Indeed Bhartiya Janta Party is the party with ‘a difference’ for in it’s about 6 years of rule it had done for India’s military prowess and national self-confidence what Indian National Congress was unable to achieve in it’s preceeding 5 decades long ‘Tryst with Destiny’.
Hardcore Secularists abhore it, most National Mainstream Parties stay away from it and major sections of the Minorities fear it as ‘The Hindu Nazi’. That is the way assumedly Pro-Hindu BJP is seen in this country. Come what may, but if we see the last over 60 years of Indian Independence objectively, then we find the 6 years of BJP led NDA rule as a period of rejuvenation, resurgence, confidence and hope. It was when the country came out of it’s political timidity, emerged strong militarily and gained diplomatic acclaim and recognition. The country also saw a robust economic growth during this period, but at the same time learnt lessons for it’s pursuing a version of unbridled capitalism and privatization – a serious miscalculation for which the NDA coalition lost the power and it’s growing support base.
The BJP led NDA Govt by ordering the Nuclear Tests on 11th and 13th May, 1998 changed forever the way World looked at India or for that matter the Vice Verca. It made India a de-facto Nuclear Weapons state and added a further supporting dimension to it’s long pending demand of a permanent seat in The United Nations Security Council. It was undoubtedly the biggest boost for the political India and things were never the same again. A nuclear India, even if flanked by a nuclear Pakistan, was criticized more, boycotted more, feared more, heard more and eventually respected more.
The NDA government had also taken a rash yet courageous hard stand against China. In fact, the Defence Minister in that Govt Mr George Fernandes went on to call China as the potential threat number one for India. It was a well calculated step of de-hyphenating India from it’s small Western Neighbour and hyphenating it with the Giant Eastern Neighbour.
Mr Vajpayee, a firm believer of Democracy and the politics of consensus gave peace several chances in the Kashmir episode. India was backstabbed. It strengthened the country’s resolve to fight the scourge of terrorism with an iron fist. The victory of Kargil highlights this point. Moreover India gradually realized that it had to fight it’s own war against terror. USA will always keep it’s own interests above the need to tackle terrorism on a common platform as a curse against humanity.
No rose is without a thorn. The blot of Godhra carnage and the subsequent riots in Gujarat sums up this phrase very appropriately. It was an extremely tragic event in Indian history but something over which BJP didn’t have the fullest of control. There is a need for greater accountability in cases of Mass Communal carnages which scourge this nation time and again, whether these are the anti-sikh riots of Delhi (1984) or the anti-muslim riots of Mumbai (1992-93) and Gujarat (2002).
I as an Indian say this with pride and enthusiasm that our Country deserves not to be merely a developed country, rather it must and will become the Number One Country in the world, in Defence, Economy, Political clout and ethical standards. A country with such a rich and glorious heritage, with a population of over 120 crores, with the most abundant availability of arable land and vast scope for growth of talent and ability which lies untapped, deserves nothing less than that.
We have the ammunition ready, what we need is a lofty vision, a strong and enabling leadership, and committed support. BJP, is the party which comes closest to fulfilling these requirements, as it is a new party and is charged with patriotism and has a vast and disciplined cadre which can provide able leaders who can do the needful in the best possible manner.
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Hi Nishkarsh,
ReplyDeleteYou have very well summarized the BJP’s rule of 6 years. I agree with you that BJP is a party with difference i.e you can say, ‘It’s different’.
We are currently seeing the failure of Congress Government (UPA) on many fronts, mainly Corruption and Inflation !!!. A few of the failures of current UPA government can be listed as under :
A) BOFORS
Congresss Government had always worked to close the Bofors case and save the real culprits. Recently, Quattrochi had been given clean chit, his oversees account was defreezed where bofors ill-gotten money was kept though there was evidence that he had received commission in Bofors deal.
B) Common Wealth Games
The expenditure on CWG games far exceeded the initial budget approved. The actual expenditure was more than 15 times of the budget initially approved. We are now seeing daily reports (investigation) as to how more than 200 crores of taxpayers’ money was looted by CWG officials in the name of games.
C) 2G Spectrum Sale
Government had lost more than 1 lakh crores by selling the spectrum at throw away prices. As per CAG estimate the loss was around 1.76 lakh crores. There had been clear fraud by favouring certain companies by following policy of ‘First Come First Serve’. Companies were ready with DDs even before such policy was announced by the Ministry. The whole show was ‘MANAGED’ and public money was openly looted.
I was however surprised as to why the BJP had not raised this issue in last General Election. This fraud was done was done in the last tenure of UPA and was openly known before last general election. BJP could have gained immensely if they would have raised it in their campaign. We had earlier seen, how VP Singh became Prime Minister by raising ‘BOFORS’.
This is an endless list. A few further to mention are ‘Inflation’, ‘CVC appointment’, ‘CBI being used for political gains’ etc.
Inspite of all such issues and failure of Congress, it is seen that ‘Congress’ was successful in providing stability to the economy. No ‘Non-Congress’ government could ever complete their tenure other than BJP’s (NDA) last tenure of 5 years.
BJP was able to complete its last term because of nationwide acceptability of Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Now after retirement of Sh. Vajpayee and Sh. Advani there is a vacuum in BJP. We don’t see any leader in BJP who has the nationwide acceptance. There is a need that BJP should fast overcome this problem and identify the future leader(s) who should lead from the front.
Unlike BJP or other national party, Congress has the benefit of undisputed leadership of ‘Gandhi Family’, though it may be wrong or not in the national interest. Congress always seem to be united behind ‘Gandhi Family’ which is not the case for BJP or any other party. In case of other parties, there are always fights/disputes for the top post which creates instability for the Government and Economy.
I would like to take the discussion to a wider question.
Is there a need to change the structure of our Democracy ??
Shouldn’t we have two party system??
Can’t we have the Democracy system as we have in US where public chooses the leader ??
In US, public chooses the leader (among two choices) unlike India where public chooses MPs among many candidates who in turn chooses leader (PM/CM) which gives rise to Corruption. In our democracy, MPs and MLAs are bought (horse trading) to form/save governments. When the formation of Government itself is based on Corruption, how can such government(s) fight corruption ??