Seldom in world history have we seen a moment when a mass movement's leader is celebrated by a disciple of the ideological stream he nourished and redefined. The BJP's national executive today delivered that moment though perhaps its real significance hasn't dawned yet upon the millions of workers who created it.
The celebrations of BJP-Jansangh-RSS for the centenary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya come to a conclusion with today's meeting in Delhi, carefully dated and scheduled so that the Acharya of the RSS school of thought got a befitting tribute on his 100th birthday. A democratically-architectured and nascent-in-comparison-to-older-political-organizations movement with a distinct ideology, powerfully opposed, first by the colonialists in the pre-1947 era and then by the inheritors of that slavish mentality who are often known as "seculars" and their media and its rise to an absolute majority through ballot-power today celebrated the centenary of its ideologues.
The BJP's national executive today will go down in history as a victory celebration of the democratic conscience of
Bharat that is India defeating the forces of the slavish thuggery of the seculars and anti-Hindutva hate brigades.
13 Chief Ministers, 1,515 members of legislative assemblies, 334 MPs from both houses of parliament - an amazing party meet of any organization in the contemporary democratic world.
What has been accomplished is much more than records of extraordinary success in providing power, better roads, highways, scientific achievements, ending corruption and taking on terror determinedly.
Deendayal Upadhyaya and the rise of BJP can't be understood through the progress report of a PIB-generated communique enlisting the spectacular performance of bright-eyed young ministers.
What has been accomplished is the rejuvenation of a nation's memory and regaining
Bharat in an Indian political infrastructure that still smacks of a colonial legacy in almost every part of its movement. It was denied to us for several centuries by foreign invaders, it was denied to us by the Congress-Left dominated regimes post-independence, it was sought to be evaporated from our text books (where Lenin was in and Vivekananda was exited), where the word "Hindu" itself became a butt of joke and mockery. So much so that just this week, when we were proud to see Sushma Swaraj defending India against terror, much-hyped historian and writer Ramachandra Guha sarcastically remarked:
What's the connection between the Vedas and IITs and IIMs? Guha used the moment of Indian pride to deride and demean Vedas as if higher knowledge and scientific achievements can only be achieved if you negate Vedas and move on.
He is wrong. The achievements of Indian scientists and mathematicians who gave zero, numerals, measured the earth's circumference and identified stars and galaxies were the products of the Vedic Age that had a Takshshila university 2,000 years before
Oxford and Harvard were even conceived.
Deendayal Upadhyaya is a rock-like reply to all this hate and colonial bigotry, putting forth the Hindu concept of "good for all, malice for none". We are proud Hindus and that is the reason that democracy and constitutionalism are flourishing here inspire of their failure in all our neighboring countries. There is no reason to be apologetic about it.
Narendra Modi, who bore the targeted assaults of a hateful army of media and a politically-powerful apparatus for more than ten years internalized Deendayal Upadhyaya's teachings and put them to practice. He stood firm against calumnious attacks, and when the people of India chose him to lead the nation, he immediately began translating those ideals through government schemes.
The first was to strengthen and revitalize the organizational set-up. The national executive saw the wonderful results of that under the leadership of Amit Shah, a grass-roots worker who entered public life through the ABVP. It was an emotional moment when, listening carefully to Shah's presidential address, Narendra Modi rose and sincerely praised him with a pat, followed by the entire hall giving him a standing ovation.
Today, 80% of India is saffron: under BJP political rule.
Amit Shah's organisational capacities and his indefatigable energy can amaze any objective watcher of Indian politics. He has been touring India continuously for the last four months and has visited each and every BJP party state office, met thousands of workers, intellectuals, office-bearers, instructed the re-structuring of party networks from state to block and village levels, cautioned and punished non- performers.
In just the first three years of governance, integral humanism has been applied in every scheme and step the government has taken so far.
29 crore people have been brought to the mainstream of banking through the Jan Dhan scheme; 2 crore, 80 lakh women have been given new LPG gas connections, bringing them out of the vision-killing smoke of the wood fuel era.
15 crore farmers and laborers have benefited with a life-time pension scheme with depositing a mere Rs 12 - 300.
More than 7 crore, 64 lakh persons have benefited from Mudra bank loans - mostly belonging to lower middle income groups.
Inflation has been brought down to 4.5% from 9.3%.
Foreign policy has been a spectacular success, combining peace in our hearts with a firmness to protect national interests. The BJP's Doklam stand has earned India worldwide appreciation and acclaim.
Supporting strongly the move to unburden Muslim women from the scourge of triple
talaq too might not be considered enough by those who have perfected the art of mourning while nation is in a mood to celebrate new India. Agreed, we too feel that all that has been done is not enough. We need to do more and we need another 20 years to detox India from the Congress-Communist influences.
There are issues that have still to be resolved like the violence unleashed on the RSS-BJP workers from Bengal to Kerala. Amit Shah has assured, rather, promised, that we shall end this cycle of violence through democratic victories and very soon, Bengal and Kerala will be saffron.
Definitely, the national executive filled the cadre with unwavering confidence that the future belongs to us, to a New India.
(Tarun Vijay is a BJP leader and former MP from Uttarakhand.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.