As against the BJP which "remained rooted to its basic ideology" and received people's "acceptance and mandate" at the Centre and ten States, the Congress, socialists and communists in the country, "without an ideology", have "disintegrated" and virtually turned into "dynastic" , "casteist" or "personality based " parties, emerging increasingly irrelevant.
Stating this at 'National Writer's Meet', organised by Dr Syama Pradad Mookerjee Foundation, BJP president Amit Shah Saturday asked whether anyone in the audience has any doubt as who would be "the next President of the Congress Party" and amid laughter, he went on to quiz "could anyone now tell who would take over the reins of the BJP after me IJ" "No, no one can tell that in the BJP", Shah said and sought to differentiate BJP's "democratic and ideological character" that trains, selects and elects a common party man to "the highest post" vis-à-vis the Congress party's total dependence on "one personality".
Speaking on the subject of "Ideology and Politics Today', the BJP president described Congress as party "without an ideology." He said during Independence struggle everyone joined the Congress — from Swami Shradhanand to Mohammad Ali Jinnah — with the sole aim of gaining freedom from the British.
"All were together from 1900 to 1047 not because of an ideology. Congress was then an Special Purpose Vehicle meant for Independence but not driven by an ideology...", said Shah, adding he has gone minutely through all Congress resolutions but could not ferret out any ideology thining in them. " They are only comments on the incidents of the day", he said.
He said besides Congress, communist and socialist parties are "big example" of how absence of core ideologies disintegrated them as they could not face challenges of their times. Shah said socialists in UP and Bihar have turned either "casteiest or dynastic parties".
"Samajwadi kunbe mein kuch bhi nahin bacha sivay parivarvad ke", he said.
In clear contrast, Shah asserted, Bhartiya Jan Sangh (BJPS) which was borne to a commitment to "an alternative ideology". It was an antidote to Jawahar lal Nehru's policies on economy, agriculture , education , culture etc which were huge impacted by western thinking and did not carry "sweetness of Indian soil". " It needed to be challenged", he said and was done by ten young people by founding BJS.
He said post-Independent Nehru intended to do country's "Navnirman" as against BJS's aim for "Punar Nirman" of the country reviving "the best we had from our great heritage ". The BJS believed that this country was once 'World Guru' and can again be so.
Shah said all policies and plans of the BJP government have originated in original thinking and asked people to compare governance in the BJP-led states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh or Chattisgarh with other parties ruled Kerala, West Bengal or UP.
During Question answer session, some one asked as why BJP is seen to be doing 'a complete U turn' in some of its stated agendas. To that, BJP Chief said " some flexibility" was needed to implement the ideology. This he said can be done without making any compromise the basisc.
Before his address, Shah inaugurated an online portal 'Nationalist' created by the Mookerjee Foundation. Director of the Foundation, Dr Anirban Ganguly, said the portal was aimed at "creating an alternative narrative and agenda setting".
