NEW DELHI: The BJP is the world’s most important foreign political party and it is also possibly the least understood according to an opinion in The Wall Street Journal authored by Walter Russel Mead.
“India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is, from the point of view of American national interest, the most important foreign political party in the world. It is also possibly the least understood party,” the WSJ article said. write.
BJP, after consecutive wins in 2014, and 2019 is also aiming for a repeat victory in 2024, the publication added, adding that India is emerging as a leading economic power and together with Japan, is the mainstay of the US strategy in the region. Indo-Pacific.
“In the near future, the BJP will command shots in a country without their help, US efforts to balance China’s rising power are likely to fail,” it said. more.
Author Mead believes that the BJP is poorly understood because it evolved from a political and cultural history foreign to most non-Indians.
The BJP’s electoral dominance reflects the success of a once obscure and marginalized national social innovation movement based on the efforts of generations of social thinkers and activists to map out a ‘Hindu path’ to modernization, the Wall Street Journal said.
“Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the BJP rejects many of the ideas and priorities of Western liberalism even as it embraces key features of modernity. Like the Communist Party of China, the BJP hopes to lead a country of more than a billion people into a global superpower.Like the Likud Party in Israel, the BJP combines a fundamentally pro-market economic stance with populist rhetoric and values. traditional politics, even as it arouses the anger of those who feel excluded and belittled by international political and cultural elites, focuses on the West,” it added.
American analysts, especially leftist liberals, often look at Narendra Modi’s India and ask why it doesn’t look more like Denmark. Their concerns are not entirely misplaced. Journalists who criticize the ruling coalition could be harassed and worse. Minority religions falling under the pride of rising Hinduism mark India’s BJP to speak of mob violence and point to hostile official measures such as widely drafted anti-conversion laws and occasional outbursts of mob violence. Many fear the power of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a nationwide Hindu nationalist organization with close ties to the BJP leadership, it added.
However, Mead believes that India is a complicated place and has other stories as well.
Some of the BJP’s most prominent recent political successes have come in the predominantly Christian countries of northeastern India. BJP’s government Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of about 200 million, enjoys strong Shia support. RSS activists have played an important role in efforts to combat caste discrimination, the newspaper said.
“After a series of intensive meetings with senior leaders of the BJP and RSS, as well as some of their critics, I believe that Americans and Westerners in general need to engage more deeply,” Mead writes. a complex and powerful movement.
From a group of mostly marginalized intellectuals and religious enthusiasts, RSS has become perhaps “the most powerful civil society organization in the world”. Rural and urban development programs, religious education and revival efforts as well as civic activism, with thousands of volunteers from all walks of life, have succeeded in forming a political consciousness. governs and centralizes the energies of hundreds of millions of people, the Wall Street Journal writes. more.
Recalling the meeting with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and head of RSS Mohan BhagwatMead wrote, “The movement seemed to have reached a fork in the road. When I met Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk serving as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, considered one of the most radical voices in the movement—and sometimes seen as a successor to 72-year-old Prime Minister Modi–the conversation revolves around bringing investment and development to his state.Similarly, Mohan Bhagwat, the spiritual leader of RSS, has told me about the need to boost India’s economic growth, and rejected the idea that religious minorities were subject to discrimination or loss of citizenship.”
How these statements by top leaders to a foreign journalist will seep down the grassroots is unpredictable. But I got the impression that the leadership of a once marginalized movement wanted to position itself as the natural base of a rising power and was seeking to engage deeply and effectively with the world. outside without losing its social and political base, he wrote.
The invitation to join with BJP and RSS is an invitation that Americans cannot refuse. As tensions with China grow, the US needs India as an economic and political partner. Understanding the ideology and trajectory of the Hindu nationalist movement is just as important for business leaders and investors looking to do economic cooperation with India, the Wall Street Journal said. for diplomats and policymakers who want to put a strategic relationship on a stable foundation.
“India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is, from the point of view of American national interest, the most important foreign political party in the world. It is also possibly the least understood party,” the WSJ article said. write.
BJP, after consecutive wins in 2014, and 2019 is also aiming for a repeat victory in 2024, the publication added, adding that India is emerging as a leading economic power and together with Japan, is the mainstay of the US strategy in the region. Indo-Pacific.
“In the near future, the BJP will command shots in a country without their help, US efforts to balance China’s rising power are likely to fail,” it said. more.
Author Mead believes that the BJP is poorly understood because it evolved from a political and cultural history foreign to most non-Indians.
The BJP’s electoral dominance reflects the success of a once obscure and marginalized national social innovation movement based on the efforts of generations of social thinkers and activists to map out a ‘Hindu path’ to modernization, the Wall Street Journal said.
“Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the BJP rejects many of the ideas and priorities of Western liberalism even as it embraces key features of modernity. Like the Communist Party of China, the BJP hopes to lead a country of more than a billion people into a global superpower.Like the Likud Party in Israel, the BJP combines a fundamentally pro-market economic stance with populist rhetoric and values. traditional politics, even as it arouses the anger of those who feel excluded and belittled by international political and cultural elites, focuses on the West,” it added.
American analysts, especially leftist liberals, often look at Narendra Modi’s India and ask why it doesn’t look more like Denmark. Their concerns are not entirely misplaced. Journalists who criticize the ruling coalition could be harassed and worse. Minority religions falling under the pride of rising Hinduism mark India’s BJP to speak of mob violence and point to hostile official measures such as widely drafted anti-conversion laws and occasional outbursts of mob violence. Many fear the power of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a nationwide Hindu nationalist organization with close ties to the BJP leadership, it added.
However, Mead believes that India is a complicated place and has other stories as well.
Some of the BJP’s most prominent recent political successes have come in the predominantly Christian countries of northeastern India. BJP’s government Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of about 200 million, enjoys strong Shia support. RSS activists have played an important role in efforts to combat caste discrimination, the newspaper said.
“After a series of intensive meetings with senior leaders of the BJP and RSS, as well as some of their critics, I believe that Americans and Westerners in general need to engage more deeply,” Mead writes. a complex and powerful movement.
From a group of mostly marginalized intellectuals and religious enthusiasts, RSS has become perhaps “the most powerful civil society organization in the world”. Rural and urban development programs, religious education and revival efforts as well as civic activism, with thousands of volunteers from all walks of life, have succeeded in forming a political consciousness. governs and centralizes the energies of hundreds of millions of people, the Wall Street Journal writes. more.
Recalling the meeting with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and head of RSS Mohan BhagwatMead wrote, “The movement seemed to have reached a fork in the road. When I met Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk serving as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, considered one of the most radical voices in the movement—and sometimes seen as a successor to 72-year-old Prime Minister Modi–the conversation revolves around bringing investment and development to his state.Similarly, Mohan Bhagwat, the spiritual leader of RSS, has told me about the need to boost India’s economic growth, and rejected the idea that religious minorities were subject to discrimination or loss of citizenship.”
How these statements by top leaders to a foreign journalist will seep down the grassroots is unpredictable. But I got the impression that the leadership of a once marginalized movement wanted to position itself as the natural base of a rising power and was seeking to engage deeply and effectively with the world. outside without losing its social and political base, he wrote.
The invitation to join with BJP and RSS is an invitation that Americans cannot refuse. As tensions with China grow, the US needs India as an economic and political partner. Understanding the ideology and trajectory of the Hindu nationalist movement is just as important for business leaders and investors looking to do economic cooperation with India, the Wall Street Journal said. for diplomats and policymakers who want to put a strategic relationship on a stable foundation.
