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Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday voiced confidence that his multi-party coalition would complete its five-year term in power despite predictions to the contrary.
"The only problem the Bharatiya Janata Party faces is that we have little experience of power at the Centre. We have to acquaint ourselves with the scope and canvas of being the ruling party," he told partymen gathered at Delhi's Talkatora indoor stadium to celebrate the birth of the party's predecessor, the Jan Sangh, fifty years ago.
Present on the occasion were, along with Vajpayee (76) and his deputy and long-time friend Union Home Minister L K Advani, almost all senior BJP ministers, chief ministers, MPs and legislators to toast the party's modest beginnings half a century ago and its winding journey to power.
Vajpayee told the gathering that his government was moving in the right direction and everyone now believed it would run its full course.
"Two years ago everybody, including foreign dignitaries, asked me how long the government would run. We were tired of answering the question. Today, everyone believes this government will run," he said.
"The government is a combination of 24 parties with differing agendas. These parties, including the BJP, have had to sacrifice a part of their agenda to make the coalition work," Vajpayee said.
"Strengthening the BJP and running the ruling coalition successfully are interlinked," he said, adding stability was the most vital need of the hour.
However, Vajpayee referred to a growing communication gap between the party and the government.
"Somewhere something is amiss," Vajpayee said.
Citing an example, he said he could not attend the flag-hoisting ceremony at the special session of the council as he was given the impression that his presence was needed only at the concluding function.
The BJP has organized a one-day national council meeting of the party to kick off year-long celebrations of the golden anniversary of the birth of the Jan Sangh.
The Jan Sangh, founded on this day in 1951, for long remained a political force largely confined to the Hindi-speaking belt in northern India.
In 1977, it merged with three other parties to form the centrist Janata Party, which ousted the Congress party from power at the Centre, in the parliamentary elections that followed, for the first time since independence.
When the Janata Party broke up in 1980, the Jan Sangh renamed itself the BJP.
Walking down memory lane to his early days as a struggling Jan Sangh worker, the prime minister regaled the gathering with witty anecdotes and personal musings.
He recalled how he had to contest three Lok Sabha seats to ensure that he would win at least one.
"There were fewer candidates then. There is no dearth of candidates now, but workers must fight not only to win."
Vajpayee urged the gathering to renew the vows that the party made at the beginning of its political journey in 1951 to establish a better India.
"Today, having reached this point, we have few regrets. But there is a niggling sense of disappointment at what remains to be accomplished."
The prime minister ended his speech with a self-composed poem exhorting colleagues to put the past behind and forge ahead towards a new future.
Advani traced the journey of the party from 1951, dividing its history into four major phases that finally saw the party coming to power in New Delhi for the first time in 1996.
However, that government lasted only 13 days. But in just two years, it managed to cobble a multi-party coalition that won another mandate in 1999 following snap elections.
"When people look at the kind of chief ministers and ministers that our party has yielded, they know we have not let them down. But a lot is expected of our party and we should not let internal differences soil our image," Advani warned.
The meeting, which marks the beginning of a series of programs over the year, saw the BJP adopt a political resolution rededicating itself to the ideals of a strong and prosperous India.
The event began with a lamp lighting ceremony in the presence of 1,500 people, including party stalwarts Kushabhau Thakre and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, all wearing yellow stoles.
The notes of the national song 'Vande Mataram' then rent the air, followed by chants of Bharat mata ki jai by hundreds of BJP workers with saffron bandanas tied around their heads symbolising the party flag.
A committee headed by Vajpayee and comprising all BJP leaders, including Advani will oversee the golden jubilee celebrations. A number of political resolutions will be adopted during the year.
The BJP, one of India's best organised parties, began rapidly expanding from 1989, when it won 89 seats in the parliamentary polls - a dramatic turn in fortunes for a party that won only two seats in the previous election in 1984.
The BJP has close ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and a variety of allied Hindu organisations.
Indo-Asian News Service
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