Rajat Jayanti Sandesh

Work for a nation self-reliant
and free of hunger & want

In the Rajat Jayanti Sandesh presented before the Mahaadhiveshan, BJP Vice-President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu outlined the goals for the party and how to realise them. He outlined the tasks before the organization and the role of the party MPs, MLAs and other functionaries can play in realising the dream of a strong, prosperous, powerful, self-confident, self-reliant India where there will be no hunger, no poverty, no discrimination against any citizen and justice for all. Highlights of the Sandesh:

On this august and auspicious occasion of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Silver Jubilee, it is time to look back with pride at our achievements, assess our triumphs and tribulations and also look ahead to the future. It is essential, therefore, that we clearly identify the tasks ahead so that the road map is drawn up and pursued vigorously at every level of the party. Not only do we have to avoid the pitfalls and take corrective measures wherever necessary but we must also bring about a change of mindset among our workers in order to make BJP a natural party of government and the only political organization capable of fulfilling people’s aspirations by providing good governance. On this occasion, BJP rededicates itself to the task of building a strong, prosperous, powerful, self-confident, self-reliant India where there will be no hunger, no poverty, no discrimination against any citizen and justice for all will prevail.

Ideology and Idealism

The BJP is not an ordinary political party in pursuit of power for the sake of power alone. Rather, it is a mission and part of a wider movement, which is guided by the ideology of nationalism and whose goal is to bring about India’s all-round resurgence in consonance with our ancient culture. We should not be defensive or apologetic about projecting our distinctive ideological identity, about our relationship with other nationalist organizations, and also about our commitment to comprehensive social progress inspired by the eternal and universal values of our civilisation, which are encapsulated in the theory of Integral Humanism by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.

We should, in particular, mount a powerful and sustained offensive against all those divisive ideologies and political forces, represented by the Congress and the Communists, who have perverted the ideal of secularism to pursue the politics of vote-banks and whose actions are adversely affecting the nation’s unity, integrity and security. For them, being anti-BJP and anti-Hindu is the only ‘ism’. We reiterate that for the BJP ‘Hindutva’, ‘Bharatiyata’ and ‘Indianness’ are synonymous terms.

The BJP also reaffirms its commitment to the establishment of a progressive social order, based on the ideals of equality, equity, compassion, cooperation, social justice, social harmony, gender justice, Antyodaya – upliftment of the poor—protection of the environment, preservation of family and social values, and the all-round development of the individual self as an essential precondition of human evolution. We believe in the goal of Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavantu (May all be happy).

National security and safeguarding the unity and integrity of our Nation will continue to be our highest priority. We remain committed to India’s integrated and accelerated development, based on a Swadeshi concept.

A BJP worker has no reason to be in the Party if he puts his personal interests above his duty to actively work for that goal. Nobody is taller than the organization.

Primacy of ideals and ideology

Restoring the primacy of ideals and ideology has also become necessary to discourage careerists who are guided by the consideration of “What is in it for me?” and to encourage those who are willing to make sacrifices and remain with the party both in good as well as bad times. We should encourage our karyakartas to think “What have I given to the Party?” rather than “What has the Party given me?” Our motto has always been: “Nation first, Party next, self last.” We will be able to deal with the gigantic challenges facing our Nation only if our party organization comes to be dominated by those who have a basic commitment to idealism and ideology.

We also remain steadfast in our commitment to promote national integration through propagation of cultural nationalism and enactment of a Uniform Civil Code, the abrogation of Article 370, ban on religious conversions through inducements and tackling the dangers posed by massive, unchecked infiltration from across the borders. The BJP remains firm in its demand for a complete ban on cow slaughter not only in keeping with religious sensibilities but also in order to preserve and promote the rural economy, which is significantly dependent on the well-being of livestock particularly cow and its progeny. The BJP reiterates its commitment for a Temple at Ram Janma Boomi. The BJP also remains firm on its commitments of population control and putting down terrorism with an iron hand.

Tasks on the Organisational Front

The strength of the BJP lies in its unique nature of combining the virtues of a mass party with a strong cadre network. This strength will have to be further built up in the days ahead by augmenting both the virtues - expanding the mass base of the BJP and simultaneously enlarging and enriching our army of dedicated karyakartas.

