BJP world's most important yet least understood party: WSJ
An opinion piece in the United States-based (US) news outlet The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the world's most important foreign political party. The op-ed, written by Walter Russell Mead, also claimed that the BJP is poorly understood because it originated from a cultural and political history unknown to most non-Indians.
Why does this story matter?
Since coming to power by dethroning the Congress government in 2014, the BJP has experienced major success under PM Narendra Modi. According to the author, India is emerging as a leading economic power and a linchpin of American strategy in the Indo-Pacific under Modi. Meanwhile, following its victories in 2014 and 2019, the saffron brigade is now eyeing a successful 2024 general election.
Here's what BJP's recent political dominance in India stands for
As per Mead, the BJP's electoral dominance reflects the success of a once marginal and obscure social movement of national renewal on the basis of efforts by generations of social activists and thinkers to chart a distinctively "Hindu path" to modernization. The WSJ piece also added the BJP dreams of leading a country with over a billion people and becoming a global powerhouse.
BJP hopes to lead nation with over billion people: Mead
"Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the BJP rejects many ideas and priorities of Western liberalism even as it embraces key features of modernity," Mead wrote in his piece. Regarding the BJP's aspirations of becoming a superpower, he added: "Like the Chinese Communist Party, the BJP hopes to lead a nation with more than a billion people to become a global superpower."
US needs India to fight growing Chinese power: Mead
Furthermore, Mead also wrote: "India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is, from the standpoint of American national interests, the most important foreign political party in the world. It may also be the least understood." As per him, the BJP will be calling the shots in India for the foreseeable future, without which the US's efforts to fight the growing Chinese power are going to fail.
Mead recalls meeting Yogi Adityanath in his piece
Mead also recalled meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in his piece. He wrote, "When I met with Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk serving as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, considered one of the most radical voices in the movement—and sometimes spoken of as a successor to 72-year-old Prime Minister Modi—the conversation was about bringing investment and development to his state."
Spoke to Bhagwat, who discussed economic growth: Mead
Mead also revealed how Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat told him during their meeting earlier that there was a need to accelerate economic growth in India. "The spiritual leader of the RSS spoke to me about the need to accelerate India's economic growth, and disavowed the idea that religious minorities should suffer discrimination or loss of civil rights," the author added.
