (pronunciation; translation: Indian People's Party; abbr. BJP) is one of two major parties in the Indian political system, along with the Indian National Congress. As of 2014, it is India's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament. It is a right-wing party, with close ideological and organisational links to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The roots of the BJP lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Following the end of the state of emergency in 1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party, which defeated the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general election. After three years in power, the Janata party dissolved in 1980, and the rank and file of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvened to form the Bharatiya Janata Party. Although initially unsuccessful, winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, the BJP soon grew in strength on the back of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Following victory in several state elections and increasingly better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest party in the national parliament in 1996. It was invited to form a government, which lasted only 13 days.

After an election in 1998, the BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that lasted for a year. Following fresh elections, the NDA was able to form a government, again headed by Vajpayee, that lasted a full term in office and was the first non-Congress government to do so. In the 2004 election the NDA suffered an unexpected defeat, and for the next ten years the BJP was the principal opposition party in parliament. In the 2014 general election, long time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led the NDA to a landslide victory, and as of 2014, leads the NDA government as prime minister. In addition, as of November 2014, the party holds a majority in seven states.

The stated 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 party also advocates social conservatism and a foreign policy centred on nationalist principles. Key issues for the BJP have included the abrogation of the special constitutional status to Jammu and Kashmir, the building of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, and the implementation of a uniform civil code for all Indians. However, the NDA governments of 1998–2004 did not pursue any of these controversial issues, and instead focused on a largely neoliberal economic policy centred on globalisation and economic growth above social welfare.

History

Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)

The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, popularly known as the Jana Sangh, was founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951 in response to the secular politics of the dominant Congress party. Widely regarded to be the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a voluntary Hindu nationalist organisation, its aims included the protection of India's "Hindu" cultural identity, and what it perceived to be the appeasement of Muslims and Pakistan by the Congress and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The first major campaign of the Jana Sangh was an agitation demanding the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir into India. Mookerjee was arrested for violating orders preventing him from leading the protest in Kashmir, and died in jail a few months later, of a heart attack. The leadership of the organisation devolved onto Deendayal Upadhyaya, and eventually next-generation leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L. K. Advani. However, the vast majority of the party workers, including Upadhyaya, were still adherents of the RSS. Despite the momentum gained through the Kashmir agitation, the Jana Sangh won just three Lok Sabha seats in the first general elections in 1952. It maintained a minor presence in parliament until 1967. During this period, a uniform civil code for all Indians, banning cow slaughter, and abolishing the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir were among the main points on the party's agenda.

After nationwide assembly elections in 1967, the party entered into a coalition with several other parties, including the Swatantra Party and the socialists, and formed governments in various states across the Hindi heartland, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. This marked the first time that the Jana Sangh had held political office, albeit within a coalition. The constraints of coalition politics also caused the shelving of the Sangh's more radical agenda.

Janata Party (1977–80)

In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency over the country. The Jana Sangh took part in the widespread protest that followed, and thousands of its members joined the host of other agitators in jails across the country. In 1977, the emergency was rescinded 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, which contested the election with its main agenda being the defeat of Indira Gandhi.

The Janata Party won a huge majority in 1977 and formed the government with Morarji Desai as prime minister. Vajpayee, who had become the leader of the Jana Sangh after Upadhyaya's death in 1967, was appointed Minister of External Affairs in the new government. However, disagreements over the sharing of power between the various factions of the new party plagued the Janata government, and after two and a half years in power Desai resigned from his position. This precipitated the disintegration of the Janata Party. After a brief period of coalition rule general elections were held in 1980.

BJP (1980–present)

Formation and early days

The Bharatiya Janata Party was one of the new parties that emerged from the break-up of the Janata Party in 1980. Although technically distinct from the Jana Sangh, the bulk of its rank and file were identical to its predecessor, and Vajpayee was appointed its first president. Historian Ramachandra Guha writes that despite the factional wars within the Janata government, its period in power saw a rise in support for the RSS, marked by a wave of communal violence in the early 1980s. Despite this rise in support, the BJP initially moderated the Hindu nationalist stance of its predecessor, to gain a wider appeal. This strategy was unsuccessful, as the BJP won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984. The assassination of Indira Gandhi a few months prior to the election also contributed to the low tally, as the Congress won a record number of seats.

