Genesis of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

29 August, 2012

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is one of the two major political parties in our country and is also the most prominent member of the 'Sangh Parivar'. Let us take a look at its origin and achievements.

BJP IS the successor of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. Mookerjee was a former Union leader, a nationalist leader and a freedom fighter. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh formed Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh to suppress the ideology of the congress. But, after Mookerjee's death in prison in 1953, the organization was taken care of by Deendayal Upadhyay.

In 1977, when the elections were held, then BJS invested its political and organizational capital in the new Janata Party and merged with it and this party defeated the Indira Gandhi's Congress Party. The new government was led by Morarji Desai, and the most senior leader of BJS, AB Vajpayee was given the External Affairs sector and LK Advani was given the information and broadcasting sector.

But this government lasted only for two years and again the Indira Gandhi's Congress got the power. And than the BJP was formed in 1980, under the leadership of Vajpayee and Advani and became the second largest political party of India. The BJP came into power in 1998, but in alliance with other parties, and the government was headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But in the 2004 elections BJP was defeated and the prime ministership was passed on to Dr. ManMohan Singh of the Congress Party. In 2008 state elections BJP won in the state of Karnataka, but in 2009 general election it again faced defeat.

When the BJP government was in power it signed the South Asian Free Trade Agreement with the neighbouring countries which benefited billions of people. Vajpayee was responsible for the peace treaty with Pakistan and in 1999 he introduced a Delhi- Lahore bus.

Recently BJP has launched an internet television channel named Yuva TV. The purpose of the channel is to educate the youth on issues like health, economics, culture and current affairs. Yuva TV would also be used to webcast its rallies and other events. It is an interesting attempt by the BJP to educate the youth about the political issues of our country, reported medianama.com.