Collectivity, Mutuality and Communication

Collectivity (Saamoohikata), Mutuality (Parasparikata) and Communication (Samvaad) are the three enlightened principles that have defined BJP’s organisational culture. The points of action that follow from these principles are: Come Together, Think Together, Work Together. These help in strengthening our awareness of the common goal and purpose that unite us, and which we need to pursue in discharging our own individual responsibilities.

Style of functioning

For these corrective measures to succeed, it is necessary to understand that, as far as the BJP is concerned, personal conduct and style of functioning are a part of our ideology. The two cannot be separated. Therefore, commitment to ideology has to be additionally measured against the yardstick of behaviour and the style of functioning. Teamwork holds the key to better coordination and presenting a coherent, united face of the party to the people. Collective decision making should also become an article of faith that is followed at every level so as to ensure everybody feels he has a stake in the party and positive suggestions are incorporated in the decisions.

From the States : Rajasthan Atalji provided inspiring leadership : Maheshwari On December 24 BJP Rana Pratap Mandal in Udaipur city organised a seminar on former Prime Minster Shri Vajpayee’s life and work on the eve 81st birthday. Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Maheshwari called Shri Vajpayee an inspiring symbol of harmony whose NDA regime had realised the dream of Integral Humanism by ensuring that the downtrodden got their rights. Shri Bhanu Kumar Shastri said that the present eminence of the organisation was a result of selfless sacrifice of determined personalities like Shri Vajpayee, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay, Dr. Mookerjee, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and many other luminaries. Shri Dharmnarayan Joshi, former Zonal Organisational Secretary, said that BJP was blessed with a guide like Shri Vajpayee still working ceaselessly for the glory of India. Shri Tarachand Jain, Udaipur BJP Unit President, said that the inspiring guidance of Shri Vajpayee had created a generation of dedicated karyakartas. Similar views were echoed by Sarvashri Lokesh Dwivedi, Madanlal Moondada, Naval Kishore Sharma, Dinesh Bhatt, Alok Chaturvedi, Prakash Agrawal and other guests. The Chief Guest Dr. Geeta Patel, President of Udaipur Milk Manufacturers Cooperative Sangh said that the purity of Shri Vajpayee’s political life was an inspiration for all karyakartas. Former Mandal President Shri Manohar Chaudhary presided over the function. Others present included Sarvashri Chetan Sanadhya, Naresh Pawar, Lalit Bapna, Ishwar Singh Yaduvanshi, Girish Sharma, Naresh Vaishnav, Ashutosh Dadheech, Suresh Paitala, Sanjeev Jain, Shivgiridhar Pathak, Ajay Gupta, Praveen Marwadi, Manohar Singh Pawar, Inderlal Mainariya, Pradeep Lavti, Bheemraj Patel, Lalit Sen, Manoj Sen, Shailendra Joshi, Mohanlal Verma, Mahesh Bhavsar and Shri Jagdish Mainariya delivered the note of thanks.

Accountability to Party, not individuals

The Party will have to ensure that positions and responsibilities are given to persons whose primary commitment is to the party, and not to any individual or group. We should create such a self-evident “Party comes first” atmosphere that even karyakartas who are tempted to cultivate individual loyalties can see for themselves that no benefit comes by doing “Neta Parikrama”, and no harm comes by not doing so. Party activities should be centred in Party offices.

Need to maintain discipline

There is an urgent need to promote and strengthen the culture of discipline and self-discipline at all levels, beginning with the higher echelons. The rapidly gathering impression that acts of indiscipline will be condoned and that even serious cases of anti-party activities will be overlooked, has done immense damage to the health of our organization in the recent past. Earlier, the common people admired the BJP as “a party of disciplined leaders and cadres”. It must be the endeavour of our functionaries and karyakartas at all levels to live up to the people’s expectations, keep up the BJP’s image of a “Party with a difference” and gain their confidence on that count. One of the manifestations of indiscipline is the tendency to use the media to air one’s grievances. Internal party matters must not be discussed with the media and the temptation to settle personal scores through the media must stop altogether.

Strengthening internal democracy

We are proud that ours is the only major political party that conducts organizational elections regularly. We must ensure that the tradition of unanimity based on consensus continues. Care should also be taken that no recrimination or factionalism happens in the aftermath of organizational elections.