Babri Masjid demolition and the Hindutva movement

The failure of the moderate strategy championed by Vajpayee led to a shift in the ideology of the party toward a policy of more hardline Hindutva and Hindu fundamentalism. In 1984 Advani was appointed president, and under him the BJP became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. In the early 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had begun a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Rama at the site of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque had been constructed by the Mughal emperor Babur, and there is a dispute about whether a temple once stood there. The agitation was on the basis of the belief that the site was the birthplace of Rama, and that a temple had been demolished by Babur to construct the mosque. The BJP threw its support behind this campaign, and made it a part of their election plank. On the strength of the movement the BJP won 86 Lok Sabha seats in 1989, a tally which made its support crucial to the National Front government of V. P. Singh.

In September 1990, Advani began a "rath yatra" to Ayodhya in support of the Ram mandir movement. The riots caused by the yatra led to Advani's arrest by the government of Bihar, but a large body of Kar Sevaks or Sangh Parivar activists nonetheless reached Ayodhya, and attempted to attack the mosque. This resulted in a pitched battle with the paramilitary forces that ended with the death of several kar sevaks. The BJP withdrew its support to the V.P. Singh government, leading to fresh elections being called. In these elections the BJP once again increased its tally, to 120 seats, and won a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

On 6 December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving thousands of VHP and BJP activists at the site of the mosque. Under circumstances that are not entirely clear, the rally developed into a frenzied attack that ended with the demolition of the mosque. Over the following weeks, waves of violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted all over the country, killing over 2,000 people. The VHP was briefly banned by the government, and many BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani were arrested for making inflammatory speeches provoking the demolition. Several prominent historians have stated that the demolition was the product of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar, and not merely a spontaneous act.

A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, found that 68 people were responsible for the demolition of the mosque, mostly leaders from the BJP. Among those named were Vajpayee, Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi. Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the mosque's demolition, also came in for harsh criticism in the report. He was accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the mosque's demolition in Ayodhya. Anju Gupta, an Indian Police Service officer in charge of Advani's security on the day of the demolition, appeared as a prominent witness before the commission. She stated that Advani and Joshi made provocative speeches that were a major factor in the mob's behaviour.

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. Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime minister, but was unable to cobble together a majority in the Lok Sabha, and had to resign after 13 days.

NDA government (1998–2004)

A coalition of regional parties had 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 and 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. Nonetheless, with outside support provided by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the NDA could muster a slim majority, and Vajpayee returned as prime minister. However, the coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the leader of AIADMK, Jayalalitha, withdrew her support, and fresh elections were again held.

On 13 October 1999, the BJP-led NDA, this time without the AIADMK, won 303 seats in parliament and thus an outright majority. The BJP alone had its highest ever tally of 183. Vajpayee became prime minister for the third time, and Advani became the 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-liberal economic policies.

In 2001, Bangaru Laxman, then the BJP president, was filmed accepting a bribe of ₹100,000 (equivalent to ₹400,000 or US$4,800 in 2023) to recommend the purchase of hand-held thermal imagers for the Indian Army to the Defence Ministry, in a sting operation by Tehelka journalists. The BJP was forced to make him resign as party president, and he was subsequently prosecuted. In April 2012, he was sentenced to four years in prison and died on 1 March 2014.

2002 Gujarat Violence

On 27 February 2002, a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was torched 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. Some estimate that the death toll was as high as 2000, while 150,000 were displaced. Rape, mutilation, and torture were also widespread. The then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and several high-ranking officials within the government have been accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as have police officers who allegedly directed the rioters and gave them lists of Muslim-owned properties. 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 himself was cleared of complicity in the violence by the SIT; however, 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. Scholars such as Paul Brass, Martha Nussbaum and Dipankar Gupta have said that there was a high level of state complicity in the incidents.

General election defeat 2004, 2009

Vajpayee called elections in early 2004, six months ahead of schedule. The NDA's campaign was based on the slogan "India Shining" which sought to depict the NDA government as responsible for a rapid economic transformation of the country. 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 Singh succeeded Vajpayee as the 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.

