The Sangh Parivar of which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was at the vanguard, created the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) under the leadership of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951. And in the very first general elections the BJS emerged as one of the four nationally recognised parties. In the first decade it took up the issues of territorial integrity, demanded cow protection as per Article 48 of the Constitution and came out for the nuclear option to reinforce national defence.

Under the leadership of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya the BJS held a session in Calicut. However, within days of this session Upadhyaya was found murdered near Mugalsarai railway station. At this juncture Atal Behari Vajpayee took over the reigns of the party. After the declaration of Emergency by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, the Jana Sangh joined hands with Jaiprakash Narayan to fight corruption and bureaucracy .

Bharatiya Janata Party is today the most prominent member of the family of organisations known as the "Sangh Parivar". And RSS has always been dubbed "communal", "reactionary" and what not by its detractors. Sanghs of Swayamsevaks have of course always shaken off that criticism like so much water off a duck's back.

The results of the 1995 elections in Andhra, Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa, Goa, Gujarat and Maharashtra were, if anything, even more remarkable. In Andhra the main fight being between TDP and the Congress ;  the BJP got squeezed to just 3 seats. But in Karnataka BJP won 40 seats, pushing the Congress to the third position. In Goa, for the first time the BJP won 4 seats in a house of 60. In Orissa BJP trebled its modest strength from 3 to 10. In Bihar BJP pushed Congress to the third position and emerged as the official opposition. In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena and the BJP had formed a fine coalition government. And in Gujarat the BJP had won two-thirds majority. It is trends like these that have convinced even the detractors of BJP that the party is now "unstoppable".

As a result of this successful resistance by the Janata Party of which the BJS was a significant component, the Congress was trounced in the 1977 elections and a Janata Party government was formed. Vajpayee was appointed External Affairs Minister and Lal Krishan Advani, Information and Broadcasting Minister. Within 30 months this government went to pieces and a splintered Janata Party was routed at the hands of the Congress in January 1980. The BJS reorganised itself as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the elections that followed by the assassination of Indira Gandhi, a sympathy wave helped  the return of  Rajiv Gandhi with a massive majority.

However, the BJP streamlined its organisation and in the 1989 elections effected seat adjustments with the Janata Dal led by V P Singh and proceeded to offer outside support to the latter's government. In 1991 because of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and the subsequent sympathy wave, the Congress won around 175 seats and the BJP with 89 seats emerged as a major political entity in the fluid Indian political situation.

The BJP position is very clear on this issue; Indian Science and technology have come of age, as examplified by our Defence and Research Development Organisation presided over by Dr. Abdul Kalam.The BJP's Ekta Yatra under the leadership of Dr Joshi hoisted the national flag in Srinagar on Republic Day in 1992. And the BJP's Karnatak unit saw to it that the National Flag is duly hoisted on the Hubli public ground, which is used for Namaz on Id-days.

While the status-quoists may be shaken by this emerging brave new India, the people of India have every reason to cheer the emergence of this rejuvenated India with the promise of Ram Rajya and with Rabindranath Tagore's prayer for "Eka Dharmarajya hable a Bharate" (Let there be one Dharma Rajya - a just and moral order - in India).