Developing leaders with moral authority

Full-time karyakartas are a source of strength for our Party. In our strategy to re-energize the party organization at all levels, it has become necessary to induct, train and develop a large number of full-time activists, who have no ambition to enter electoral politics or to get positions in the organization. We should make special efforts to ensure that our karyakartas reflect the broad social composition of our diverse society. Ideological education, which motivates a person from within, has to be an important part of this strategy.

Re-orienting the social identity of the Party

In terms of its social base, its activities as well as its image, the BJP should be seen as a Party of all sections of society (Sarva-Sparshi and Sarvavyapi), and one, which is broadly anchored among the common people and fervently champions the cause of their upliftment. We should go out of our way to transform the image of the BJP as a party that is “Gramonmukh” (Pro-Village) and “Gareebonmukh” (Pro-Poor). Our Party should strongly associate itself with the new jagruti and chetana (self-awareness and assertiveness) among the under-privileged and less empowered sections of our society. We should be in the forefront to espouse their legitimate aspirations and expectations, keeping in mind the overall needs of samajik samarasata and samanvay (social harmony and balance).

Energising Morchas and Cells

Morchas, Cells and the proposed Subject Committees are the means whereby the BJP can reach out to specific sections of society. We recognize that, in recent years, new groups and constituencies have emerged, both at the local and national levels, which require setting up new Cells.

Expanding Party’s activities among different sections

The Party has resolved to further expand its activities among farmers, farm workers and other sections of the rural poor. It is the duty of the entire Party to increase its work in rural areas in a major way. Hence, Party functionaries and workers at all levels should get associated with this work in a consistent way, tour rural areas frequently, spend enough time including night halts in order to acquaint themselves with the day-to-day problems of the village communities so that they can effectively articulate the issues of farmers and other rural communities in various forums. Such prolonged interaction will enable our workers to communicate our party’s ideas and programmes to the people in the countryside.

The BJP has rapidly expanded its support base among the SCs and STs in recent decades. However, there is an immense scope and also an urgent need to further intensify our efforts in this direction. Not only the respective morchas of BJP, but also the Party as a whole have to redouble our activities among these sections of society by championing their causes, highlighting their problems, protesting against their exploitation and oppression, and, where needed, by launching agitational activities.

The BJP believes that minorities form an integral part of our society. We care for them as much as we care for any other section of society, without any kind of discrimination. We should champion their issues in education, economic development and empowerment (what we call the “3-E Formula”), with a view to bringing them in the mainstream of the Nation’s progress.

Developing young leadership

Developing and projecting young leaders has become one of the urgent tasks before the Party. It should be our endeavour to bring promising young men and women in the age group of 20-25 years into the Party fold, train them for 3-4 years in our ideology and practical activities, and thereby enable them to emerge as competent young leaders of the BJP.

Among all the Morchas of the BJP, the Yuva Morcha plays a crucial role in expanding our base among the youth, who now form a decisive constituent of India’s population. Therefore, the Party units at all levels will have to pay utmost attention to encouraging its growth and guiding its activities. Non-student youth, who are numerically the largest section of the youth and also the least organised, will continue to be our focus. However, we should also endeavour to reach out to idealistic and socially conscious students in universities and other educational institutions through appropriate methods.

Upgrading training activity

Our determination to strengthen the ideological thrust in all our activities makes it necessary for taking up training of party workers not as a sporadic and marginal effort, but as a systematic and regular programme to be run at all levels of the organization. Also, training should not only cover issues of ideology, idealism, and development-related subjects, but also personal conduct and style of functioning. We are in the process of institutionalizing this programme by setting up training centres with necessary infrastructure in various places across the country.

Tasks before Elected Representatives:
Improving performance of BJP-run State Governments

As the fervent proponent of Good Governance, the Party cannot overlook the imperative need to improve the performance of State Governments run by the BJP, alone or as a coalition partner. It is our bounden duty to ensure that the BJP-run Governments are able to fulfill the aspirations of the people in their respective States and to meet the promises made in our election manifestoes. This has become all the more important in view of the growing importance of the anti-incumbency trend in Indian elections. BJP-run or BJP-led State Governments must perform as role models for the entire country so that the party can showcase their achievements as prime examples of good governance.