In May 2008, the BJP won the state elections in Karnataka. This was the first time that the party had won Assembly elections in any South Indian state. However, it lost the next assembly election in 2013. In the 2009 general elections its strength in the Lok Sabha was reduced to 116 seats.

General election victory, 2014

In the 2014 Indian general election, the BJP won 282 seats, and led the National Democratic Alliance to a tally of 336 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha. This was the first instance since 1984 of a single party achieving an outright majority in the Indian Parliament and the first time that the BJP achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own strength. The BJP parliamentary leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014.

In general elections

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. In the elections of 1998 and 1999, it remained the largest party, and headed the ruling coalition on both occasions. In the 2014 general election, it won an outright majority in parliament. From 1991 onward, a BJP member has led the opposition whenever the party was not in power.

Year	General Election	Seats Won	Change in Seat	% of votes	votes swing	Ref.
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	31.00	12.2

Ideology and political positions

Social policies and Hindutva

The official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral Humanism". The BJP expresses a commitment to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The party asserts that Hindutva is merely cultural nationalism, which favours Indian heritage and culture over westernisation and so Hindutva naturally extends to all Indians regardless of religion. Scholars and political analysts have, however, pointed out that Hindutva ideology as practised by the BJP and its affiliates has largely been an attempt to redefine India in terms of its Hindu heritage, and to recast it as a Hindu country, to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist party in a general sense. However, since the formation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998, the BJP has slightly moderated its stance on Hindutva, due to the presence of parties with a broader set of ideologies within the coalition.

The party's Hindutva ideology has been expressed in several different instances and in many of the policies it has enacted in government. The BJP supports the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site of the Babri Mosque. The party was at the forefront of the agitation to build a temple there during the early 1990s, and this issue was its major poll plank in the 1991 general elections. However, the demolition of the mosque during a BJP rally in 1992 resulted in a backlash against the party that led to a decline in the prominence of the temple in the party's agenda. Hindutva was also brought to the fore in the education policy of the BJP headed NDA government, which reorganised the NCERT and tasked it with extensively revising the textbooks used in Indian schools. Various scholars have stated that this revision, especially in the case of history texts, was a covert attempt to "saffronise" Indian history. The NDA government also introduced Vedic astrology as a subject in college curricula, despite the opposition of several leading scientists.

The BJP has long taken a position against what it calls the "pseudo-secularism" of the Congress party, instead embracing "positive secularism." It supports the enactment of a uniform civil code, which would apply a common set of personal laws to every citizen, replacing existing personal laws that are based on the scriptures and customs of each major religious community. According to historian Yogendra Malik, this ignores the fact that differential procedures are required to protect the cultural identity of the Muslim minority. It also favours the abrogation of Article 370 from the Indian constitution, which grants a greater degree of autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in recognition of the unusual circumstances surrounding its accession to the Indian union. Atal Bihari 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. 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".

The BJP has a stated policy of opposing "illegal" migration into Indian territory from Bangladesh. The party states that this opposition is because such migration, mostly in the states of Assam and West Bengal, threatens the security, economy, and stability of the country. Academics have pointed out that the BJP refers to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh as refugees, and reserves the term "illegal" for Muslim migrants. Academics such as 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.

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. The BJP president said that the party supported section 377, because it believed that homosexuality was unnatural, though its stand has softened after its victory in the 2014 general elections.

Economic policies

The economic policy of the BJP has changed considerably since its founding in 1980, and there remains a significant range of economic ideologies within the party. In the 1980s the BJP, like the Jana Sangh before it, reflected the thinking of the RSS and its affiliates. It supported Swadeshi, or 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.

By the time of the elections in 1996, the BJP had shifted its stance away from protectionism and toward globalisation; its election manifesto recommended increasing foreign investment in priority sectors, while restricting it in others. When the party took power at the centre in 1998, it shifted its policy even further in favour of globalisation. The tenure of the NDA saw an unprecedented influx of foreign companies into India. This invited criticism both from the left parties, as well as from the affiliates of the BJP like the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. The communist parties suggested that the BJP was attempting to appease the World Bank and the United States government through its neoliberal policies. A similar view was expressed by the RSS, which stated that the BJP was not being true to its Swadeshi ideology. The tenure of the two NDA governments from 1998 to 2004 saw India's GDP growth increase substantially. The campaign slogan of the BJP in the 2004 elections was "India Shining," a slogan that tried to call attention to the perceived shift in the economy, and to the party's belief that the free market would bring prosperity to all sectors of society. However, the party suffered an unexpected defeat, with commentators stating that the NDA had been penalised for neglecting the needs of the poor and marginalised, and focusing too much on its business and corporate allies.

