The Lotus Flower is the BJP symbol
By S. Rustagi
(CHAKRA Blogs) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is currently the 2nd largest national party in India and the current opposition government. There are hundreds of political parties in India, but most operate within individual States and are broken to target specific communities. The BJP’s name means ‘Indian People Party’ when translated in English and tries to focus on the majority population of India. Although the BJP currently runs some of the best governed and most corrupt-free States of India (eg. Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa etc), it has only run the national government for 6 years between 1998-2004, where Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. Therefore, one party and alliance has run India’s government for more than 50 years – the Indian National Congress (INC) party with its greater alliance UPA.
Top political analysts suggest the INC continues to win elections due to its ability to ‘pay’ and ‘bribe’ its voters; especially taking advantage of the illiterate and extremely poor communities by providing ‘free’ rice or wheat just months before elections. Many Indians often wonder how the INC has won so many elections after being continuously rated as one of the most corrupt parties, responsible for the deadliest riots – for example the 1984 riots where hundreds of Sikhs were slaughtered by supporters of the Congress Party under Rajiv Gandhi’s (current head of Congress Sonia Gandhi’s late husband and father of Rahul Gandhi) leadership. But, recently the Congress party has taken extreme blows in support and in the latest state elections at the end of 2013 lost many of their votes to BJP due to a ‘Modi-wave’, where BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi has been winning the hearts of millions of Indians as a sign of hope to lead a corrupt-free nation.
So the question remains – Why do some of the most staunch Congress and Sonia Gandhi supporters change their stance once they leave India and then begin to support BJP and Narendra Modi? The answer is simple; Congress buys temporary votes by preying on two types of people:
1. People that are in desperate need of food or shelter
2. People that are corrupt and greedy for immediate monetary gain in the form of bribery (black money)
So doesn’t everyone want food and more tax-free cash (even if black money)? An argument could be made that you can buy the rich with more money or opportunities and the poor with food and shelter, but what happens when a person lives abroad in the West and doesn’t need either? Most non-resident Indians (NRIs) living in nations such as Canada, UK, United States and Australia have both food/shelter and many opportunities for success. These NRIs only look at India as a single nation, not broken by various states, languages and communities. In short, NRIs only want the best for the entire country and don’t get misled or influenced by dirty promises of free rice for 2 months before elections. NRI BJP supporters have even built an organization across over 15+ nations and call themselves OFBJP – Overseas Friends of BJP.
BJP’s 2014 motto is ‘1 nation, 1 vote’, reinforcing the image of a single country and the stop of caste, community, language and religion-based voting. Anyone who wants India to be more developed, more educated, more secular, more consistent, more corrupt-free will surely support Narendra Modi and the BJP vs. its alternatives in the upcoming elections.
Vibhuti Jha says
February 21, 2016 at 10:21 amThose like me living abroad realize very soon that we have virtually NO IDENTITY of being who we are of bein a proud Indian and a peace loving , accepting of all faiths a good Hindu. I became a stronger Hindu and saw the beauty of Hinduism only after I began to live in the US ! As the author has rightly pointed out , under the Congress regime India was known as a country of corrupt people a label and branding that nobody liked. Modi has given that respect and sense of identity.