This is possible only with close coordination between the Government and the party. We have to evolve a workable system whereby the Party organization provides guidance to Chief Ministers, Ministers and elected representatives and monitors their performance. Equally, there has to be a systematic channel of getting feedback from the people as well as grass root workers and communicating it to those in the Government for suitable action. This channel should also be used for communicating the Government’s policies, programmes and achievements to the people, and for countering the negative propaganda of our opponents.

BJP in Parliament and State Legislatures

After having governed the country for six fulfilling years, the BJP’s responsibility as the main opposition party in Parliament has grown manifold. Now we have to bring to bear on our new role the full benefit of our knowledge and experience of governance. The people of India expect the BJP to be “an opposition party with a difference”, just as the Vajpayee Government was seen as “a government with a difference”. This casts a big responsibility on our MPs and MLAs to perform well both in and outside Parliament and State Legislatures.

Evaluation of the performance of party functionaries, MPs and MLAs

Experience has shown that a fairly large number of sitting MPs and MLAs of our Party fail to get re-elected. Often this is due to the “anti-incumbency factor” at the constituency level. We paid a fairly heavy price on account of this in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Our State units should conduct periodic evaluation of the Party’s elected representatives in local bodies.

We have to evolve a system of accountability for functionaries by laying down clear-cut guidelines of what they are expected to do and judge them on the basis of what they have done. They must be periodically assessed on their ability to carry out tasks assigned to them. Elected representatives’ performance in legislatures, participation in party activities, handling of people’s problems, transparent disbursal of Government funds including MP and MLALADS, attitude towards party workers, must all be subjected to periodic evaluation and review.

Interaction between karyakartas and elected representatives

It is necessary to put in place improved institutional ways of responding to karyakartas’ suggestions and needs, and pursuing specific people-related works brought by them. MPs and MLAs must visit Party offices regularly, attend Party meetings and participate in Party programmes wherever expected.

Improving performance in local self-government bodies

A large number of our members are elected members of Panchayats, Zilla Parishads, Municipal Councils and Corporations. Many of these local self-governance bodies are also being run by the BJP. There is a need to improve the functioning of our representatives in these bodies. Panchayat and Municipal good governance is an integral part of our commitment to Good Governance (Sushaasan).

Tasks on the Development Front

The BJP’s vision has two focal points: Nationalism (Rashtravaad) and Development (Vikas). We believe that both are a precondition for realizing our dream of a Resurgent India. There is a tremendous hunger for development among all sections of our society and in all regions of our country. The BJP has to respond effectively to people’s rising expectations for a better quality of life, as an integral part of its political strategy.

Making development a regular subject in Party meetings

Subjects of development and people’s welfare should become a regular part of the agenda of Party meetings at all levels. Concerted efforts should be made to associate experts in various fields with the formulation and articulation of Party’s stand on these subjects. Party offices should have up-to-date information on key development parameters in their respective areas and knowledge about the performance of banks, development agencies, etc. We need to form subject committees at national and State level. All this will impart to the BJP an image of a development-oriented (Vikasonmukh) party.

Constructive activity

We must make constructive activity an integral part of our organization building. Indeed, we have observed that wherever our karyakartas and functionaries are actively involved in social organizations, educational and healthcare institutions, NGOs, and cooperatives of various kinds, not only have they benefited but the Party too has been able to expand its support base. In this context, Self Help Groups have become an important employment-generation and income-enhancing means for mobilizing women and the youth. Similarly, social welfare activities undertaken by dedicated religious institutions have a large appeal in society.

Back to the Basics

Bharatiya Janata Party has a glorious history that needs to be seen in continuity with the achievements of Bharatiya Jana Sangh to which we trace our lineage. We draw our inspiration from leaders of the stature of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.

To sum up, we must go back to our respective States and constituencies with the following commitments:

The organizational tasks outlined in this document can be best summarized by the phrase “Back to the Basics”. As in the days of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and in the early years of Bharatiya Janata Party our functionaries and main karyakartas must devote the main part of their time for party work for touring in their respective area of work, interacting with party workers, reaching out to the people, conceptualizing, planning and executing mass programmes. They should set standards in every sphere of work through their ideal behaviour. It is important that each one of us is able to inspire the people with our idealism and our ideology.