This shift in the economic policies of the BJP has also been seen at the level of the state governments, especially in Gujarat, where the BJP has held power for 16 uninterrupted years. The government of Narendra Modi, which was in power from 2002 to 2014, has pursued a strongly neoliberal agenda, presented as a drive towards development. Its policies have included extensive privatisation of infrastructure and services, as well as a significant rollback of labour and environmental regulations. While this has invited praise from within the business community, commentators have criticised it as catering to the BJP's upper class constituency at the expense of the poor.

Defence and terrorism

The Bharatiya Janata Party takes a relatively more aggressive and nationalistic position on defence policy and terrorism. The BJP led NDA government carried out a test of nuclear weapons, and enacted the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which later came under heavy criticism. It also deployed troops to evict infiltrators from Kargil, and supported the United States War on Terror.

Although previous Congress governments had developed the capability for a Nuclear weapons test, the Vajpayee government broke with India's historical policy of avoiding nuclear weapons and authorized Pokhran-II, a series of five nuclear tests in 1998. The tests came soon after Pakistan tested a medium range ballistic missile of its own. They were seen as an attempt to display India's military prowess to the world, as well as a reflection of anti-Pakistan sentiment within the BJP.

The Vajpayee government also ordered the Indian armed forces to take all measures to expel fighters from Pakistan who had occupied territory in Kashmir, in what became known as the Kargil War. Although the Vajpayee government was later criticised for the intelligence failures that failed to detect the presence of the Pakistani fighters, the response was successful in ousting them from the disputed territory.

In response to the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, the NDA government passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The stated aim of the act was the improve the government's ability to deal with terrorism. The act initially failed to pass in the Rajya Sabha; therefore, the NDA took the extraordinary step of convening a joint session of Parliament, where the numerical superiority of the Lok Sabha allowed the bill to pass. The act was subsequently used to prosecute hundreds of people accused of terrorism. However, it was criticised by parties in the opposition as well as by scholars for being an infringement upon civil liberties, and the National Human Rights Commission stated that it had been used to target Muslims. It was later repealed by the Congress led UPA government in 2004.

Foreign policy

The historical stance of the BJP towards foreign policy, much like its predecessor the Jana Sangh, was based on an aggressive Hindu nationalism combined with economic protectionism. Leading RSS and BJP figures criticised the more conciliatory foreign policy of the Congress as running contrary to India's "militant" past. 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. This antagonism toward Pakistan remains a significant influence in the party ideology. The BJP and its affiliates have also strongly opposed India's long standing policy of nonalignment, and instead advocate closeness to the United States.

The foreign policy of the NDA government led by Vajpayee in many ways represented a radical shift away from BJP orthodoxy, while maintaining some aspects of it. Contrary to RSS philosophy, the government significantly relaxed a host of protectionist measures designed to safeguard Indian industry, a move which was severely criticised within the Sangh Parivar. Vajpayee also courted criticism from his party for adopting a much more moderate stance with Pakistan. In 1998, Vajpayee made a landmark visit to Pakistan, and inaugurated the Delhi–Lahore Bus service. He also signed the Lahore Declaration, an attempt to improve Indo-Pak relations that had deteriorated in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests. However, the presence of Pakistani soldiers and militants in disputed Kashmiri territory was discovered only a few months later, precipitating the 1999 Kargil War, which ended without any territory changing hands.

Despite the war, Vajpayee continued to display a willingness to engage Pakistan in dialogue, which was not well received among the BJP cadre, who criticised the government for being "weak". The hawkish faction of the BJP asserted itself at the post-Kargil Agra summit, preventing any significant deal from being reached.

