FOR the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the journey of the past 44 years since its inception in 1980 has all the attributes of being historic in the truest sense of the term. As the party ruling India for the past nine years through two five-year terms, the BJP is all geared up for the Lok Sabha elections to repeat its victory for the third consecutive tenure. There is not one single soul in the country that harbours any doubt about the BJP’s projected victory, statistical details apart. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s address at the 44th Foundation Day celebrations, therefore was heard the world over with much interest and attention to the detail of his thought-process. His words of confidence and caution may sound paradoxical, but those did communicate the BJP’s philosophical culture that takes its mandate seriously.

This is where the difference lies between the BJP and most other political parties in the country. There are several attributes of the BJP that differ sharply with other parties -- such as philosophical and spiritual commitment to the concept of Sanatan, ideology of nation first, organisational thought-process in which personal and collective discipline is paramount, mature internal democracy, continuous reinvention of ideology and philosophy -- so that the organisation remains ever young in thought and action ...!

There is no need to pay much importance to the criticism many Opposition parties habitually heap on the BJP and its so-called dictatorial methods. For, when most other parties in the past 44 years have been ruled by only persons mostly from a closed group -- or mostly a family, the BJP can cite a long list of 12-13 persons as Presidents of the BJP during this period, all having been elected through set procedures and mechanisms. There were also persons such as Mr. Lal Krishna Advani and Mr. Rajnath Singh who were President more than once. But their elections were done as per procedures. Can such a line-up of persons be cited in the case of other parties? For, in most other parties, sons or stooges took over after the demise or exit of the leader of the moment. This is because the core belief of the party is that a good organisation does throw up new leaders from time to time at different levels -- which is always happening in the BJP. And through all this leadership succession, the party has moved on -- in the process winning elections, consolidating its position in public mind all the more, and then finally becoming an organisation which is considered invincible by all.

This journey has not been smooth, so to say. But it was made to look like one because of the train of spectacular achievements that have often stunned the nation and the world almost on a continuous basis. True, the party did see only two members in the Lok Sabha at one time. But is it also not equally true that it is now looking at a possible 400 in the next elections in 2024? There is no doubt that the BJP travelled through a few eras -- such as the Atal Behari Vajpayee era, the Lal Krishna Advani era, and now the Narendra Modi era. But overall, the party’s organisational matrix was very finely construed to produce consistent and spectacular results. The Narendra Modi era is, of course, altogether different from the ones in the past. It symbolises the peaking of the BJP’s organisational pyramid to a hitherto unscaled height, thanks to Mr. Modi’s leadership. But, let us not miss one detail -- Mr. Narendra Modi was never the President of the BJP. With him as Prime Minister, the BJP has been guided to great glory by other persons.

One of the most unique attributes of the BJP is its tremendously rich talent pool covering every possible domain known on Planet Earth. This collective virtuosity is possible because of the internal and external nature of the organisation -- accommodative, all the time evolving, all the time engaged in self-scrutiny. And, to say the least, all these are the sure marks of an internal democracy the organisation had bred -- thanks to its mother organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This reality often hurts BJP adversaries, all right. But this is also the truth which countless millions of others admire whole-heartedly.