Modi's new BJP at 44

As the BJP heads for a likely third successive term in power, it's fascinating to debate how true it looks to the original proposition: A party with a difference

- SHEKAR GUPTA

It was going to be a party with a difference, Lal Krishna Advani (now Bharat Ratna awardee) promised, as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, subsumed in the doomed Janata Party experiment of 1977, was reborn as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on April 6, 1980. It was Easter Sunday; convent-educated Advani would say with delight that his party was resurrected on the same day as Jesus Christ.

Forty-four years later, almost to date, as the BJP heads for a likely third successive term in power, it is fascinating to debate how true it looks to that original proposition: A party with a difference. How might it look when it turns 50, six years from now? The basic postulates marking that difference from the rest (though mostly the Congress) will be its adherence to ideology and ideological purity, unapologetic Hindutva, an economics drawn largely from a founding father who was Deendayal Upadhyaya, hard nationalism, humble, abstemious lifestyles, and a collegial leadership.

At the peak of its political power now, the party, however, shows marked elements of "difference" also from its own original proposition. An almighty personality cult to begin with. Until the rise of Narendra Modi, the party's leadership was collective, for a long time led by a duo: Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr Advani, the voice and the mind of the party, respectively. Leading from behind were the grandmasters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur.

All this looks radically different now. Mr Modi has risen as the sole, unquestioned leader. This is a fundamental shift in the party's launch model. Of course, he has earned this on merit. This lies in his ability, like Indira Gandhi did for her Congress, to get the additional "Modi vote", without which his party might have struggled even to reach 200. Vajpayee's best was 182.