Organisational structure

The organisation of the BJP is strictly hierarchical, with the President being the highest authority in the party. Until 2012, the BJP constitution had mandated that any qualified member could be national president or state president for a single term of three years. In 2012, this was amended to a maximum of two consecutive terms of three years each. Below the president is the National Executive, which contains a variable number of senior leaders from across the country, and which is the higher decision making body of the party. Among its members are several vice-presidents, general-secretaries, treasurers and secretaries, who work directly with the president. An identical structure, with an executive committee led by a president, exists at the state, regional, district, and local level.

The BJP remains largely 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 that of the BJP, and the rank and file of the BJP is largely derived from the RSS and its affiliates, loosely known as the Sangh Parivar.

Other associates of the BJP include the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is the students' wing of the RSS, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, their farmers' division, and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which is their labour union associated with the RSS. The party also has subsidiary organisations of its own, such as the BJP Mahila Morcha, which is its women's division, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, its youth wing, the BJP Minority Morcha, its minority division.

Presence in various states

As of October 2014, the BJP holds a majority of assembly in seven states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Goa, Haryana and Maharashtra. In three other states and one Union Territory – Punjab, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry respectively – it shares power with other political parties of the NDA coalition. The BJP has previously been the sole party in power in Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Delhi. It has also ruled Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand as part of coalition governments.

List of Current NDA Chief Ministers

List of presidents of the party

No.	Year	Name		Note	Ref.
1	1980–86		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
2	1986–91		L. K. Advani	First term
3	1991–93	File:Murli Manohar Joshi 2.jpg	Murli Manohar Joshi
(2)	1993–98		L. K. Advani	Second term
4	1998–2000		Kushabhau Thakre
5	2000–01		Bangaru Laxman
5	2001–02		Jana Krishnamurthi
6	2002–04	File:Venkaiah Naidu.jpg	Venkaiah Naidu
(2)	2004–06		L. K. Advani	Third term
7	2006–09	File:Rajnath singh.png	Rajnath Singh	First term
8	2009–13	File:Nitin Gadkari 7.JPG	Nitin Gadkari
(7)	2013–14	File:Rajnath singh.png	Rajnath Singh	Second term
9	2014–present		Amit Shah

See also

• Conservatism
• India
• Politics

• Politics of India

Notes and References

References

1. Election Commission 2013.
2. Lok Sabha Official Website.
3. Rajya Sabha Official Website.
4. HT Correspondent. "PM Modi, Shah open doors for new BJP members". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 1 November 2014. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
5. Bharatiya Janata Party 2013.
6. ^ Malik 1992, p. 318. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMalik1992 (help)
7. ^ Banerjee 2005, p. 3118.
8. Noorani 1978, p. 216.
9. ^ Guha 2007, p. 136.
10. Guha 2007, p. 250.
11. Guha 2007, p. 413.
12. Guha 2007, p. 352.
13. Guha 2007, pp. 427–428.
14. Guha 2007, pp. 538–540.
15. Guha 2007, pp. 563–564.
16. ^ Malik & Singh 1992, pp. 318–336. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEMalikSingh1992318–336" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
17. Guha 2007, p. 579.
18. Pai 1996, pp. 1170–1183.
19. Jha 2003.
20. Flint 2005, p. 165.
21. Guha 2007, pp. 582–598.
22. ^ Guha 2007, pp. 633–659.
23. NDTV 2012.
24. ^ Al Jazeera 2009.
25. Venkatesan 2005.
26. ^ Guha 2007, p. 633.
27. Jones 2013.
28. Sen 2005, p. 254.
29. rediff.com 1998.
30. atimes 2001.
31. ^ Sen 2005, pp. 251–272.
32. Outlook 2012.
33. Kattakayam 2012.
34. India Today 2001.
35. Tehelka 2001.
36. Ghassem-Fachandi 2012, pp. 1–31.
37. ^ Jaffrelot 2013, p. 16.
38. Harris 2012.
39. Krishnan 2012. sfn error: no target: CITEREFKrishnan2012 (help)
40. Hindustan Times 2014.
41. NDTV.com 2012.
42. Brass 2005, pp. 385–393. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBrass2005 (help)
43. Gupta 2011, p. 252.
44. Nussbaum 2008, p. 2.
45. ^ Ramesh 2004.
46. ^ The Hindu 2004.
47. Hindustan Times 2009.
48. Mathew 2014. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMathew2014 (help)
49. Times of India 2014.
50. Deccan Chronicle 2014.
51. BBC & May 2014.
52. National Informatics Centre 2014.
53. Election Commission 1984.
54. Election Commission 1989.
55. Election Commission 1991.
56. Election Commission 1996.
57. Election Commission 1998.
58. Election Commission 1999.
59. ^ Election Commission 2004.
60. Election Commission 2014.
61. ^ Swain 2001, pp. 71–104.
62. ^ Seshia 1998, pp. 1036–1050.
63. ^ Gillan 2002, pp. 73–95.
64. ^ Sen 2005, p. 63.
65. International Religious Freedom Report 2005.
66. The Hindu 2002.
67. Davies 2005.
68. BBC & January 2014.
69. Fitzgerald 2011, pp. 67–68.
70. Vajpayee 2007, pp. 318–342.
71. Ramachandran 2003, pp. 637–647.
72. Times of India 2013.
73. Buncombe 2014.
74. Ramaseshan 2014. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRamaseshan2014 (help)
75. Business Standard 2014.
76. ^ Shulman 2000, pp. 365–390.
77. Guha 2007, pp. 710–720.
78. Sen 2005, p. 70.
79. Bhatt 2014. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBhatt2014 (help)
80. ^ Bobbio 2012, pp. 652–668.
81. Jaffrelot 2013, pp. 79–95.
82. Ghouri 2009. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGhouri2009 (help)
83. ^ Ganguly 1999, pp. 148–177.
84. ^ Krishnan 2004, pp. 1–37.
85. Kux 2002, pp. 93–106.
86. ^ Qadir 2002, pp. 1–10.
87. ^ Abbas 2004, p. 173.
88. Times of India 2002.
89. ^ Chaulia 2002, pp. 215–234.
90. ^ Harris, 2005 & 7-27. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHarris20057-27 (help)
91. Times of India 2012.
92. Word Statesman 2014. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWord_Statesman2014 (help)
93. http://www.elections.in/maharashtra/
94. ^ India Today 2013.
95. Patrika 2014.

Sources

• Abbas, Hassan (2004). Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America's War On Terror. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-1497-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Uproar over India mosque report: Inquiry into Babri mosque's demolition in 1992 indicts opposition BJP leaders". Al Jazeera. 24 November 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
• "India, Russia stand united in defense". Atimes.com. 8 November 2001. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
• Banerjee, Sumanta (16–22 July 2005). "Civilising the BJP". Economic & Political Weekly. 40 (29): 3116–3119. Retrieved 19 October 2014. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Narendra Modi sworn in as Indian prime minister". BBC News. 26 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
• "Indian Astrology vs Indian Science". BBC World Service. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
• "Constitution and rules Bhartiya Janata Party" (PDF). Retrieved 11 July 2014.
• Bhatt, Sheela. "What Anandiben Patel is really like". Rediff. Retrieved 27 June 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bobbio, Tommaso (2012). "Making Gujarat Vibrant: Hindutva, development and the rise of subnationalism in India". Third World Quarterly. 33 (4): 653–668. doi:10.1080/01436597.2012.657423. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Paul R. Brass (2005). The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India. University of Washington Press. pp. 385–393. ISBN 978-0-295-98506-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Buncombe, Andrew (11 July 2014). "India's gay community scrambling after court decision recriminalises homosexuality". The Independent. Retrieved 11 July 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "It is the govt.'s responsibility to protect LGBT rights, says Harsh Vardhan". Business Standard. Mumbai, India. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
• Chaulia, Sreeram (June 2002). "BJP, India's Foreign Policy and the "Realist Alternative" to the Nehruvian Tradition". International Politics. 39: 215–234. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ip.8897388. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davies, Richard (2005). "The Cultural Background of Hindutva". In Ayres & Oldenburg, Alyssa & Philip (ed.). India Briefing; Takeoff at Last?. Asia Society. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• "Narendra Modi to be sworn in as 15th Prime Minister of India on May 26". Deccan Chronicle. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
• "General Election to Lok Sabha Trends and Results". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
• "List of Political Parties and Election Symbols main Notification Dated 18.01.2013" (PDF). India: Election Commission of India. 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1984 to the Eighth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1989 to the Ninth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1991 to the Tenth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1996 to the Eleventh Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1998 to the Twelfth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 1999 to the Thirteenth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
• "Statistical report on general elections, 2004 to the Fourteenth Lok Sabha" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
• "Performance of National Parties" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
• Fitzgerald, Timothy (2011). Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern Myth. A&C Black. ISBN 9781441142900.
• Flint, Colin (2005). The geography of war and peace. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516208-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ganguly, Sumit (Spring 1999). . "India's Pathway to Pokhran II: The Prospects and Sources of New Delhi's Nuclear Weapons Program". International Security. 23 (4): 148–177. doi:10.1162/isec.23.4.148. Retrieved 27 June 2014. {{cite journal}}: Check |url= value (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ghassem-Fachandi, Parvis (2012). Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691151776. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ghouri, Nadene. "The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment?". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 26 January 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gillan, Michael (March 2002). "Refugees or Infiltrators? The Bharatiya Janata Party and "Illegal" Migration from Bangladesh". Asian Studies Review. 26 (1): 73–95. doi:10.1080/10357820208713331. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Guha, Ramachandra (2007). India after Gandhi: the history of the world's largest democracy (1st ed.). India: Picador. ISBN 978-0-330-39610-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gupta, Dipankar (2011). Justice before Reconciliation: Negotiating a 'New Normal' in Post-riot Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-415-61254-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Halarnkar, Samar (13 June 2012). "Narendra Modi makes his move". BBC News. The right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's primary opposition party
• Harris, Gardiner (2 July 2012). "Justice and 'a Ray of Hope' After 2002 India Riots". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harris, Jerry (2005). "Emerging Third World powers: China, India and Brazil". Race & Class. 46 (7). doi:10.1177/0306396805050014. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "The Meaning of Verdict 2004". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 14 May 2004. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
• "Inventing History". The Hindu. 14 October 2002. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• "Modi did not incite riots: SIT". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
• "2009 Lok Sabha election: Final results tally". Hindustan Times. 17 May 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
• "Tehelka sting: How Bangaru Laxman fell for the trap". India Today. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
• "BJP Presidents from 1980 to 2013". India Today. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (July 2003). "Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk?" (PDF). Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics: 16. Retrieved 5 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (June 2013). "Gujarat Elections: The Sub-Text of Modi's 'Hattrick'—High Tech Populism and the 'Neo-middle Class". Studies in Indian Politics. 1: 2–27. doi:10.1177/2321023013482789. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jha, Nilanjana Bhaduri (21 February 2003). "Survey shows temple remains in Ayodhya: VHP". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 July 2014. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Keith Jones (9 October 1999). "Hindu chauvinist-led coalition to form India's next government". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
• Kattakayam, Jiby (27 April 2012). "Bangaru Laxman convicted of taking bribe". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 9 May 2012. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Krishnan, Jayanth (1 January 2004). "India's "Patriot Act": POTA and the Impact on Civil Liberties in the World's Largest Democracy". Faculty Publication, Indiana Law University. Retrieved 27 June 2014. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Krishnan, Murali; Shamil Shams (11 March 2012). "Modi's clearance in the Gujarat riots case angers Indian Muslims". Deutsche Welle. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kux, Dennis (May–June 2002). "India's Fine Balance". Foreign Affairs. 81 (3): 93–106. doi:10.2307/20033165. Retrieved 27 June 2014. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Lok Sabha Official Website". 9 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
• "Sixteenth Lok Sabha Party-wise". Lok Sabha. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
• "Sixteenth Lok Sabha Party-wise All Members". Lok Sabha Official Website. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
• Malik, Yogendra K.; Singh, V.B. (April 1992). "Bharatiya Janata Party: An Alternative to the Congress (I)?". Asian Survey. 32 (4): 318–336. doi:10.2307/2645149. JSTOR 2645149. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mathew, Liz (16 May 2014). "Narendra Modi makes election history as BJP gets majority on its own". Live Mint. Retrieved 26 May 2014. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Lok Sabha at a glance". National Informatics Centre. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
• "Report: Sequence of events on December 6". NDTV. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
• "Naroda Patiya riots: Former minister Maya Kodnani gets 28 years in jail". NDTV.com. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
• Noorani, A. G. (March–April 1978). "Foreign Policy of the Janata Party Government". Asian Affairs. 5 (4): 216–228. doi:10.1080/00927678.1978.10554044. JSTOR 30171643. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nussbaum, Martha Craven (2008). The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future. Harvard University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-674-03059-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Tehelka Sting: After Eleven Years, It Stings To Say This". Outlook. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
• Pai, Sudha (December 1996). "Transformation of the Indian Party System: The 1996 Lok Sabha Elections". Asian Survey. 36 (12): 1170–1183. doi:10.1525/as.1996.36.12.01p01884. Retrieved 28 June 2014. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Amit Shah elected new BJP president". Patrika Group. 9 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
• Qadir, Shaukat (April 2002). "An Analysis of the Kargil Conflict 1999" (PDF). RUSI Journal. Retrieved 20 May 2009. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Rajya Sabha Official Website". 9 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
• Ramachandran, Sujata (15 February 2003). "'Operation Pushback' Sangh Parivar, State, Slums, and Surreptitious Bangladeshis in New Delhi". Economic & Political Weekly. 38 (7): 637–647. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
• Ramaseshan, Radhika (14 December 2013). "BJP comes out, vows to oppose homosexuality". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. Retrieved 16 December 2013. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ramesh, Randeep (14 May 2004). "News World news Shock defeat for India's Hindu nationalists". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2013. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "TDP helps Vajpayee wins confidence vote". Rediff.com. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
• Sen, Amartya (2005). India and the world (1. publ. ed.). Allen Lane: 2005. ISBN 978-0-7139-9687-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Seshia, Shaila (November 1998). "Divide and Rule in Indian Party Politics: The Rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party". Asian Survey. 38 (11): 1036–1050. doi:10.1525/as.1998.38.11.01p0406o. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shulman, Stephen (September 2000). "Nationalist Sources of International Economic Integration". International Studies Quarterly. 44 (3): 365–390. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00164. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stein, Burton (2010). A history of India (edited by David Arnold. 2nd ed.). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-9509-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Swain, Pratap Chandra (2001). Bharatiya Janata Party: Profile and Performance. India: APH publishing. pp. 71–104. ISBN 978-81-7648-257-8. Retrieved 5 July 2014. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Bangaru Laxman convicted for taking bribe". Tehelka. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
• "Election results 2014: India places its faith in Moditva - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 17 May 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
• "SP condemns Vaiko's arrest under Pota". The Times Of India. 13 July 2002.
• "BJP amends constitution allowing Gadkari to get second second term". Times of India. 28 September 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
• "Stand with RSS, BJP". The Times of India. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
• "India: International Religious Freedom Report". US Department of state. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
• Vajpayee, Atal Bihari (2007). Jaffrelot, Christophe (ed.). Hindu Nationalism: A Reader. Delhi: Permanent Black. ISBN 9780691130989. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Venkatesan, V. (16–29 July 2005). "In the dock, again". Frontline. 22 (15). Retrieved 28 June 2014. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "States of India since 1947". worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved 17 July 2014.

Further reading

• Baxter, Craig (1971) . The Jana Sangh - A Biography of an Indian Political Party. Oxford University Press, Bombay. ISBN 0812275837.
• Graham, B. D. (1990). Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-38348X.
• Malik, Yogendra K.; Singh, V.B. (1994). Hindu Nationalists in India : The Rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-8810-4.
• Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1850653011. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mishra, Madhusudan (1997). Bharatiya Janata Party and India's Foreign Policy. New Delhi: Uppal Pub. House. ISBN 81-85565-79-1.
• Sharma, C.P. Thakur, Devendra P. (1999). India under Atal Behari Vajpayee : The BJP Era. New Delhi: UBS Publishers' Distributors. ISBN 978-81-7476-250-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Bhambhri, C.P. (2001). Bharatiya Janata Party : Periphery to Centre. Delhi: Shipra. ISBN 81-7541-078-7.
• Nag, Kingshuk (2014). The Saffron Tide: The Rise of the BJP. Rupa Publications. ASIN B00NSIB0Q4. ISBN 978-8129134295.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Dmoz

• 1980 establishments in India
• Bharatiya Janata Party
• Conservative parties in India
• Hindutva
• Nationalist parties
• Political parties established in 1980
• Right-wing parties